Labour must reopen the narrative of the political giants

By Joshua Genner

“The Noughties belong lock, stock and broken barrel to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. For better or for worse, these were the political giants who dominated the first decade of this millennium.”

So said The Sun on Friday – and I find myself asking ‘what will be remembered of these giants?’

We will remember Blair’s smile, the excitement of that first win and the Iraq war: good, good, bad? And we will remember Brown’s smile – wait, no, no, scratch that. We will likely remember his unpopularity, his relationship with Blair and the recession: bad, bad, good?

I say that because Brown’s handling of the recession will probably be written on the right side of history; Blair’s war, probably not. Many of you may rightly point out that these things aren’t what we should remember; that, as Gordon put it in his conference speech, Labour’s achievements are many:

“The winter fuel allowance, the shortest waiting times in history, crime down by a third, the creation of SureStart, the cancer guarantee, record results in schools, more students than ever, the Disability Discrimination Act, devolution, civil partnerships, peace in Northern Ireland, the social chapter, half a million children out of poverty, maternity pay, paternity leave, child benefit at record levels, the minimum wage, the ban on cluster bombs, the cancelling of debt, the trebling of aid, the first-ever Climate Change Act.”

But we don’t seem to remember these things, and the public certainly don’t. For years the left has been painting masterpieces in caves, while the right fingerpaints in galleries.

But it’s not too late, we can still mount a proper defence of our record. Everyone needs to know about the great changes made to Britain under Labour. That record can still be the foundation on which we build the next election campaign. Without that foundation everything else we build in the coming months will sink into the media marsh.

This post was also published on Joshua’s Blog, Dead Goose.