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What a contrast with the last time we met at Christmas 1997. We`d just won the election. Labour was in power at last. Laurie Quinn was MP – and what a marvellous, hardworking MP he was. What a tragedy he lost the seat.
The revolution seemed to have begun. Today it`s different. We`ve done a lot – improving public services – far more doctors, nurses and teachers. We`re all better off. But we`ve been too slow, too cautious, too frightened to do as much as we should have.Now we`re stalled. Tony has let our party down. The sale of peerages scandal, Iraq (which really lost Laurie and others their seats), the debts he`s leaving. We`re become a party of administrators and boring for Britain, not driving for change. We`ve lost our way. People are tired of us. The media have turned against us. Grievances have accumulated. We`re waiting for Gordo.
We don`t have a Barak Obama. Or even another Blair. But we do have Gordon: a serious and impressive figure. Yet the change of leadership has also to be a change of direction, a new sense of purpose, a programme to build on the foundations we`ve laid.
For Gordon to endorse every part of the Blair agenda is daft. Assume the mantle of Blair and you take on its odours and its odium. You frustrate the nation`s desire for change. They don`t want more of the same. To carry on as if nothing had happened is to embark on a three year diminuendo towards a hung Parliament.
The nation wants a new man. We want a new party. Our people want new policies: the kind of programme which will appeal to the Labour part of the Labour Party
• Higher taxation for those who`ve grown fat and rich and are well able to pay. Higher taxes for those earning over £100,000. A luxury rate of VAT. More borrowing to keep up the improvement.
• Public spending needs now to move on to Transport, Housing and Local Government, all of which we`ve neglected.
• No big spending projects like Polaris replacement or ID Cards.
• Stop being a US puppet. It`s time to pull out of Iraq, even the unwinnable war in Afghanistan. Be British. Be ourselves not Robin to Bush`s Batman, or Uriah to Europe`s Heap.
• Above all listen to Labour. To us. We are the people of Labour who have not spoken yet. Not New Labour. Not Old Left-Overs. Just footsoldiers led into alien territory but who think it`s time to resume the forward march of Labour.
We`ve a long way to go. But to lose power is to halt the march altogether and see our project for the fairer society reversed. Go on to a world where the people aren`t cramped by poverty and struggle, the poor aren`t oppressed and the life choices of those we represent are evened up. Britain is still a mean, under-achieving place. Its public services are mean, life is hard, and our people poor. Changing all that needs ten more years at least. It`s time to move on.
The end of Blairism isn`t the end of us. We have a socialist vision which we`re only just beginning to shape. So let`s go. With Gordon. If he listens and embarks on the party`s project rather than Tony`s.
Its tough at the top. Labour`s sadness is to have no-one there who`s lovable, endearing, human. Clare Short, Mo Mowlem killed off. Ever awkward Robin Cook and honest Estelle, all gone. Along with the only total *****, Mandy. |
