At last we have people who will articulate what One Nation Labour is, and Ed doesn’t have to be his own outrider anymore. This collection of essays, One Nation: Power, hope, community, by MPs elected since 2010, also reflects the scale of the ambition of this Labour party project, and where there is much more to do to fill in areas of thought that are still sketchy.
One Nation Labour is a way to understand the kind of country we want to be. This book reflects that: light on policy but better on rooting the argument about a reformed economy and a politics of community in specific experience.
I have often remarked that, until someone can actually tell me how regional banks will make a difference to my community, I won’t be using it as part of my pitch to restore a better economic balance in my community of Thurrock. This is the first time, in Catherine McKinnell’s chapter, where the story begins to give the policy meaning. There may be caveats: my community, though in Essex, looks to other places economically, so we may find the concept of a regional bank somewhat at odds with our national and international significance and our independent spirit. But her story of a responsible local businessman brought low by shonky financial products and the proposal of a locally owned and controlled bank that would act responsibly to support the ambitions of local entrepreneurs begins to be something we can talk about, that might motivate people to see what our country could be.
The hope is based on a crucial combining of our best traditions with big ambition. The power analysis of many of the writers is interesting: much less about devolving and more about growing it in communities, identifying leaders, supporting communities to create their own change, shaped by our values.
A frequent reminder that this is where we come from (Tristram Hunt is not the only historian here) is linked with a bigger confidence than the party has had for some time that the terms of the debate can be changed because they must.
It is telling that the writers are new parliamentarians, bringing with them recent experience of life outside Westminster.
They are unashamed to talk proudly of their lives and communities and wear their knowledge of their own traditions lightly. Owen Smith’s depictions of Pontypridd, Rachel Reeves of Kirkstall and Rushanara Ali’s Cable Street hero remind us that the Labour tradition for connection and community and daring to act to change things are strong. Shabana Mahmood’s analysis of power is one that I find more compelling than any from a thinktank. The power that politicians have is ‘the power that comes from a refusal to give up or give in’. A far cry from the feeling of powerlessness Gloria De Piero encountered on the doorstep that is an indictment of our current political system.
The refashioning of the pragmatism of ‘what works’ that underpinned New Labour, into something with more emotional connection and ambition is what the One Nation Labour project is about.
There are reasoned critiques, some more gentle than others, about the failures of New Labour in government, but there is also a surprising continuity, not of what New Labour was like in government for much of the time, but an echo of the thinking that underpinned the successful development of a progressive programme for power. I reckon I will trade you your ‘stakeholder economy’ for our ‘predistribution’, thanks. Lilian Greenwood explains what this means and why it matters. Thank you, Lilian.
Many people who listened and responded to New Labour’s call for a progressive solution to the nation’s ills in the mid-1990s will find much that is recognisable here. The language about community and connection, and hope for young people. But there are other elements of the book that show a different approach, not only for a different time and different circumstances, but a different ambition.
This is a generation of politicians who wish to protect what we most value, whether that is the best of our communities and our institutions, or the best of New Labour, at least in terms of its ambitions for a connected, modern country that is more equal and more open. But they are also vaultingly ambitious about changing the terms of debate and creating a new economic settlement. By starting to put the flesh on the bones of the One Nation Labour project, this set of essays will help others to see both the continuity and change required to achieve not just electoral victory but also a progressive transformation of our country.
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Polly Billington is prospective parliamentary candidate for Thurrock. She tweets @thurrockpolly
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One Nation: Power, Hope, Community
Owen Smith and Rachel Reeves (Eds)
Labour Party | 159pp | £12