By all means debate how we might have fought 2015 better, but let’s not ignore how profoundly the political challenge will have changed by 2020.
By the end of this year, ‘English Votes for English Laws’ will give English members of parliament a veto on laws affecting England. Even if Labour mistakenly opposes the change, we will not be able to fight the 2020 election promising to repeal it. Politics in England will, simply, be ‘English’ in a way we have never known before. Winning an English majority is no longer a desirable aim for a very good year, but the precondition to Labour again ever running the English NHS, English schools and all the other services now devolved to other nations.
Understanding that Labour must have an English majority is the starting point for any recovery. It demands a change in psychology as much as in politics. After 25 years of unsuccessfully campaigning to get Labour to take southern England seriously, I saw so many pay lip-service who, in their hearts, believed that we did not belong there, could not win there, and did not need to bother. The reliance on a Celtic crutch was hard to shake off.
Well, the Celtic crutch is gone. As I predicted on Progress on St George’s Day, there is a large ‘Goldilocks’ zone – not too hot, not too cold – that will suit David Cameron and Nicola Sturgeon all too well. The Scottish National party will get enough concessions to say it was all worthwhile and so avoid a referendum they might still lose. But Cameron will not give them too much, ensuring that the narrative of blaming Westminster remains a potent grievance for mobilising voters in Scotland. In this way, Cameron retains a union, keeps Labour tied down, and lets him concentrate on the England that is all that his MPs care about. And on English domestic policy, what happens in Scotland will in any case be largely irrelevant by 2020.
Seizing the challenge of an English majority is the best guard against any residual ‘We’ll do better next time’ optimism. London Labour’s overconfidence is surely misplaced. (Last time I looked London had a Tory mayor elected when Labour was riding high in the polls). George Osborne is forcing elected mayors on Labour councils, with a fair chance of seeing Labour leadership decapitated in some of our traditional strongholds. The United Kingdom Independence party threat to our vote may grow, not fall back. To cap it all, boundary changes will reduce the number of ‘safe’ Labour seats.
Aiming for an English Labour majority makes us ask what sort Labour party could win. It is a better way of posing the question than banal simplicities like ‘aiming for the centre-ground’ which are so tainted by past factional struggles and particular ideologies.
The good news is that the Labour party could win a majority. The success of Ben Bradshaw and the Labour council in Exeter gives us some insight and inspiration. As the party’s Southern Taskforce showed, voters in places that do not vote Labour share much the same spread of values as those where people do. The problem is that the voters we need do not see us talking about their lives, or even existing in their communities. We have a brief window of opportunity to replace the Liberal Democrats in many places. But their activists are street fighters and if we delay we will lose the chance for a generation.
The need for a Labour majority also reinforces the case for an English Labour party. English Labour would bring together those who understand the cultural dimension to English politics (like Jon Cruddas) with those who simply recognise that social democratic politics needs a party designed to win elections in the places that count. We will never develop the politics and organisation we need for an English majority in a party that does not even campaign as English Labour and where our English members have no chance to meet, debate or decide. The establishment of English Labour, aiming for an English majority, could be a rebranding every bit as powerful as New Labour was in its time.
———————————-
John Denham was member of parliament for Southampton Itchen from 1992-2015
———————————-
The only way Labour can win in England is by looking, sounding and feeling like an English Party.
A party that does not sneer at white van men flying St.George’s Day flags but embraces the flag we should proudly wave as our own.
A party that does not fall silent when any national anthem is played or sung at any occasion outside a Labour party shindig.
A party that does not even have an English Branch – while Scotland has Scottish Labour and Wales has Welsh Labour
A party that does not even bother to publish a Manifesto for England but has plenty of time and money to lose elections north of the border
A party that is prepared to embrace the aspirations of the English – a people who alone within the UK do not have their own Parliament and who have distinctly different attitudes to issues such as Europe than the Scots or the Welsh
English Labour must be a reality – but a reality that goes well beyond branding and digs down deep into the hearts and minds – as well as the prejudices – of the English.
Hating England and the English is a pathological condition for Labour. This is due to the toxic, Anglophobic influence of the Scots. Labour leaders even permitted the false notion that the Scot Keir Hardie founded the Labour Party. He didn’t, he was elected as the first chairman, defeating an Englishman by one vote. The chairman of the conference at which Hardie was elected was popular Englishman William Drew, who was unanimously elected to be Vice Chairman. His is a name rarely if ever heard although he was as prominent a figure as Hardie.
Hardie first became an MP in England, not Scotland, and subsequently in Wales. So from its outset the Labour Party mirrored the United Kingdom in bolstering all things Scottish while denigrating all things English. Anglophobia has become ingrained in Labour’s psyche due to the malign influence of Scots.
The SNP victory is a major blessing in disguise for Labour in England. It is now forced to focus on England’s public services. The only way this can be achieved is through an English parliament managed by an English Labour Party.
It is galling to read this article moaning about mayors being foisted on English cities by Conservatives, as being a method of undermining Labour strongholds in English cities, when it has been Labour imposing unwanted devolution upon the English. Devolution was only ever about breaking up England, thus making Scotland the largest geo-political entity in these islands. In other words it was all about massaging Scottish ego, which is all the United Kingdom has only ever been about, really.
Labour has lost Scotland and it is all of Labour’s doing. The United Kingdom has gone. Labour must immediately cease its efforts to balkanise England because the English adamantly refuse to allow it to happen. It must also halt the influence of the Scots. It did not go unnoticed in England that there is a Scottish Labour Party, led by undisguised Anglophobe Jim Murphy, but no English Labour Party.
Personally I think Labour is incapable of changing its England-hating stance and will be consigned to oblivion. The Social Democrats was the right way forward, but was ruined by Scots like David Steel. The sooner England and the Labour Party are shot of Scotland the better.
Any claim for a grand narrative of English identity that fails to talk about class, is ludicrous.
The only way back is to support changing the voting system and embrace working with other parties. No matter how brilliant a leader or campaign Labour will make no progress in the South. All the time Labour carries on thinking that winning a few urban places is winning representation in the South it is deluded. The list is simple – starting from Lands End Labour can occasionally win in Plymouth, Exeter, Bristol, Swindon, Reading, Brighton, Hastings and bits of Kent. The odd place like Oxford, but if isn’t a slightly depressed large urban area they have no chance. John Denham was a great MP but he had no presence in Hampshire as Southampton isn’t typical of Hampshire.
John Denham, one of the best Labour leaders we never had.
Another candidate for that distinction is Frank Field, one of the few exceptions to the general rule that Labour hates England. For some time now, I’ve felt that Mr Field would have made an excellent First Minister of England. Unfortunately, the Blair made the usual Westminster mistake of sacrificing the greater good for partisan advantage.
English parliament or rot in hell.
The English Votes on English Laws is a scam . In the last 10 years there has only been 6 English only matters because if money is involve in any way it has a knock on effect with Barnett consequentials. Scotland gets a 10% b Barnett bonus on every penny pent in England so no Matter involving money can be England only.
The bastards are falling at last!!! Respect the English or wither. That goes especially for the manipulative lying bankers friend the Conservative party.
Cut Scotland loose – it’s what they want after all.