The achievements of the last Labour government – many chronicled here – are massive and make me proud to be in this great party. The national minimum wage will outlive that government the way the creation of the NHS, our national parks, the Open University, have outlived the Attlee and Wilson governments that created them. Some achievements are so taken for granted we barely accredit them to governments and ministers, but as if they fell from the sky. Tony Blair reminded his last Labour party conference that New Labour, ‘Ban[ned] things that should never have been allowed: handguns, cosmetic testing on animals; fur farming, blacklisting of trade unionists and … smoking in public places. [It allowed] things that should never have been banned: the right to roam; the right to request flexible working; civil partnerships for gay people.’ Gordon Brown, in what turned out to be his last leader’s speech said, ‘if anyone says that to fight doesn’t get you anywhere, that politics can’t make a difference, that all parties are the same, then look at what we’ve achieved together since 1997: the winter fuel allowance, the shortest waiting times in history, crime down by a third, the creation of Sure Start, the cancer guarantee, record results in schools, more students than ever, the Disability Discrimination Act, devolution, civil partnerships, peace in Northern Ireland, the social chapter, half a million children out of poverty, maternity pay, paternity leave, child benefit at record levels, the minimum wage, the ban on cluster bombs, the cancelling of debt, the trebling of aid, the first ever Climate Change Act; that’s the Britain we’ve been building together, that’s the change we choose.’

Not everything was perfect – no one has suggested otherwise. The legacy of many decisions still looms large – especially the big reforms to the public sector and controversial foreign policy decisions. And it was ever thus – we progressives are never satisfied, our job never done. Why? Because we are the idealists. There will always be too much injustice, too much inequality, but we do not make progress the enemy of perfection.

The most damning analysis is not the successes or failures but the sense that in office there were changes we never tried to bring about; that we gave in to ‘neoliberalism’ or acted as a lapdog to George W Bush’s America. Neither are true. Our vision or plan for the next time Labour is in government might need to be bigger or more conveniently aligned with when a Democrat is in the White House, but neither of these things means Labour can short-circuit the hard graft needed to win power in the first place. In fact, the bigger the vision the more groundwork is needed.

As I wrote for last month’s Progress magazine editorial, ‘Had we admitted the mistakes that actually led voters to remove Labour from office, Labour could have returned to government within one term.’ Not only is this no longer available as a path to victory, if it were it would now be wholly insufficient to meet the challenges Britain will face in the 2020s. The last Labour government should, therefore, be the inspiration to be in government again, not the inspiration for the next government.

To come back, the party – and its modernising tradition – must make clear it is not looking to pick up where it left off in 2007 or 2010 but to be more outward-looking in its approach and more ambitious in its scope. Neal Lawson’s critique – that New Labour was ‘neither new enough, nor Labour enough’ – whether true or not cannot be the case for what comes next.

There are two factions inside the Australian Labor party: if people are a member of either because of a policy outlook it normally comes down to their view on the Hawke-Keating Labor governments of the 1980s and 1990s. One side believe the big reforms were welcome, successful and still serve Australia well, the other – the so-called left – believe it was a betrayal. Both factions, however, agree that, either way, it was all too difficult and not worth doing again. This accounts for a lot of their recent difficulties. The British Labour party can continue to debate the record all it likes, but, whatever happens, unless it is satisfied with the prospect of decades of Tory rule, it cannot decide that government again is just too difficult.

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Richard Angell is director of Progress

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