There’s never been a better time to join Labour

10 June 2009

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The big story of the European elections was the failure of the Lib Dems, says Ross Clark. Aspiring young politicians should sign up to Labour now with a view to running the country

But it is in conditions such as these that political careers are made. Just look at Tony Blair and David Cameron. Both entered parliament when their parties were at their lowest ebb. Both took advantage of talent shortages on their parties’ respective front benches, and both benefited from being untainted by association with the previous, failed regime. Both then were able to position themselves as modernisers driven by a mission to overcome the palaeolithic elements within their own parties. More importantly still, both found that their rise through the ranks of the opposition coincided with the decline of tired governments.

There is a pattern creeping into British politics which I think will take some shifting: party number one wins election and for eight years can more or less do what it pleases. Then complacency creeps in. It wins its third election, although the electorate shows less enthusiasm. Hubris sets in, and the public begin to desert. By the time of the next or next-but-one election, the voters are like the killers in Murder on the Orient Express: they all have different reasons, but are united in wanting to plunge in the knife. In defeat, the party goes off the rails, then takes three or four elections to work its way back to power. Only when it is led by a team wholly unassociated with the last regime is it able to overhaul a collapsing government led by party number two.

If you are under 30, you can string together a decent argument and you have the ability to temper your ego with a few years of stuffing envelopes and making speeches to dusty working men’s clubs, it could be you who sneaks to power when an exhausted Cameron/Osborne/Boris regime collapses in a decade or so’s time. Don’t worry if you are not ideologically attracted to Labour: was Tony Blair ever that? You may have to sign up for and defend a pretty nutty Labour manifesto in the 2016 general election — the one in which you get elected as an MP — but your party will reach its nadir. After that, however, you can gradually shift towards the centre. Meanwhile, start to court editors of conservative newspapers. One of Tony Blair’s secrets of success was to accept invitations to dine at the Daily Mail when other Labour MPs considered such company to be beyond the pale. David Cameron accepted an invitation by the Guardian to pen a diary during the 2001 election. By doing so, you will build hugely important contacts for when you will have to present yourself as the acceptable face of the new Labourism.

In a memorable passage from one of his early conference speeches, Blair declined to write off Conservative chances, using words to the effect that the Tory beast was sleeping, and that it would be back. He then contemptuously dismissed the Lib Dems as no threat at all. At the time there was a widespread belief that the Lib Dems might supplant the Conservatives as Her Majesty’s Opposition, but Blair was right: he knew they had already blown it.

They have done so again, only this time in their narrow window of opportunity to supplant Labour. The Balls and Miliband generation is finished, but somewhere out there, clutching or soon to be clutching a £1 membership card, is the architect of the next Labour landslide.

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Daragh Nugent

June 11th, 2009 12:56pm Report this comment

Court editors of newspapers, conservative or otherwise?
Will there be any left in 2016?

Richard Manns

June 11th, 2009 5:55pm Report this comment

I have to say that, given that your new "parliamentary cycle" prediction has yet to complete one revolution, and little in parliamentary history suggests a stable long-term pattern, your ideas seem to be on shaky ground!

Carol-Ann

June 11th, 2009 10:49pm Report this comment

I think the Blair quote you were looking for was:

"Never underestimate the Conservatives and never overestimate the Liberal Democrats"

He was right then and it still holds true now!

Johnny

June 11th, 2009 10:50pm Report this comment

Reading this article I came across more proof, if any were needed, that Blair was really a Tory.

Mark Adrian Solomon

June 12th, 2009 11:48pm Report this comment

The Liberal Democrats failed as ever to capitalise on disillusion on the Labour right because over the Blair years the LibDems have worked their way over to the left of the Labour party on policy issues so won't get any 'right-wing' Labour voters. And for those on the Left, the Labour brand has image and loyalty, and they remember it was not so long ago the LibDems were trying to convince everyone they were going to replace the Conservative party.

Basically since 1918 the Liberals have no further relevance to British political life except as a repository for protest votes and those pathologically against ever being on a winning team. There are only two ways to organise society in the modern world, the only thing to argue about is the balance and how far down the road one goes in any one direction. A party without a grounding ideology, like the LibDems, can NEVER have any relevance.

Also, their people tend to be too serious, holier than thou goody two shoes, too keen to censure others, and with a narrower class basis than either the Tories or Labour - never an attractive election-winning combination!

Richard

June 13th, 2009 11:44am Report this comment

The BNP is not far-right. It is left-wing.

They have no right-wing policies, they are all about nationalisation, workers, protectionism, statism. These are left-wing policies. Their racism is nothing to do with the right. There is as much racism ont he left as the right, if not more.

john problem

June 25th, 2009 6:56pm Report this comment

I dunno. Is there good money in it or is there better in being a banker or working at the BBC? I tell you, I've got my degree in PPE, my year at Harvud, done my gap year at MacDonalds and I still haven't decided. No, I think it will be the City - no controls even after the economic drought, whereas the MPs are cutting back (OK, only a bit, but...) and the BBC will get hammered by the public and the media. Could try the Euro Parliament, of course. That won't get changed by public opinion and the money's better. Still, it's abroad, isn't it, and I'd rather be in a Georgian box with a zillion acres, the Opera and the Ivy, and the good old British public that never demonstrates in the streets except for killing foxes. All round, it's safer.

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