The summer recess is usually a quiet time for politics. This year however, with a general election looming it was always going to be a little different and this has certainly proved to be the case. Two moments this week have shown that some of Labour’s brightest stars are using the summer to begin to sketch out some rather exciting ideas.
The first of these was an appearance last week by Walthamstow member of parliament Stella Creasy at Twitter’s suitably trendy London headquarters. In an interesting and confident speech Creasy argued that the solutions to the insecurity thrown up by globalisation lie in our ability to give people greater power to change their lives and their local communities. And that while it is the role of government to give power away, it is incumbent on us all to seize that power and to use it to change the world for the better.
The speech is certainly thought provoking and is a shrewd move by one of Labour’s rising stars, who has made of habit in past years of using the quieter summer months to flesh out her public profile. You can watch the speech in full here.
The second was the publication yesterday of Policy Network’s ‘Owning the Future’, a collection of essays edited by shadow secretary of state for business Chuka Umunna. I have not had chance to read all the contributions but I can already report that Umunna’s introduction alone is well worth five minutes of your time. It offers a brisk but detailed overview of the deep structural challenges facing the British economy and the uncertainty they are creating for most people. The clarity and depth of his analysis – from the hollowing out of the middle class, to the challenge of increasing our productivity – is certainly impressive.
What is perhaps most exciting about these interventions from Creasy and Umunna is their sense of shared optimism that despite the size of these challenges Britain is capable of meeting them. In their own different ways both are starting to knit together the basis for a radical progressive offer, based around economic competitiveness, the devolution of power to individuals and government ensuring that the opportunities that this creates are extended to all.
For now the next step is for Umunna and Creasy to progress these ideas from the pamphlets and the seminar rooms, into a retail offer for the electorate. How successful they will be at doing so remains to be seen, though it is encouraging that two members of Miliband’s ‘new generation’ have shown they are starting to find their own voices. If they keep on this path then there is a good chance that Labour really will own the future.
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Rich Durber is a member of Progress. He tweets @richdurber and blogs here