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Ed Miliband is on a mission to save politics – no pressure…

October 9, 2012 3:07 pm

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Once Tory Conference is over and done with, Ed Miliband will embark on a series of events around the country designed to explain his “One Nation” vision outside of the cynical and claustrophobic world of Westminster. He’ll be trying to explain how Labour is the party for the whole country, but is different from either “old” Labour or “New” Labour. That’s a big enough task on its own.

Of course what Miliband may find when he heads out across the country is exactly what his fictional counterpart Nicola Murray faced in The Thick Of It – travelling around the country being told how much people hate you in a variety of different regional accents. The reputation of politics is in the toilet. Politicians are immediately distrusted. Anyone who tries to turn this around is on a fools errand. Fortunately Miliband realises this is an issue.

So he’s decided he wants to fix it.

First he said he wanted to changed the media. Then he wanted to make capitalism “responsible”. Now he wants to make politics relevant to people’s lives again, and prove that there is a point to it. You can’t fault the ambition of the guy can you?

Much of what Labour is trying to do at the moment – at least from a leadership level – needs to be seen through the prism of “the crisis of politics”. General Secretary Iain McNicol told Labour conference last week that “The political crisis we face is as big as the financial crisis”. And he’s right. Turnout has plummeted over the last twenty years, politics is seen as the actions of the self-interested, for the self-interested by the self-interest, and the incentive for the vast majority to get involved – even in the most tangental way – has diminished. Low turnouts are not only bad for politics of course, they’re bad for Labour too.

The marginalised and the poor are less likely to vote than those who wish to preserve their place in the system.

So can Ed Miliband save politics on his own? Almost certainly not. Even Ed would probably acknowledge that he is an exemplar of the political class in which he has spent much of his life. But it is to his credit that he is going to try. I’ve always believed that the only party capable of cutting through the cynicism around politics and making people sit up and take notice again was the Labour Party. The problem is it will probably take the whole party – all of us – to turn this around. By having conversations in our communities, by engaging with those around us, and by slowly but surely rehabiliting politics as a noble cause, rather than a venal one.

And we’ve got less than three years to get that right.

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  • AlanGiles

    “He’ll be trying to explain how Labour is the party for the whole country, but is different from either “old” Labour or “New” Labour. ”

    He will have a hell of a lot of explaining away many of those who sit in the Shadow Cabinet and are the epitome of New Labour. Old Labour isn’t really represented at all these days, of course, in shadow cabinet or out,  but there are many waxworks of the Blair/Brown years still making far too much noise. Not least Big Brother, who, I am sure, is watching him….

  • Chilbaldi

    Save politics? In my opinion politics needs to be saved from the following:

    - managerialism
    - wonk language
    - economics jargon
    - the same faces – SPADS, families of prominent Labour figures, tiresome bores who have attended party meetings for years, 12 year olds who are ’big’ on twitter - sitting as MPs and being adopted as candidates

    Is Ed Miliband the man to save us from these things? He embodies most of them.

    Let’s get real – Ed’s job is to save us from a Tory government. Beyond that there are bigger problems in politics that he wont fix.

    • williamtheconker

      AND the juveniles who have no experience of real life.

      Where are, for example, people like Denis Healey who was not only an intellectual, a war hero, and a decent man with ‘a hinterland’?

      I don’t see them anywhere.

      Why is a former miner now the TORY Secretary of State for Health – and doesn’t that shame Labour???

    • MrSauce

      Yes he does embody most of why Labour was rejected at the last election.
      But by talking about himself for an hour and repeating a meaningless platitude 46 times he has shown he is the man to put this right.
      Oh, hang on…

      • http://twitter.com/waterwards dave stone

        “Yes he does embody most of why Labour was rejected at the last election.”

        I’d say that Ed is developing a position similar to that of Blair pre-1997, the period that led to the 1997 landslide. Most importantly, during this period, Blair promised a stakeholder economy – of course, Blair didn’t follow through and abandoned much of the pre-government radicalism, leading eventually to the loss of 5 million votes during the New Labour governmental era.

        There is, however, a significant difference between Blair and Ed, as William Keegan observed in his column last week*: Ed seems to mean what he says.

        *http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/oct/07/labour-miliband-one-nation-conference

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

          Ed’s politics are very clearly in the mainstream of Labour in a way that Blair’s never were. Ed is not ill at ease with the party. Look at the way he did the Q&A sessions at Conference. He doesn’t feel the need to position himself against his party as did Blair

  • John_Slinger

    One way of improving, if not ‘saving’ politics is improving the way parties debate policy and generate new policy. At Pragmatic Radicalism (www.pragmaticradicalism) we’ve been pioneering Top of the Polices events. Our next one is on 17 Oct, at 6.30pm, in the Barley Mow pub in Westminster. The subject is Industrial Policy and it’s chaired by the relevant Shadow Minister, Iain Wright MP.

