Labour: Staring into the abyss
by Peter Harrington
11/06/09
As the government totters on after last week's turmoil and election disaster, talk is turning to where the progressive left goes from here. Whatever the view on the leadership, voters have delivered a stinging blow to the party and a period of sober debate about the party is long overdue.
Today, at 6pm, we publish a collection of views from leading figures on the left about what Labour needs to do to renew itself. While their prescriptions differ, they are unanimous about the hole Labour is in. The pieces offer a mix of ideas about reform in government and the party, as well as policies to address Labour's unfinished business. Most of them are desperate to see a democratisation and de-centralisation of politics and the party.
But as the collection will show, consensus on where Labour has gone wrong, and its proper destination, is a long way off. For the sake of progressive politics let's hope this is a start.
The full list of contributors:
Jon Cruddas - MP for Dagenham
Alan Finlayson - Reader in Politics and International Relations at Swansea University
David Marquand - Chair of the Demos Advisory Council and Visiting Fellow, University of Oxford
Jenni Russell - Writer, broadcaster and columnist for the Guardian
Tristram Hunt - Lecturer in History at Queen Mary, University of London
Lisa Harker and Carey Oppenheim - Co-directors of the Institute for Public Policy Research
Rushanara Ali - Associate Director at the Young Foundation
Jessica Asato - Acting Director of Progress
Phillip Blond - Director of the Progressive Conservatism Project at Demos
Kevin Jefferys - Professor of Contemporary History at Plymouth University
Tessa Jowell - MP for Dulwich and West Norwood. Minister for the Cabinet Office and the Olympics, and Paymaster General
Sunder Katwala - General Secretary of the Fabian Society
Neal Lawson - Chair of Compass
Michael Meacher - Former Environment Secretary
Jonathan Rutherford - Editor of Soundings and Professor of Cultural Studies, Middlesex University
Stuart White - Director of the Public Policy Unit at the University of Oxford
Philip Collins - Chair of Trustees, Demos
Martin Bright - Political journalist and founder of New Deal of the Mind
Maurice Glasman - Director of the Faith and Citizenship Programme at London Metropolitan University
Peter Harrington
Phil, I think I agree with almost everything you said. But can Labour overcome its huge internal divisions to be the party to take up this task?
Phil badger
It is crucial that we don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the current mess is just bad luck or the latest swing of the pendulum – we need a major effort to rethink our values and our ideology. Specifically, we need to address the left’s traditional concerns with social inequality (the work of Richard Wilkinson and others makes a powerful case for the socially destructive consequences of living in a polarized society) while we reframe those concerns in terms of the empowerment of the individual. The progressive liberals of the late 19th C were right to see un-restricted markets as threats to individual liberty rather than synonymous with it. We need a higher minimum wage (this can make Keynesian sense in a time when there is no inflationary pressure in the system) combined with incentives (rather than Frank Field style compulsion) for the involvement of the long term unemployed in social and community work, shorter working hours by adopting the working hours directive (to give people time for family and community as well as to share out what work is there) and the involvement of all secondary school age kids in social and community work for at least two hours per week (retreat from exam madness – open the possibility of alternate forms of recognition and achievement – present them with an alternative to crass materialism and reconnect the young with their communities in a positive way). We could also do with refocusing some of education to promote critical thinking – we need a critical and engaged population if our democracy is to be renewed and our communities energised. All of this is about rebuilding community and creating a more equitable society in ways which also empower the individual (we have to challenge any suggestion that these goals are incompatible – we can’t abandon freedom to the neo-liberals and community to the various left and right authoritarians/ communitarians that are swimming around us).