We need to appeal to the whole country, not just odd sections of it
Harriet Harman’s comments today that the leadership contest should be ‘public facing’ should be welcomed by all in the Labour movement.
While the party needs to have a deep inward think about how it operates, we cannot forget that ultimately the lessons to learn from defeat will be learnt not from any one candidate or union. Instead they will come from the public that, when it came to it, could not put their trust in us.
But within it all, we have to be prepared to stand up for our proud legacy in government. We should not seek to define ourselves by putting distance between the party we are now and the party that won three successive general elections.
How can we ever hope to secure the reins of power again if we cannot give a clear and robust defence of what we did when we were last in government?
For all the problems of the Iraq War, we would never have got a minimum wage and record investment in our public services had it not been for Tony Blair’s achievement in getting Labour into government. He did this by challenging the party to reach out to areas of the country that had previously been written off as no-go areas.
The peace process in Northern Ireland, the Human Rights Act and a Britain more confident in the world are all legacies of Labour. We must shout from the roof tops about the difference a Labour government could make come 2020, pointing to the radical changes we made when last held the levers of power.
The Labour party now stands at a crossroads, and the reality is that we will only get back into government by taking on and defeating the Conservatives in those marginal seats we should have won – seats like Nuneaton, Lincoln, Broxtowe and Hastings.
Let ‘s not forget that even if the party had kept its seats in Scotland, it would still be in opposition.
As a party we need to stop navel-gazing and reach out across the whole country, engaging with all those voters in marginal seats who could not bring themselves to put a cross next to their Labour candidate.
The blunt truth is that it is only by persuading voters as a whole that Labour is credible will we get back into power; not by persuading ourselves.
And for those in any doubt, have a look at this weekend’s polling by YouGov for the Sunday Times. Forty per cent of voters said the next Labour leader needs to position the party firmly in the centre ground of British politics, with just 21 per cent saying they should take it to the left.
In an interview with the Economist prior to the recent election, Tony Blair observed that May’s election was shaping up to be one ‘in which a traditional left-wing party competes with a traditional right-wing party, with the traditional result’.
He was right then and he is right now. Whatever people think of Blair, the fact remains that he won three resounding victories, one of only two Labour leaders since 1974 to have won elections for the party.
If opposition is what the party ,then, let’s pick up where we left off.
But if power, and the ability to actually change things, is what we want then we need to be challenged, we need to be modernised and we need to be reformed into a pro-aspiration party. We need to be a party that talks to the whole country and not to odd sections of it.
Ed Jacobs is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
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31 Responses to “Comment: Labour can only win from the centre”
SimonB
Time to rebrand to Centre Foot Forward? What does that mean? Surely Labour needs to stand for something? Blair was elected because people were sick of the Tories. By all means consider the impact on middle classes but dont take your core supporters for granted or they will fall into the arms of UKIP as many did in the North especially. An ideology is required for people to make sense of Labour, not a random kitbag of policies conjured up in opinion polls. There’s never been a more important time to know where the Labour Party came from to help orientate where it is going.
GTE
So own up to how much the welfare state is in debt?
Just one number you will never admit too.
As such you will not be elected.
Torybushhug
‘As a party we need to stop navel-gazing and reach out across the whole country, engaging with all those voters in marginal seats’
The left tends to talk in the abstract as the above passage demonstrates, and both Blair and Brown went on weeks of ‘listening’ charm offensives which us on the right knew were just a pretence at listening.
How will you listen when it comes to massive concern over mass immigration?
I put it to the left that you won’t listen, you will instead as ever hand down correct thinking.
The key problem you have is that you do not understand life at the coal face. To give but one example; You rely on academic papers written by the like of the LSE to determine your immigration world view.
Like WW1 Generals relied on boffins back home when planning for battle, boffins that had no concept of trench reality.
So instead of a genuine insight into the actual effects of mass immigration you rely on dry academia.
Those academics when compiling their ‘benefits of immigration’ surveys wont have interviewed the countless cash in hand migrants out there that work for example as day rate building site workers, or for individuals like you as self employed gardeners and plasters completely beyond the reach of Labours naive ‘gang master’ regulations.
The naive academics will not have interviewed the army that work in fried chicken shops, take aways and hand car washes. Thus when it concludes immigration is a net contributory factor, it relies on only halve a picture of reality.
The public are more wiley though and first hand experience the reality of mass immigration.
WHEN YOU SAY YOU NARE WIILING TO LISTEN, I THINK YOU ARE KIDDING YOURSELVES. YOU WILL STILL GO BACK TO RELYING ON ACADEMIA FOR YOUR WOLRD VIEW.
You will still spout on about enrichment and fool yourselves into thinking you can build enough homes to soak up demand (more new shiny resources such as homes would simply attract even more migration so you never solve a thing|).
Are you truly ready to listen?
stevep
The centre of what, The mire? because any move to the right will leave us there, up to our necks and sinking.
Scotland would never vote Labour again and increasing amounts of post-industrial constituencies where Labour used to be a shoe-in are beginning to lose patience that a Labour government that will represent their interests will ever exist again.
No, we need to reclaim the higher ground of standing for a fair, decent and democratic society, create a radical manifesto to achieve this and use the power of the internet to bypass the mainstream media and kickstart a modern social movement dedicated to people power.
Let the tories have their hate,greed and division. We`ll have fairness, decency and democracy on our side.
Torybushhug
‘we need to reclaim the higher ground of standing for a fair, decent and democratic society’
The left is never fair, it always rewards those that do all the wrong things be they retired or of working age. The left always rewards those that fail to take personal responsibility.
The left starts out in the belief we now have 3 times more sick people than in 1975. On the right we are much more prone to being sceptical of such nonsense.
The left asserts within us all a strong sense of rights but a weak sense of personal responsibility, one where malcontent disruptive workers are rewarded compensation, and baby producers are rewarded with ever more money.
Always the wrong people are rewarded, whilst the decent people that struggle to set aside a little money are penalised.
Instead of telling fat people they eat too much, instead the left excuses them with new fangled memes such as asserting these victims live in food deserts (whilst poor immigrants in the same locale manage to find fresh food on a budget).
Mass welfare dependency is not progressive, it entrenches hopelessness and dims horizons, especially where children are growing up in long term workless households.
The left has no 360 vision of fairness in a modern age.