Denis MacShane says the political and conomic turbulence currently buffeting Britain is hardly unique
HERE is one of politics’ dirty little secrets. Despite the impression given by the Tories and their cheerleaders in the press that Britain under Labour is unique in its economic difficulties, this simply is not true. The entire Westminster political class is in meltdown mode as if the problems of British politics were unique. However, if any of the panjandrums of political reporting opened a foreign newspaper during the summer holidays, this is what they would have found.
Spain: After a handsome re-election in March, the Spanish socialists have just signed a non-aggression pact with the right-wing Partido Popular with the aim of minimising differences on tough new immigration rules, as well as the fight against ETA terrorism. July’s rise in unemployment was the biggest in Spain in five decades as the global credit crunch brings the country’s house-boom economy to a dead stop.
France: Strip away Carla Bruni, so to speak, and there is little to show for Nicolas Sarkozy’s first year in power. This spring, he suffered the biggest defeats in regional and city elections ever inflicted on his party. His opinion poll ratings are the lowest of any president in the fifth republic. Meanwhile, the Socialists remain locked in self-loathing squabbles over the endless
cries of “moi, moi, moi” from those who want to lead the party.
Austria: Having won the Chancellorship last December, the Austrian Socialists have imploded, dismissing their party leader and chancellor and calling new elections this month.
Italy: Oh dear.
Germany: Growth in Germany has collapsed as the worldwide slump in demand bites. Chancellor Angela Merkel faces sniping from the rightist Bavarian Christian Social Union. The Social Democratic Party is on the point of dumping its leader and naming the cerebral foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeyer, a former policy aide to Gerhard Schroeder, as its candidate for the 2009 contest to be Chancellor. The Social Democrats have seen their party membership fall below that of their opponents for the first time since 1950.
Sweden: David Cameron’s favourite European conservative is the Swedish prime minister, Fredrick Reinfeldt. But despite promises, he has been unable to restore growth or cut taxes in Sweden. As a result, his poll rating bumps around 20 per cent and the Swedish Social Democrats under a bright 50-year-old woman leader, Mona Sahlin, are confident of regaining power.
Ireland: The headlines for Prime Minister Brian Cowan cannot get any worse. After losing the Lisbon Treaty referendum to a ragbag coalition and a mysterious businessman whose rise to wealth is lost in obscure dealings in the Russia of post-Communist oligarchs as well as links to neo-conservative ex-Pentagon officials, the daily headlines in the Irish press of crisis, row and turmoil make Labour’s local difficulties seem piddling in comparison.
Turkey: The government escaped being shut down by the constitutional court, but the suspicions over a secret religious agenda denying hard-won rights to women or introducing an Islamist prohibition on beer and wine leave Turkey’s secularists concerned and in a truculent opposition mood. As with ETA in Spain, the PKK’s bombing campaign continues to destabilise Turkish confidence as its future in the European Unions becomes increasingly remote.
East Europe: The heady days of growth fuelled by EU transfers and remittances from Polish plumbers or Lithuanian mushroom pickers are over. Ugly populist nationalism and, in the case of Lithuania, Poland, and Bulgaria, openly anti-Semitic politics are rising up again.
So, despite the hysteria of current headlines, Britain is not an exception in terms of going through turbulent political weather. Sister parties to the Tories are having a bad time in power or opposition, but nor are Europe’s socialist or social democratic parties coming up with any answers to today’s global crisis of economic governance and voter-convincing politics.
Britain is one of a big group of nations coming to terms with global economic turbulence. There is not a single Tory idea of how to deal with this.
Denis MacShane is Labour MP for Rotherham and a former Europe minister
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