1997 and all that
12:41pm Tuesday, 8th August 2006
Not that I'm addicted to the net or anything, but I read Tom's valedictory Guardian piece at home last night on the mighty Comment is Free. What strikes me most about this site is the way it's become a home for people who REALLY hate Blair's Labour.
The problem with that attitude, as with the general liberal melancholia about Blair, is that it tends to manifest itself in a generalised sense of failure. Not only has Labour failed to live up to its promise, and not only has it made some awful mistakes, but it has achieved absolutely nothing positive, left nothing for posterity apart from a disastrous entanglement in an American war.
This is going to make me sound like a Blairite toady, but I genuinely believe the record is more mixed than that. Leaving aside Tom's claim about a new energy and openness, what about the vast amount of investment in public services and the unquestionable improvements it has bought in many parts of the country? Not improved enough, but universally agreed to be a whole lot better (at least by anyone who bothers to look at the evidence). I'd also add in devolution to Scotland and Wales, the lowest unemployment in a generation, the freedom of information act, the human rights act, sure start etc.
There are some silver linings inside our current cloud of gloom about the last decade, but there should have been a lot more. I recently re-read Demos's 1997 'manifesto for the election after next'. For a sense of how things could have been, it's still worth a read. Even after all these years, it'll remind you of a time when a British spring felt possible, probable even.
The problem with that attitude, as with the general liberal melancholia about Blair, is that it tends to manifest itself in a generalised sense of failure. Not only has Labour failed to live up to its promise, and not only has it made some awful mistakes, but it has achieved absolutely nothing positive, left nothing for posterity apart from a disastrous entanglement in an American war.
This is going to make me sound like a Blairite toady, but I genuinely believe the record is more mixed than that. Leaving aside Tom's claim about a new energy and openness, what about the vast amount of investment in public services and the unquestionable improvements it has bought in many parts of the country? Not improved enough, but universally agreed to be a whole lot better (at least by anyone who bothers to look at the evidence). I'd also add in devolution to Scotland and Wales, the lowest unemployment in a generation, the freedom of information act, the human rights act, sure start etc.
There are some silver linings inside our current cloud of gloom about the last decade, but there should have been a lot more. I recently re-read Demos's 1997 'manifesto for the election after next'. For a sense of how things could have been, it's still worth a read. Even after all these years, it'll remind you of a time when a British spring felt possible, probable even.
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Comments
Look North!
It's good to see the 'Northern Light's seminars and ideas being developed by Demos. If anything could save Labour, it's a stiff northern wind!
The Nordic countries really do have something to teach us.
The Danish emphasis on 'flexicurity' is a good example. This means a fairly flexible labour market - but with a good level of benefits if made redundant or unemployed. If jobs become available, then they have to be taken. Sweden has a higher level of benefits.
All this seems to have been taken on board by pressure groups like Compass (www.compassonline.org.uk). They promote such a vision. Something is needed to renew Labour - the only really progressive party.