There is a palpable sense of relief among many in the Labour Party that Gordon Brown finally acknowledged the inevitable and stood down, after it became apparent that there could be no deal with the Liberal Democrats, or with the Lib Dems and the nationalists, or with the Lib Dems, nationalists, SDLP and the solitary Green MP.
Labour lost – not as badly as many had predicted, but Labour lost all the same. This was the party’s worst result since 1983. Things were particularly bad in England. Some solace can be taken from the better performances in Scotland, Wales and in some of the marginal seats targeted by Michael Ashcroft’s millions, but now there is an opportunity for Labour in opposition to re-build.
What of the New Labour project? The 2010 general election ended the first part of the dishonest construct. The second part is now stillborn. As Tribune and others reported, Peter Mandelson, Andrew Adonis and others were furtively busy behind the scenes during the election campaign, opening lines of communication with Nick Clegg. The proposed Lib-Lab coalition was supposed to bring realignment of what is loosely described as the centre left. The new construct, after electoral reform, would have been an amalgam of those who have spent the past quarter century disposing of Labour values and whose paltry vision was of a new party without the trade unions. This lifeboat for a derided professional political class has now sunk without trace.
Labour could be back in power within two or three years, with a sizeable majority. During the campaign, the American economist David Hale informed Australian television viewers that Bank of England Governor Mervyn King had told him “whoever wins this election will be out of power for a whole generation because of how tough the fiscal austerity will have to be”.
Further, the Lib Dems have not opted to support the Conservatives in a partnership or on an issue-by-issue basis, but have gone into outright coalition with them. This means,
in effect, that the Lib Dems lose their independent voice and face being subsumed into the majority party. The “Lib Dem Con” will have played very badly with all of those who voted for Nick Clegg and his party to keep the Tories out of power and still worse with those who heeded The Guardian’s pleas to vote for the Lib Dems because they were more progressive than Labour.
Now Labour needs to face up both to the scale of its defeat and the economic and political realities which require strong leadership and significant changes in policy. The party must draw a line under the New Labour years and, while avoiding recrimination, make it clear that the discredited practices of spin, deception and fixing are over. The party rulebook must be re-instated. Ordinary members and the National Executive Committee must be accorded proper respect, and real power over policy development handed back to where it belongs – the party as a whole.
The poorest and weakest are set to suffer the most, which is why Labour and its trade union allies have to reassert themselves as the first line of defence.
Labour will must resist the cuts and defend public services. It must come out against the massively wasteful programme to renew Trident and call a halt to the ruinous war in Afghanistan. Instead of spouting mealy-mouthed platitudes, the party will need to take advantage of the first big split that will likely open in the coalition. While Vince Cable and George Osborne scrap it out, Labour should call for the banks to be broken up, for bonuses to be severely constrained and for international action to regulate speculation, whether on the part of hedge funds or short traders. More than this, the party has to campaign for a European-wide trade policy, based on raising selective tariffs and designed to protect key industries from cheap imports and hostile takeovers. And, in recognition of what is a genuine concern to many of its traditional supporters, Labour must campaign for restrictions on the movement of labour from inside and outside Europe.
This has been an extraordinary election and the aftermath is historic. This was a television-driven election – one in which key issues were overlooked in favour of audience ratings and dubious polling. All opinion polls should be banned during elections, which could take us away from the outrageous offence of a Sky TV leaders’ debate being neatly rounded off by a YouGov-Sun poll.
Trade unionists, academics, activists and, most importantly, women were largely absent from the campaign – except in the guise of decorative leaders’ wives. This was a men-only election, followed by men-only attempts to cobble together a coalition. It says a great deal about how far we have travelled – backwards, that is – there is no senior Labour woman declaring herself as a leadership contender. Nor does it seem to concern very many that Labour appears only to confer leadership on women such as Margaret Beckett and Harriet Harman as stand-ins.
How far the country has regressed is also revealed in the educationally exclusive club that now runs Britain. And now that a collective punishment for the expenses’ scandal has been visited on all MPs, regardless of income, there is a real danger that working-class representation will again be limited, because only the wealthy can afford to an become MP
Most significantly, this was a campaign and an election result that leaves the British political class reinforced and from an even narrower background. The political class still does not get it, nor does it show any signs of breaking from the neo-liberal economic consensus of the past quarter century.
Capitalism is in crisis. Let’s ensure Labour’s new leaders – whoever they may be – understand that this is the basis on which to understand everything else.
