The ‘new politics’ must not be a smokescreen for dumping values

By Seb Dance / @SebDance

Normal service has been suspended. Nobody knows if it will return anytime soon and many certainly welcome that. In the rush to define the post-election era there has been much talk of a ‘new politics’. But what does it actually mean?

The Liberal Democrats are using it as an excuse to break all of their election promises. The argument has been made – on these pages – that they had no choice; the Coalition became the default option.

In the meantime others from within the Labour Party say the ‘new politics’ means we mustn’t point this inconvenient fact out because one day we might need to work with them in a coalition of our own.

Both of these arguments are wrong.

Let’s start with the Liberal Democrats.

Most of us know someone like this, or we’ve met them on the doorstep: they’re broadly on the left, they’ve always hated the Tories, yet they spent most of the last 13 years criticising the Labour government for its apparent abandonment of all those principles they thought it was supposed to stand for.

It wasn’t just about ID cards, Iraq or top-up fees – it was a more general sense that after 18 years of the Tories they wanted to see a social democratic left-of-centre government that would redress the balance.

And it counted for little that most of us spent those same 13 years fiercely defending everything that the Government did. ‘Look at the NHS’ we would cry – but, despite Labour’s monumental achievements, those totemic ‘failures’ would always win out in their minds.

For those voters, attracted to the Liberal Democrats at the last election, the ‘new politics’ appeared to come to the rescue. The coalition that resulted delivered something that seemed for them almost too good to be true. Politicians talking to each other? Getting along for the common good? It was the stuff of focus group dreams.

But in truth Nick Clegg has let them down. For all the apparent popularity of the government as a whole, at 12% in the polls he and his party are paying the price. Broken promises are not the way to rebuild trust in politics and politicians – we need, as a party, to rebuild that trust.

As for those in Labour who say we shouldn’t attack the Liberal Democrats, the truth is Labour must hold the coalition to account. If we don’t, who will? We cannot let them off with ‘not speaking for the government’ at PMQs, or gerrymandering constituency boundaries, or u-turns on VAT or lauding the Tories’ economic narrative.

There is no default option in politics. The choices you make are the choices you must be judged by. The electorate can hold each party to account only on its performance against its stated aims and values.

What we need in politics are strong values, firm principles and conviction. That is the way to rebuild trust. Call it ‘old politics’ or ‘new politics’, this is what Britain – and Labour – needs.

The ‘new politics’ is nothing to do with coalition politics – it is in reality a convenient rebranding to disguise the throwing away of the ‘old politics’ reliance on ideas. We can provide a real alternative – rooted firmly in our values – to this government that the electorate, as well as future coalition-seeking Liberal Democrats, will find vastly more attractive than the current offer.