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Magazine
CAMBRIDGE LETTER
Troubling disconnect
BY BILL KIRKMAN
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The “New Labour” is increasingly being perceived as having lost touch with the people it has traditionally served.
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Photo: AFP
Changing fortunes: The Conservative Party’s Boris Johnson (right) with former mayor Ken Livingstone.
Since the local government elections at the beginning of May, the political mood in the U.K. has been feverish. Labour lost over 330 local council seats, and found itself in third place in share of the vote, below the Liberal Democrats.
There has been questioning of the leadership of the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. Speculation about his future has been rife. Many backbench Labour Members of Parliament, worried about their seats in the next general election, are openly critical of him.
Not only were the local government results in general bad for the Labour Party. In London, in the election for the Mayor, the defeat of the Labour Ken Livingstone after two terms of office, by the Conservative Boris Johnson, highlighted the extent of Labour’s fall from grace. Both candidates are colourful, and controversial, figures. The London campaign, therefore, had a high profile and inevitably was seen as a test of support for the Brown government. A parliamentary by-election due on May 22, made necessary by the death of a strong and popular Labour member, Gwyneth Dunwoody, is now the focus of anxiety on the government’s part.
Time for change?
After more than 10 years in power, any government is likely to face an electorate looking for change. This was certainly true of the Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher and then, after her removal, by John Major.
Underlying much of the criticism of the present government is a feeling that it has ignored many of the values which Labour has traditionally stood for. In a sense that comes as no surprise; the party which Tony Blair led to victory was — is — “New Labour”. Old Labour was seen, with some justification, as unelectable.
One problem facing the government now is that the effect on the U.K. of global economic problems is to make “old Labour” values more attractive, or at least more comforting. Two disparate examples illustrate this. One is the decision (taken last year by Gordon Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer) to abolish the lowest rate of taxation — the “ten pence rate”. It was a simplification of the tax system, but what was not properly foreseen was that it would make the financial position of some of the poorest citizens worse. There has been an undertaking to remedy that, but the original decision suggested to many, however unfairly, that Labour has lost touch with the people whom it has traditionally served and represented.
The second example is the closing of many local post offices, particularly in small rural communities. The decision is commercial; Royal Mail is now a business. That, however, is not how many citizens see it. For them, the local post office provides a crucial service to communities where frequently many other services have disappeared. For people with such concerns, the commercial argument simply does not wash. Closing of post offices is seen as another example of a government out of touch with those it is supposed to serve.
In the news again
Against this background, it is small wonder that the issue of independence for Scotland is once again in the news. Earlier this year (“Cambridge Letter”, January27) I suggested that the movement for Scottish independence was likely to grow, and it has made headlines in the past few days because of a — surprising — challenge by Wendy Alexander, the Labour leader in the Scottish Assembly, to the minority Scottish Nationalist administration to bring forward their plans for an independence referendum. The challenge was rejected by the Scottish Nationalists, but it was a clear embarrassment for Gordon Brown, who immediately spoke passionately about the importance of the constitutional link between England and Scotland.
It is probably no more than a storm in the proverbial teacup, but Gordon Brown in recent weeks has faced more storms in more teacups than he would wish for.
He may possibly take comfort from an Act of Parliament which became law last October — the Sustainable Communities Act. It has not so far caught the popular imagination, but its effect is intended to change the relationships in British politics. The Act is analysed in the current issue of Citizen, the magazine of Unlock Democracy, the U.K.’s leading campaign for democratic reform. The analysis describes how it is designed to shift the balance of power from the centre to citizens in their local communities.
If this shift begins to become apparent, confidence in what government stands for may return. Whether that is in time to save Gordon Brown’s government, of course, remains to be seen.
Bill Kirkman is an Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College ,Cambridge, U.K. Email him at: bill.kirkman@gmail.com
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