Time up for New Labour

Elaine Smith MSP

‘EVENTS DEAR BOY! EVENTS!’

THUS SPOKE HAROLD MACMILLAN (ALLEGEDLY!) WHEN ASKED BY A YOUNG JOURNALIST ABOUT WHAT CAN MOST EASILY STEER A GOVERNMENT OFF COURSE.

During the first week of September, as the Scottish Parliament returned from summer recess, our illustrious leader Tony Blair must have pondered along similar lines. Or, indeed, he may have recalled Harold Wilson’s words that a week is a long time in politics. Of course, none of the events should have come as any real surprise to him since he effectively set the course for this instability and speculation himself by bizarrely telling the media two years ago that he would not lead the Party into the next Westminster election.

The timetable for Blair’s departure has not yet been made clear but what is clear is that New Labour’s time is up. Recent examples of its waning power can be seen in votes lost at Westminster and the actions of previously ‘loyal’ Blairites now calling for ‘Teflon Tony’ to go. It’s refreshing for the Labour Left to no longer be ‘the usual suspects’ in calling for Blair’s departure. It is, however, somewhat nauseating that people who got their payroll positions by Blair’s patronage and by their sycophantic spouting of New Labour’s dogma are now deserting the sinking ship in their droves.

It would certainly be better in Scotland if Blair would go before our elections next year having stirred up such uncertainty. Between them, Tony’s erstwhile friends and the adversaries of Gordon Brown who now want an ‘anyone but Gordon’ candidate have managed to bring the Party into disrepute with their antics. It’s time it all stopped and we had an election for Leader so that the Party can begin the process of revitalising through debate and discussion of policies rather than personalities.

Dialogue and debate about Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan; continued privatisation of our public services; the erosion of state education, housing and the creeping marketisation of the NHS; along with pensions; student fees; and re-nationalising bus and rail would help re-engage the electorate and reinvigorate the Party. Indeed, for any potential leader such discourse should be welcomed and competition encouraged as a means to bolster legitimacy. A so-called ‘smooth handover’ of the leadership of a party whose membership has fallen by over 50% since 1997 cannot be satisfactory for anyone aspiring to lead.

It is also becoming somewhat exasperating to hear acolyte after acolyte telling us all that Tony Blair is Labour’s most successful Prime Minister ever. Longevity is no substitute for gravitas; nor is quantity for quality. Blair may have hung onto his position as leader since 1994 but he has presided over the collapse in party membership (407,000 in 1994; 180,000 in 2006); huge financial debts; and privatisation policies that are alien to whole ethos of the labour and trade union movement.

Many elected members are still representing their seats despite Blair not because of him; many, of course, have lost their seats over recent years and the rest know that the writing is on the wall for them in the near future. The only thing that can turn this around is a change of leader and a change of direction away from an agenda that promotes the interests of private profiteers and toward one that redistributes wealth and power to the people.

The tragedy of New Labour lies in the lost opportunities to build a better world around a socialist agenda when we had a clear mandate in 1997 to do so. The other myth is that Blair won that election for Labour when in fact the vote was against the Tories and the tide had turned under John Smith.

After Neil Kinnock resigned as party leader in 1992, Labour’s support in the polls a month after John Smith became leader was – Gallup 39.5%, ICM- 34% & MORI – 38.5%. By June 1994, polls showed the following support – Gallup – 50.5%, ICM- 48%, MORI 51.5%. Due to the sad and sudden death of John Smith in 1994, Blair was elected leader. Just before the election in April 1997, the polls were – Gallup 50.5%, ICM – 48% & MORI – 50.5% thus showing that the big breakthrough for Labour actually came when John Smith was Leader. Indeed, came when John Smith was telling the workers that a Labour Government would bring job security for every worker from day one and would have full employment as the prime goal. The actual vote in ‘97 was 43.2% for Labour amounting to half a million less votes than Major polled in the ‘92 election. Turn-out was the lowest since 1935. The share of the vote was lower than Attlee’s in 45, or Wilson’s in 64 and 66. However, New Labour did what they are good at and spun the result to make it look as if the only viable alternative to right wing Tory policies was right wing New Labour.

A leadership contest is vital for the good of the Party and the country. Gordon Brown, one of the original architects of the project, is sounding more New Labour by the day and only recently was boasting that he had promoted PFI and definitely would not be rescinding it. How the trade unions could possibly support a candidate for leadership who takes such an evangelical position to the marketisation of public services is a mystery; of course it’s possible that they won’t unless he backtracks. It is also likely to be crucial for the sake of a united and reinvigorated party that, should Gordon Brown become Leader, he is prepared to compromise on New Labour’s privatisation agenda. Scottish Labour’s Campaign for Socialism has been arguing for some time that the Party must take the opportunity for a real debate about future policy and direction. We are heartened that John McDonnell, in order to ensure party members a choice over the future direction of the party and the movement, has declared his intentions as a leadership candidate. The opportunity to discuss real politics in our party, and the country, is long overdue and John’s campaign is therefore crucial. It is refreshing to at last have someone who wants to debate on policy not personality and whose campaign is based on a return to real Labour values that benefit working people.

The meetings so far have been packed and we can look forward to some lively political discussion as the campaign comes to Scotland in the near future. Another world is indeed possible; it simply depends on ordinary party members and trade unionists believing in it and grasping the opportunity to have a government every bit as radical and successful as that led by Clement Attlee.