Beyond Brown and Blair

15 May 2010

Labour has to reinvent itself to fight the next general election, says Phil Collins. The leadership contenders must look to the party’s radical roots

There is a halfway intriguing contest hidden in there, even if it may not look like it. But it’s likely to produce a candidate with a mandate to look back in comfort. The best way to ensure a serious argument, out of which a serious leader emerges with a viable prospectus, is to cut the party up another way. The choice for the Labour party is between Alan Milburn’s anger that the council chose the colour of his door and Ed Balls’s centrally issued guidelines for rhubarb crumble.

There is a radical tradition in the Labour party which, in Bevan’s famous formulation, seeks power in order to give it away. The advocates of People Power think it both outrageous and characteristic of government that it might tell you that you can have any colour door as long as it’s blue. The State Power faction believe, as a first resort, that government is the answer. Their faith in the central state ends in the attempt to micro-manage the nation.

G.D.H. Cole once said that the Labour party was a battle between the federalisers and the centralisers. There are right-wing federalisers (Marquand) and right-wing centralisers (Hattersley). There are left-wing federalisers (later Benn) and left-wing centralisers (Campaign Group). There are people who are both at once (Crosland) and people who travel from one to the other (Blair).

This argument would turn out a leader with a mandate to extend popular power. It would avoid an arcane fight about minor doctrinal points that will be incomprehensible to the rest of the nation. It might forge a new and arresting coalition within the party. And it might mean they are ready in the event that the new government struggles with the appalling legacy that the Labour party has been cunning enough to leave behind.

Phil Collins is a former speechwriter for Tony Blair.

Previous page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

More articles from: Phil Collins | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (2)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

Frank Leader

May 13th, 2010 10:09am Report this comment

I hope that this is the last we will see of Labour for the rest of this century.

C Cole

May 14th, 2010 3:36pm Report this comment

Remember all those years ago when the 'real' Phil Collins was derided for saying he'd leave the country if New Labour got in? He knew what he was on about, didn't he.

Post comment