Power isn’t comfortable and it shouldn’t be. Government is hard and the big decisions are almost always the most controversial ones.
Big decisions can be personally and politically tough for ministers, MPs, councillors and all those we elect to make them. But these same decisions can be just as hard for the party supporters and activists because situations will always arise which require a decision and a choice; tough choices about this and that, choices welcomed by one group, derided by another; that is the nature of power. Our supporters and activists may not be immersed in the bubble of Westminster politics or the 24-hour media cycle of news and information flowing directly from the centre, but it is those supporters who we still expect to maintain support and get out there during elections, on the doorsteps conveying the party’s messages to voters.
Iraq, nuclear power, climate change, health, pensions, economic policy – all are areas which over the years have whittled away at Labour’s big tent coalition of ’97. But these are all issues where decisions were needed from and voters would not have forgiven fudged decisions or failure to choose. Last week’s debate on the Lisbon treaty is another example – abstaining Lib Dems take note.
I always found the ‘97 strap line ‘New Labour, New Britain’ aspirational as well as inspirational and even after 10 years I was sad to see it dropped. I joined the party myself back in ‘97 because Labour embodied change – it had the courage to change and deliver on it. The subtle change of syntax which heralded Gordon Brown’s succession to the leadership ‘New Labour, for Britain’ undoubtedly suggests more humility, but do we know if this is what people want to hear?
What really matters is that we have a vision for Britain which is fit for the challenges and opportunities which we all feel are before us – globalization, immigration, the changes everyone can see in their communities. I think we should be better at shouting about – within policy debates and in legislation, in our ideas and discussions and think tanks and across the movement – how Labour’s really speaking for the 21st Century, and for all people, not just our supporters but out there setting the agenda. It’s not just about turning up at the rally, but leading it and being uncompromising in our exploration of ideas to address the issues we face.
A month or so ago ‘a government minister’ was quoted as saying that what Labour really needed was a period in opposition. We must reject that sentiment utterly and so must all progressives. The world is changing, and people’s lives here in Britain are changing too. On globalization, on immigration, on the changes in the financial markets, on the environment and the threat of global warming I think the public are ahead of many politicians – they understand the changes and fundamentally people want representatives who’ll steer a course through that change – change which will come faster not slower. As Labour we have a case built on 10 years of delivery and responsible decision-making in the interests of stability, progress, equality and fairness in the UK. But we also have a profound choice ahead of us as a party which, although clichéd, is still best summed up as ‘forward or back’. Slinking off for an inward-looking and self indulgent period of reflection must never be our response to these challenges; we must face them.
Too often we are willing to label the actions or ideas put forward by the government or its ministers or of those wanting to contribute to the debate as right-wing, beyond the pale, out-of-bounds for debate, insensitive to one group or another or not ‘of the left’.
The big questions for the next couple of years – conditionality in the welfare system, obligation versus free choice in the environmental debate, rights and responsibilities within immigration and crime, choice in public services and that unrelenting focus on skills and education – all deserve the fullest consideration and airing; they need ideas, fresh ideas of the progressive left to tackle them – not the suffocating embrace of some notion of leftist idealism which closes down all ‘other’ discussion as not legitimate for Labour people.
So forward, not back. New Labour for a changing Britain has to demonstrate its uncompromising desire to enable all people to fulfill their aspirations in a changing world and we as Labour people all need to take responsibility and play our part in that.
Matt Cooke is a Labour councillor in Haringey