    More details here http://pragmaticradicalism.co.uk/top-of-the-policies-on-industrial-policy-chaired-by-iain-wright-mp-17-october-barley-mow-westminster

    We launched our second pamphlet – Top Policies: Labour Policy as Democracy – at our Labour Conference fringe meeting (http://pragmaticradicalism.co.uk/top-of-the-policies-fringe-event-at-lab12-1-oct-6-00pm) in Manchester last Monday. It brings together the 160 ideas presented by party members and supporters throughout the year at our 8 TOTP events, and features an introduction by Jon Cruddas, Co-ordinator of Labour’s Policy Review. To view the pamphlet see http://pragmaticradicalism.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Pragmatic-Radicalism-Pamphlet-2.pdf
    …and to order your copy see http://pragmaticradicalism.co.uk/pragmatic-radicalism-pamphlet-2-top-policies

  • LembitOpiksLovechild

    The reason why politicians are held in such low esteem is that the general public have seen through the smoke and mirrors. Every government for the last twenty five years have gone through the same cycle.

    1. Promise the earth to get elected. The message changes depending upon the party involved but usually breaks down into Saving the NHS/reducing NHS waste, Standing up to Europe/Working within Europe to make them see things our way etc. Whatever rubbish they think the electorate will swallow.

    2. Get elected and then go run into thefantastic roadblock of vested interests, civil service inertia, lack of money and the fact that most major opportunities are proscribed by European level rules.

    3. Blame the previous government for  leaving you in an impossible position.

    4. Say that whilst they did promise to do certain specific things when campaigning, such as EU referenda, British jobs for British workers etc, the time isn’t right now as the situation is to fluid. However, rest assured that if we just trust them then everything will be fine.

    4a. It wasn’t really a promise, it was a manifesto pledge and they’re not really promises, more of a guideline. (Accompanied by sickly grin of fake contrition)

    5. Muddle through, becoming even more riven by splits, bad decisons etc. Become a laughing stock, a total joke. (Stunning how fast the coalition have reached this phase in 2 years)

    6. Stand for re-election, get booted out, shoot the leader.

    7 Elect a new leader but keep most of the faces the same. Start again.

    8. Promise that this time it will be different. No, really, It will.

    Until the electorate stop getting lied to then we’ll carry on regarding you as a bunch of lying b*stards. You’re hearts might be in the right place but you’re still lying.  Tell the truth for a change. If you do and stick to your promises after awhile the results might surprise you.

    I’ve seen nothing in the last 25 years in politics that suggests that any politician can even be trusted to sit the right way on a lavatory seat.
     

  • Dave Postles

    ‘The marginalised and the poor are less likely to vote than those who wish to preserve their place in the system.’

    What will he say to them to convince them to vote and to vote for Labour?  Vote for us because we are the least evil and we’ll penalize you the least? 

  • uglyfatbloke

    A a member of the wealthy and privileged political class, Ed is hardly likely to do anything to change the system is he? He’s dead set against democratic reform, dislikes personal liberty and he’ll never take up a cause against the will of the Daily Mail. 

  • http://twitter.com/DRC1649 David Costa

    The knee-jerk cynicism of some Labour List readers is astonishing. It’s a long-standing axiom of the left that depoliticisation and alienation from the political process are necessary preconditions for the rise of the hard right. Anyone watching the progress of Golden Dawn in Greece can see that lesson being played out again for all of Europe to see. If socialists cannot offer people a credible view of a tolerable future for themselves and their families, the hard right will come in with its vile solutions. Whether people like Ed Miliband or not, it’s important to recognise the stakes we are playing for and the seriousness of the challenge facing us. It’s to Ed’s credit that he does.

    I don’t necessarily agree with all of the prescriptions of the community politics enthusiasts. I think it’s more important to use voter i/d as a means of getting as many party members out on as many doorsteps as possible than to have a small minority engaging in high quality dialogue with a small percentage of the population. Campaigning on local issues will never be as big a reason for supporting us as a concrete national forward offer especially on jobs (though it may make a crucial difference in some marginals). Good local councillors have always practiced community politics and don’t need to be taught to adopt American approaches and phraseology in a mechanistic way. But I don’t doubt the importance of the questions that approach is trying to answer. Those on the left who feel unable to get behind Ed have a duty to explain how they will provide the disaffected and disillusioned with a compelling alternative answer to the crisis and keep them from drifting into the arms of the BNP or UKIP.

  • http://twitter.com/Ceilidhann Kayleigh Anne

    Really can’t fault his ambition or the sheer guts of this, but Ed works best when he’s bold and himself, so I have hope. It could also be a fantastic opportunity to encourage CLPs to become further involved with their individual areas to prove politics can make a difference. I realise how hopelessly naive I sound! But given how big a step forward for Ed that One Nation speech was in terms of connecting with the public on human terms, this feels like the natural next step. He works way better on this front than Cameron does with his so-called listening exercises. 

