Quality | 2010.03.29
An absurd fear of the old left is killing Labour's best ideas | John Harris
In Blairite pathology, even modest manifesto proposals can lead some in the party to see reds under beds
So, here comes what Labour ministers are obliged to herald as "the first election of the global age". As well as the low hum of online campaigning and "crowdsourced" policy ideas, there is also mounting anticipation about the three leaders\' debates, and the likely effects of the presidentialisation of our politics suddenly going nuclear. No matter that the possibility of a historically low turnout may provide a grim twist to all this innovation – for now, at least in public, plenty of the political class sound like enthusiastic neophytes, rather bringing to mind one of Tony Blair\'s more absurd claims, made in 1997: "New, new, new – everything is new."
For Labour, unfortunately, the biggest problem remains the party\'s dysfunctional relationship with its past. Today, Gordon Brown will reveal the five pledges intended to define Labour\'s campaign, but given his ingrained fear of anything that might be construed as a return to a lurch back to the left, they look likely to be devoid of both a coherent narrative, and any convincing political oomph. Meanwhile, Alistair Darling agrees with the idea that spending cuts will have to exceed even the pain of the Thatcher years – so in the absence of much primary-coloured policy, why anyone should enthusiastically go out and vote Labour on 6 May is once again clouded in mystery.
In and around the party, there is a surprisingly lively conversation about how – even in the midst of such crushing fiscal arithmetic – Labour might just about rediscover its sense of purpose. But for fear of somehow reviving the ghoulish menace known as "Old Labour", too few people want to listen.
Consider one of the more overlooked political subplots of the last week. In last Saturday\'s Guardian, Ed Miliband talked about the task of putting together Labour\'s manifesto , and floated a handful of ideas. The most headline-grabbing was the longstanding Labour plan to establish a People\'s Bank via the post office network, now a racing certainty for inclusion in the finished document. Perhaps more interestingly, there were also hints of a rise in the minimum wage, and warm words about the idea of universal free school meals and a possible cap on consumer lending rates (all "more difficult", according to Miliband\'s people). Yes, the great lacunae in modern Labour thinking were as obvious as ever: there was nothing about the future structure of the banks, no specifics relating to income and wealth inequality at the top, nor any sign of the kind of spending cuts that might square the need for austerity with a halfway progressive vision (ie scrapping Trident). But as plenty of Labour people agreed, here was a hint of a centre-left programme that would suit the moment, and maybe add a few points to Labour\'s poll scores.
That a lot of what Miliband talked about could be resisted by his colleagues is depressing enough. But three days later came miserable tidings indeed. Tuesday\'s Comment pages in the Times featured a quote from an unnamed cabinet minister , tearing into the climate change secretary, and the manifesto work done so far: "He\'s been disappointing. He\'s basically an old lefty, but with a New Labour veneer."
This, to quote one senior Labour figure, is little short of "mental": proof of an attitude that risks ruining not just the party\'s election chances, but any prospect of Labour eventually learning the lessons of the last 13 years. It smacks of the deluded arrogance of the political sect, and a mindset that has long since pulled away from the real world and become consumed with the dried-up stuff of faction-fighting.
Moreover, it encapsulates the Blairite pathology that gripped the government from around 2001 onwards, and has still not been cured: the reduction of Labour\'s lodestar to doing the very opposite of what any "old lefty" would want, which has too often defined the party against itself, and led to all kinds of disasters. Why did Blair cosy up to Bush? What lay behind Brown\'s bedazzlement with the City? Why did a no-mark like Stephen Byers end up floundering around in such a comical moral vacuum? Here, surely, are some of the answers.
To half-paraphrase the song, things have lately got better, as the financial crash and its fall-out have reacquainted Labour with at least some of its essential instincts. But the malady lingers on, manifested in a silent tension that is squashing much chance of a meaningful offer to voters. Even if some of the government\'s younger faces seem to know what policy shifts are now required, too many of their older colleagues are apparently playing to type, and having none of it (witness whispers about the conservative grip exercised by Peter Mandelson and Alistair Darling). The result: even a programme of social-democratic reform a la 1997 will probably prove to be beyond Labour\'s grasp.
Though the chances of any about-face seem laughably small, Compass is about to publish a last-minute policy document titled Winning On The Doorstep, straplined "a fourth term worth fighting for". Work isn\'t quite finished, but it gives you a flavour not just of the policies that changed times demand, but how well they would be received. Among the ideas is the setting up of a high pay commission. There are a raft of proposed banking reforms, including the remutualisation of Northern Rock, the conversion of the Royal Bank Of Scotland into "The Royal Bank Of Sustainability" and, naturally enough, an argument for beginning work on separating retail and investment banking, a course now endorsed by such dangerous radicals as Mervyn King and Nigel Lawson – and 68% of the public. The text contains the unanswerable case for abandoning Trident (supported by 63% of Britons), and using some of the resultant £76bn – minimum – to renew the military covenant. There are also examples of the kind of clever, zeitgeisty politics that the Brown government never seems to grasp: a tax on junk mail and the banning of adverts aimed at children under 12.
So what holds Labour back, not just from ideas like these, but even more modest proposals? Imaginary dangers, talked up to protect the greying high-ups who occasionally look as confused by the post-crash world as any banker (or Tory). A paranoid worldview that would have you believe that a Miliband brother is an "old lefty" . Reds under beds, and worse. Really: when Labour\'s wheel turns once again and it finally looks into the future, this stupidity will have to go, and quick.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/[...]d-fear-old-left-killing-labour
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