New Labour- rebuilding the coalition
3: Drifting apart from the voters
As Labour MPs we share pride in those achievements. But what Labour MPs think of Labour’s record is less important than the judgement that the public is making. And here there is no doubt that Labour’s relationship is seriously strained. The number of people voting for us in General Elections has fallen sharply. Recent by-elections and local elections have shown that all parts of our electoral base are under pressure. Recent opinion polls also confirm the sharp fall in party support. And although efforts are being made to highlight our policy differences with the Tories, we have to confront the possibility that key groups of voters are simply deciding not to vote for us again even if they have not yet entirely decided how or whether to vote.
There are many signs of this changing political landscape. We can see it in the widespread rejection of the Government’s view of the crises in the Middle East, and of the complex links between western foreign policy and the rise of British born terrorism. We can hear it when voters tell us that their measures of what makes a good public service are not necessarily the same as the targets the government has set and achieved. We show it when issues like Eastern European migration become a talking point in every community but for months Government apparently has nothing to say.
After nine years it has become hard to see the country with fresh eyes. We inevitably want to justify what we’ve done, rather than accept what has actually happened. Pride at reduced waiting lists can blind us to worries about social care, mental health or other parts of the NHS that have not been given such a high priority.
At the same time power has become so centralised that it is difficult for government at any level to operate as flexibly and effectively as possible. It can lead to poor policy design and slow our response to changing problems. At its worst, in response to the Lebanon, it has allowed a policy that few supported to be imposed on party and country.
We’ve been too nervous about confronting powerful vested business interests when the common good requires it. We’ve lacked confidence in our own distinctive values in public sector reform or tackling social problems so that, when things prove difficult, we’ve retreated too readily to a more conservative consensus. We’ve reached for the crude and simplistic solution to complex international problems. And we have neglected New Labour’s key achievement – an electoral coalition that persuaded people from very different backgrounds that they could do better in a society that looked after them all.
Bit by bit these processes have eroded the sense that Labour understands Britain. Today we are more likely to be told that we are out of touch. People stop believing what we say because they no longer believe we understand their problems.
The overarching problem is that Labour in Government needs a description of Britain and the wider world that rings true with voters. Without it they will be less confident that we share their values.
In the ten years since New Labour’s politics were forged the world has changed considerably, in part because of the things we ourselves have done. The changes bring new problems to be overcome, new issues to debate with the public and new solutions to be identified. It is inevitable that the issues of greatest public concern will change over time. New challenges emerge; others turn out to be more intractable than we thought.