    • Bushflyer

      We have a banana republic government laying the foundations for the banana republic state.  All they need is the apathy of the masses at the next election.  We have “cabinets”  in local government, another term for party caucus, we will soon have political heads of police, most elected by apathy.  Unemployment and mass poverty are their most effective weapon.  

  • Daniel Speight

    Ed Miliband wants the public to like politics and politicians again. The problem he has is that he is such a good example of what the public dislikes, the political ‘class’.

    Of course we know that it isn’t really a class as such. The individual politicians have a class background which may or may not be connected with the job they are now doing. But the idea of the progress from school (often public), Oxbridge, SPAD or London NGO, and then MP doesn’t seem to sit too well with public opinion. Still all kudos to Ed for taking it on.

    He knows the problem. During the conference Q&A when the young man in the hard hat asked about working class representation among parliamentary candidates, Ed applauded him. Some of us have been saying this for a far longer time than Ed’s more recent conversion, but better late than never.

    *Note to the organizers – do many people go to conference wearing a hard hat? I hope we are not going to discover that this particular member is really a PPE student at Oxford. So although the American gurus tell you it’s impossible to underestimate the intelligence of the public, to many it would have looked rather staged and they may be the most likely voters. Your cleverness may come back and bite you in the bum boys and girls.

    So back to Ed. Yes he applauded the call for more working class representation, but how is he going to push this through. The NEC feels that all-women shortlists are a good thing,so may be this should be the model to use. The problem they will face is that the very people it would hurt, the future MP but present apparatchiks, are those whose, with leadership sponsorship, own power has increased so much in the New Labour years. What we are asking is for turkeys to vote for Christmas. (Another cliche I know, but I’m enjoying them.)

    So the question Ed has to answer is how to drive the SPADs and apparatchiks back into the dark and grotty offices until they get bored and go find a real job for a few years at least. Let’s make an example of Will Straw. No seat for Will until 2020 and he has to spend at least a couple of years working in Tesco.

    • http://twitter.com/waterwards dave stone

      “No seat for Will until 2020 and he has to spend at least a couple of years working in Tesco.”

      An excellent proposal. Nothing develops opinion like experience and Will has already indicated a readiness to amend opinion by his recent volte-face regarding drug legalisation (he is now opposed).

      So imagine how much benefit he might derive from a few years on a supermarket check-out: constantly inquiring as to the possession of loyalty cards, making eye contact with every customer, smiling at least once during every transaction and saying thank you at least once, aware that failure to do so might cause him to be named and shamed if detected when the company mystery customer is present.

      Oh yes, a dose of reality will do the entitlement brigade a whole lot of good.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

      It really isn’t a recent conversion with Ed. I know that during the leadership campaign he had conversations with Steve Rotheram MP, one of the few working class MP’s in the 2010 intake, and told Steve that the PLP needed more people like him and less like Ed himself. He is aware of the problem.

      I hope that the union initiative will help with this

  • AlanGiles

    This is the sort of thing that really sickens the public:

    http://www.metro.co.uk/news/914568-david-cameron-to-tell-conservative-party-conference-im-a-simple-man

    Totally risible, but in this age of artificiality it will be cheered by the audience and probably even believed by those who believe the sob-stories of reality TV and amateur talent contests.

  • AlanGiles

    Of course, regardless of party or leader, one of the reasons for resentment of politicians is because they consider themselves to be – and in effect are  – treated – as different to everyone else, totally immune from consequences of their actions.

    Don’t believe me?. well, lets try a few experiments:

    Before you go to work today, take a sherry or two before lunch and then wallop some of your workmates. When you get hauled up by the boss just apologise, say you have problems at home, that you admit you have behaved disgustingly and you will resign – but not until May 2015.

    Let us know how you get on….

    Or, if you live and/or work in Luton or Southampton, behave in a thoroughly dishonest way, and when the CPS bring a case against you, get your defence council to nudge and wink to the CPS that if they dare to prosecute you, you will commit suicide.

    Finally if you are 80 years of age, and despite terrible unemployment amongst the young and younger, “borrow” £8000 from petty cash and go out and buy yourself a top of the range TV set. When the boss has a word with you about it, just hold your hands up and say, “the only reason I did it was because of this Obsessive Compulsive Disorder I am cruelly afflicted with – it wasn’t me, gov”.

     Will it be a salary cheque for at least three more years, or a visit to the Post Office to collect the Old Age Pension from next week?

    Or you could try submitting receipts for items or services you didn’t actually buy or use, and see how understanding your employer is when you get found out.

    If any of you actually DO any of these things, and find your employer is not very understanding – well don’t blame me!

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