WHAT to make of the national fervour bubbling in the wake of slew of disastrous election results for Labour? The start of moves to oust Gordon Brown, with David Miliband stepping forward as the party’s saviour? The Sunday papers over the past fortnight have certainly made a good read, even if – as health secretary Alan Johnson suggested – reports of gathering plots have been sourced on the fantasies of ‘usual suspects’ holding forth under a fog of anonymity.
The wax of David Cameron’s fortunes and the wane of Gordon Brown’s are starting to evoke parallels with the last political sea-change, in the mid-90s. The anecdotal evidence can be as stark as recent poll results. I was a late-teenage student at the death knell of the Major government and remember well how my peers – on the whole a middle-class bunch – tended to view Conservatism as an anathema. Just think of Harry Enfield’s scathing ‘Tory Boy’ sketch. At university, the political types I knew were more drawn to the Socialist Workers’ Party than William Hague’s party. Today, my friends and acquaintances are obviously older, yet still mostly under 30. And many are quite happy to profess an intention to vote Tory at the next general election – more so than those still piping up for Labour.
That aside, I don’t think all is lost for Labour or Gordon Brown. The received wisdom now seems to be the election won’t be until 2010, when it is hoped the economy will be on a post-credit crunch upturn.
Comment pieces proffering advice to Mr Brown are ten-a-penny. Rotherham MP Denis MacShane’s article in the Telegraph last week attracted interest with its call to slash taxes for the lower paid – a centre-left argument I understand is similar to that being deployed by Nick Clegg’s Lib Dems. But detractors are asking where the money will come from, as budgets creak and gloom gathers in the economy.
More in the established social democratic tradition are these contributions by former deputy leader Lord Roy Hattersley and Sunder Katwala, general secretary of the Fabian Society. The stress is on uniting behind Gordon Brown, evoking a long-term vision imbued with Labour’s historic values and mounting principled attacks on the Opposition.
From a neutral perspective, this strikes me as the best approach for the largest centre-left force in British politics. An attempted coup would be disastrous. What has happened since the autumn has been a sullying of the Labour brand as much as Brown’s leadership. He contributed to that – e.g. over the 10p tax debacle - but should be given the chance to put it right. Knocking the Opposition is a democratic right but must be ethically conducted and grounded in the realities of today’s society. The top hat-fuelled antics in Crewe rebounded spectacularly, it is now accepted. Policy is a different matter. And among some sections of the media, the Conservatives are getting far too easy a ride in terms of scrutiny, just as New Labour did in opposition.
Even if there is a coherent way forward for Labour, as Katwala and Hattersley believe, policy challenges outside its core ground will continue to be thrown up. Take the looming showdown over 42 days detention without charge for terrorist suspects…
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