There is a mountain to climb, but Labour can still transform its fortunes by ackowledging mistakes and asserting its true values
THE Labour Party has always been a coalition of groups. In its earliest stages, with the trade unions as its backbone, it embraced church groups, intellectual ideologues and co-operators. Over time, it has developed into a much more complex institution, but remains essentially a coalition.
How else does one explain the composition of, say, the Parliamentary Labour Party, with its millionaires and its shop stewards? What has bound them together was a shared set of values, dedicated to replacing the tyranny of the few with the democracy of the many.
Along came “new” Labour, with its doublethink and newspeak, a vehicle designed to promote the personal ambitions of a small number of people while ignoring the party’s core values and the interests of so many who looked to Labour for fairness and social justice. Its primary goal was to install the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown axis in power – and it succeeded. The general elections of 1997 and 2001 were stunning victories numerically, although the two ensuing Parliaments were hallmarked by lost opportunities. By 2005, the bubble had burst with Labour winning only a third of the popular vote, although remaining in power.
Having seen through Blair, the electorate looked to the revitalisation of the Labour Party. To bring this about, the party looked to a change of leader and a change of direction. We got the former – although, unhappily, by acclamation rather than contest – but, as yet, not the latter.
The Parliamentary Labour Party has degenerated into a Brownite and Blairite struggle for position and power, as our opinion poll ratings plunge and the doorstep welcome for canvassers brings back unhappy memories of the Jim Callaghan years. This is not a promising scenario from which to promote the urgently needed fightback against the increasingly plausible if meretricious Tories.
Instead of a vigorous riposte to the Old Etonians, we have seen an arcane dispute over nomination papers. The demand for the issue of nomination papers appears to have been an attempt to lever a challenge to Brown as leader. Consistent with his past practice, he is obdurately opposed to this and the National Executive Committee has tamely reflected his wishes.
This may well be in accord with the party’s rules and the much-quoted “legal advice” – untested in the courts, of course. The Blairites rail at this allegedly supine acquiescence of the party’s supposedly ruling body, while the Brownite plot to pre-empt a challenge. It was, of course, perfectly fine when Blair did exactly the same thing.
However, all this leaves the impression of a leader at bay, afraid to face his own troops, whilst seemingly incapable of disposing of the official Conservative opposition. As the countdown to the next general election begins and the polls continue to look ominous, this is not a promising situation either for Prime Minister Brown or the Labour Party. Indeed, both factions within Labour have already lost the plot. The mantras of 2001 are inappropriate in 2008, as the self-proclaimed “modernisers” look extremely dated. They remain obsessed with the City as the people look on it with increasing contempt. They genuflect to the United States administration as the world recognises its deformities and imperfections. They patronise our core support as it looks elsewhere for representation.
Meanwhile, some colleagues have already given up, forecasting meltdown at the next election. At the other extreme are those who believe if we all behave like the three wise monkeys, the political future is rosy. I reject this blinkered view. Debate and discussion are vital to the party, particularly at a critical time like today.
That does not mean I subscribe to the doomsday view of our future. I do believe, however, that we have a mountain to climb over the remainder of this Parliament. It will require a massive change of policy direction with its implicit recognition that the Blair/Brown axis has got some things wrong over their three terms in power. It will be a bitter pill for Brown to swallow. Can he do it?
Peter Kilfoyle is Labour MP for Liverpool Walton
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Do you know what will affect Labour worse, street lights being turned off, shops boarded up empty shops streets full of litter, council s especially Labour councils telling us government have cut funding, while pumping billions into banking, while last years these same banks made record profits of billions, where has these billions gone and will banks now pay some of this back. or Will more street light go off more rubbish be left on streets taking us back to another Labour period.
Labour had better think before it’s seen as the party of the losers.