Nearly everyone involved in politics has been told by a voter: ‘You are all the same.’ Given the Punch and Judy parliamentary routine, it can look like politicians spend a lot of time attacking each other, trying to explain how different we are from each other, when what our constituents want are solutions to problems.
If politicians just tend to blame each other for the country’s woes, that’s a debate that bears little relevance to people who just want to get on with their lives. Where a constituent can’t get to work because cuts in bus subsidies have seen the end of the bus service that was relied upon, he or she’s not bothered about who is to blame, and nor can they wait to see through the implementation of a promise to be kept some time after the next election. What’s needed is an answer to the simple question: ‘How do I get to work, not next week or next year, but tomorrow?’ Politicians can have the ideological debate up there in the ether; most people just want to get to work.
We have both experienced the value of this approach in our own constituencies: from finding ways to unlock funding to turn a landfill site into a public park, or working with global businesses and trade unions to see jobs secured, we have experienced the values of an approach that looks for practical answers. That includes food banks – although we see them as a temporary measure, while the prime minister seems to think they are an integral part of the ‘big society’.
In our view, we are now entering the era of the politics of solutions – where the emphasis is on getting things done. This approach is laid out in the pamphlet The Politics of Solutions edited for Progress and published this week. The pamphlet states that the Labour movement is at its best when active in the community; but in the community as it is today, not a bygone age. And to be active in the community when in opposition is at least as important as when in government. Ed Miliband’s focus on community organising reminds us that throughout our history the Labour movement has taken a practical approach to problems to be resolved, many of them when not in government. That is why the Labour movement established self-help groups in coalfield communities at the turn of the last century, where trade unions were at their strongest because they were active in the community as well as the workplace. The Labour movement created the NHS, delivered a minimum wage and always pursues full employment. They were and are practical solutions and are value-led. The problems we face in a new age are different, but their solutions must still be practical if they are to work and gain support.
At the core of this approach is addressing giving people a route back from the threats the recession has created, for example, a something-for-something welfare system; effective trade unions working together in a modern relationship with business to protect jobs; and proactive government that helps people navigate a career through the turbulence of the globalised economy. And where the culture of banking is transformed by ensuring the threat of jail will offer the strongest incentive to stick within the law.
Because our constituents are part of successful exporting British industry, we are pro-European and realise pro-EU and pro-EU reform are two sides of the same coin. And likewise we recognise that the biggest challenges the country faces means more long-term decision-making, for example, establishing more resilient decision-making for long-term infrastructure projects over the next 20 years for the good of the nation, so we can compete internationally and see our economy grow. ‘Long-termism’ is also required to meet the challenge of demographic change, so a single budget for the NHS and social care will be needed to shift resources towards preventing people from becoming ill.
Helping people to do better over the long term is at the heart of Labour’s One Nation idea. People want to earn a wage and earn respect, they want to belong to their community and they want to have ownership of the institutions that make our nation one: the NHS, for example. They aspire to see their children do better, and their parents to be cared for.
We will not promise the earth, but we will be practical in our approach. Ideology and political belief have their place in underpinning all we do, but it is solutions that people want. And as Hopi Sen points out in the introduction to our pamphlet, our values will not take a back seat because ‘it is in our solutions that we truly demonstrate our values.’
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Phil Wilson is Labour MP for Sedgefield and Alison McGovern is Labour MP for Wirral South
All very well in theory, but I recently fought a campaign in the County elections, identifying the issues local people wanted, then offering solutions. I still got ‘You’re all the same’. Some of these people admitted that they had never voted in their lives – backed up by the marked up registers we were using. I don’t think all the solutions in the world are going to get some of the voters into the mind-set where they turn out to vote. The only thing which seemed to excite them was UKIP, because the media were telling them it was something new and everyone was supporting it. But we can’t have another New Labour – New New Labour, perhaps?
“Nearly everyone in
politics has had a voter tell us “you’re all the same.” It
baffles us. We spend so long attacking each other, explaining how
huge our differences are.”
You bemoan the fact
people think you are all the same and view this as a problem of false
perception. This is either very naïve or disingenuous.
The main parties have
adopted a policy of chasing the median voter, a reliance on opinion
polls, qualitative and quantitative research, have drawn the parties
closer together on the political spectrum. It is not surprising the
the parties seem very similar when they are using the same kinds of
research to identify and attract the same floating voters in the same
marginal constituencies. The consequence of the focus on target
seats, is we get mealy mouthed professional politicians mumbling
bland platitudes.
The reason people think
you are all the same is because you fight over the same thin strip of
ground supporting the same neoliberal economic policies. The debate
between the parties is not whether you should be taking money from
those that can least afford it, but how quickly you should be doing
it, failure to realise this is delusional.
In the pamphlet “The
Politics of Solutions” Hopi Sen seems to suggest the solution to
the problem you have identified is to market your policies better and
to manage voter expectations. This will do nothing to distinguish
Labour from the other parties in the eyes of the electorate, it’s
like tinkering with the engine when the wheels have fallen of the
car.
The core vote of the
major parties is shrinking, there is an increasingly large number of
disaffected voters who have moved to smaller parties or just stopped
voting. These people will not return because policies are repackaged,
something has to change. These votes are up for grabs if someone has
the courage to offer them real change, something that benefits them,
something that inspires them.
The single most unpopular
policy at the moment is the bailout of the banks, at our expense. You
should be looking for an alternative to supporting a financial system
that is little better than a publically underwritten ponzi scheme.
The pamphlet also looks
at practical solutions in a number of policy areas, given that you
are concerned about public perception, I find it curious that there
is no mention of immigration, a major concern of a large number of
voters. By ignoring this you do them, and yourselves, a disservice.
This is a very real concern for a lot of people, especially for those
in low paid work, who find it effects their prospects for securing
full time employment. Over the last 5 years the number of contingent
and casual jobs has doubled.
If any policy area is in
need of solutions, then this is it. To remain silent on this subject
will simply drive more and more people into UKIP and the BNP. You are
making a mistake if equate genuine concern over immigration with
racism.
Cosmetic changes are not
enough. To be viewed as different, I’m afraid you need to be
different.
Gary Kirby social grade C2 ex labour
voter.