Sometimes we should learn from our sister parties. The Australian Labor party are undoubtedly the closest to us in the world. Not just because the party and the union movement were formed by British workers – mainly Scottish and Irish, to be accurate. But mainly because the contours of politics are very similar – a two party contest in which Labor face off against Tories.
It has been a hard time for the ALP recently – swept from power federally and out in most states. But there is one bright spot: South Australia. Facing an election this year in which they were trying to get an unprecedented fourth term, the ALP were no one’s pick as a winner. You could get 7-1 for a Labor victory. And you should have taken it – they were re-elected. How they did it is a lesson and a warning to us.
Premier Jay Weatherill, in London for meetings on inward investment, explained to me the successful strategy. First they made the election about the future, making it a choice of two futures rather than a referendum on their record. This is the warning. The Tories have been advised by Crosby to do the same. What is #LongtermEconomicPlan except a claim on the future? It will take a relentless focus on the pain of the coalition government to stop the voters being distracted by future gains. Second the Labor party sandbagged their seats. This is the lesson. We did well in 2010 with this, holding far more seats than our share of the vote would have suggested. We should do as well next time, courtesy of the record number of organisers in the field that is the hallmark of Iain McNichol’s management of the party. But South Australia has one thing that should be the envy of progressive parties around the world: a phone-banking culture. Routinely, in federal elections, the SA ALP contact more voters than any other state branch in the country. It is a culture that is built in from Young Labor onwards. It is one they should bottle and we should buy.
Some people believe in the idea of a ‘good election to lose’. For them, the state election in South Australia would have been a good example. The Holden (General Motors) car plant is closing – because of Tony Abbott’s laissez faire attitude to industry. The defence industries are threatened by the Liberal/National government’s flirtation with buying submarines off the shelf rather than having the boats designed and built in Adelaide. It is a good thing for progressive politics that Weatherill and Australian Labor are made of sterner stuff. When you win an election you were not meant to win, it makes you golden for the first part of your term and it drives your opponents mad. SA will be the place to watch over the next couple of years. The crucible of future ALP politics and policies.
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There was a heart-sinking moment for me in Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games. Not the dancing Tunnock’s teacakes, nor the Loch Ness monsters. But when Daniel Wallace shouted ‘free-dum’ in the swimming pool after winning a gold medal. Oh God, I thought, it’s all going to be Jimmy Wigs, face paint and Braveheart. Maybe Alex Salmond’s timing is right, after all.
But I need not have worried. Watch the games closely and you will hear cheers as loud for English victories as for Scottish ones. The crowds – 40 per cent Scots, 40 per cent English and the rest from round the world are cheering on British victories. The athletes are the same ones who did so well in the London Olympics and who we expect to clean up in Rio. All benefit from the last Labour government’s investment in elite sport and excellence.
These Games, and the Olympic Games, show what a complex thing a political legacy is. Blair won the Olympics and Cameron presided over them – much to his chagrin when Danny Boyle celebrated the NHS so well. Jack McConnell won the Commonwealth Games, and has seen Alex Salmond swanning around Glasgow. This is no accident. It is how politics actually works. Minister make decisions when they are in power only to see them come to fruition after they have left office. I once asked Alistair Darling what it was like to be secretary of state for transport. He replied: ‘You open things that a Tory minister commissioned 15 years ago, and you make decisions on things someone else will open in a couple of decades.’
So, relax and enjoy the Games – unless you’re Australian, in which case you should be worried about England pasting you. They won’t turn Scotland nationalist. But coming just two years after the Olympics they might just be the beginning of a new culture of exercise and sport in the United Kingdom. Now that would be a legacy worth celebrating.
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John McTernan is former political secretary at 10 Downing Street and was director of communications for former prime minister of Australia Julia Gillard. He writes The Last Word column on Progress and tweets @johnmcternan
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Since I can’t comment on the same writer’s “Times” piece, I’m doing it here.
The NHS is the public service that makes most use of private sector contractors face to face with the public; it took over that position from the Post Office on the day it began; even the contracts had some similarity with sub-Post Offices. In parallel, the Cabinet Minister who did most to involve private contractors in provision of public services was not Keith Joseph or Nicholas Ridley, but Aneurin Bevan.
However, the contracting of GPs, Dentists, Opticians and Pharmacists to the NHS was not privatisation. These services were not previously provided on the public payroll.
First let me explain something very basic to Progress online readers re. the crowds cheering at the Commonwealth games. English competitors didn’t get applauded because the crowd were 40% English. Nor did they get cheered because they were British. They got applause because they were there.
I often shake my head when I read John McTernan. But he is right about one thing though, ‘the games’ won’t turn Scotland nationalist. That will be decided by ourselves, the Scottish electorate on the 18th of next month.
Its none of my business but rather than impressing us with his in depth knowledge of the Australian Labor Party and what they should and should not do, Mr.McTernan could make much better use of his time. He could for example consider the implications to rUK and British Labour of a Yes vote for independence in Scotland. It is a subject that I hear very little discussion of, and although the polls suggest it is still unlikely it is I would suggest a scenario worthy of consideration.
Let me give Mr.McTernan a help to get started; the sort of things he should factor in are –
Labour has 39 Scottish MPs. Will that (a Yes vote) have any bearing on the result of 2015 elections within rUK?
North Sea oil is 90% in Scottish waters. rUK debt is £1.5t and rising. Will the loss of oil revenues have any implications to the UK treasury forecasts?
Population breakdown after a Yes vote, Scotland 5m, rUK 60m (including 2.5m in Northern Ireland and same in Wales). Are there any tax/spend implications to these population breakdowns?