Labour’s policy review led by Jon Cruddas became an argument for transformation of the party – and the nation – rather than a simple list of policy ideas. In a newly published e-book, One nation: Labour’s political renewal, Cruddas and Jonathan Rutherford present their core argument for change in 50 or so pages. It is a convincing one that, if it takes root, will become a radical proposition for national renewal beyond the range of the next election. We’ll come back to the ‘if’.
The version of ‘one nation’ that is presented is of a fraternal society embedded in equality where people can touch, smell and feel democratic politics. The radicalism is signalled by reference to Margaret Thatcher’s intellectual guru, Keith Joseph. It was his agitation that convinced her to take on the postwar consensus. In turn, this book takes on this post-Thatcher consensus (a consensus that is oft-denied but rarely convincingly).
It takes much of the best of blue Labour such as a sensitive re-engagement with the politics of civic association epitomised by early Labour. It also blends in the best of New Labour in its appreciation of the social reality in which social democracy must operate and an understanding of the changing technological and personal space in which politics and public policy take place.
The agenda of devolution, collaboration, prevention and contribution mapped out will need nourishing if they are to grow. Old habits die hard and the logic of central control, technocratic tinkering, and political hubris will cling on hard. How easy it will be to seize up any local government failures, another Rotherham, say, to grab any power that has been distributed back to the centre. Fiscal rabbits out of the hat are always more tempting than investing in real change over time. In this, Labour is not just contending with its own Croslandite instincts but with the basic logic of the British state, demands of the wider media and wider democratic bad habits that have developed.
So what about the pledge card? Where are the symbolic policies? The policy review is most definitely not short of policy ideas. However, the approach is more subtle than that. It articulates an ethos of government. It moves away for the transactional ‘vote for this and we’ll give you that.’ Instead, it states ‘this is the sort of party we are, the sort of government we will be.’ This is undeniably risky. Ultimately, when combined with new organisational approaches, it will combine party, policy and the people but it will take a degree of political rewiring on many fronts to get there.
Which brings us to the ‘if’. This approach requires embedding, refinement, development, and commitment. It asks something very different of national and local leaders, activists, civil society and citizens. The Cruddas-Rutherford model, which is the right model, says ‘What can we do to help you change things for the better?’ It constitutes politics by question rather than glib answer.
Open policymaking, dispersal of power, and new tools to empower people in their lives, including in relationship to the public services they need, require a different type of political movement. Is the Labour party up to the challenge? As we glance nervously at Scotland ahead of 18 September, it is easy to have a few doubts. It would be a tragedy if Labour were to stick with the politics of transaction rather than transformation. Cruddas and Rutherford offer some guidance in how to journey from one to the other.
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Anthony Painter is a contributing editor to Progress and author of Left Without a Future? Social Justice in Anxious Times
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One Nation: Labour’s political renewal
Jon Cruddas and Jonathan Rutherford
One Nation Register | 53pp