80% of the way there? Hardly

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

As a political party, and a movement, can we ever achieve all of our aims? Is it possible to have righted all of the wrongs we see in our society? Is it possible to have solved all of the complex rubik’s cubes of public policy? Does a mythical finishing line beckon somewhere in the not too distant future? No, of course it doesn’t.

Progressive politics, by its very nature, is about continually examining the world around us, identifying what is wrong with our environment, and seeking to fix it. The job of work can never be completed – as each new policy solution throws new potential problems into the ether.

How can it be then, that yesterday Peter Mandelson said Labour had achieved 80% of its aims in government? If this is true then it is both distressing, and part and parcel of why we lost.

A government should never be in a position where it can quantify how much of its programme has been completed, as it should be constantly evolving and expanding to fit he needs of the times. If New Labour achieved 80% of its goals, then their sights were too low – or the parameters were still those of 1997 and had never been properly adjusted. If the party in government was unable to raise its sights to new goals, or move beyond the initial agenda that brought us into power, then it is inevitable, and deserved, that we lost the last election. Unless we can articulate what our new vision for the country is (rather than trying to rehash Mandelson’s remaining 20%), we won’t get back into government either.

There are still good ideas in the party and the wider movement. The living wage, a national care service, a Tobin tax, universal free school meals and a graduate tax are all good, solid Labour ideas – and the leadership campaign has, to its credit, brought some of these ideas to the fore.

Whoever is elected leader needs to take the best of these ideas, and present an alternative offer to Britain than the stark and cold one offered by the coalition. And then they need to keep on looking for new ideas, new problems and new solutions.

Because we can never allow ourselves to think we got 80% of the way there again.