What’s the big idea?

By James Green

It has almost become cliché to talk about Labour’s need to change. After a ‘change election’ we’ve had a four-month ‘turn the page’ leadership contest. Since May 6th change has been the operative word as the party dissects where New Labour went wrong and deliberates over who is best placed to lead the party’s renewal. However, while both these issues are vital to Labour’s future, there is a more fundamental question that the Left needs to ask. It’s a question that Matthew Taylor poses in the conference edition of the Young Fabians magazine, Anticipations – what shape should social democracy take in the 21st century? This isn’t about policy, rebuttal or plans for government. It’s more fundamental than that. Put simply, it’s about big ideas.

These ideas must be rooted in the political and economic landscape of today. It’s no good reverting to the stale old debate about old vs. New Labour when the world has moved on since 1997. That doesn’t mean we have to abandon our core ideas. But it does mean that we have to reimagine them for a changed world. Neil Kinnock, one of Labour’s great reformers, put it best in our conference magazine when he described this process as, “rediscovering what we’ve been about all the time.” As the wealth of ideas discussed in the latest Anticipations by Young Fabian members shows, Labour has a rich philosophical tradition to tap into. The challenge is not whether we have big ideas. It’s whether we have the courage to explore them in a meaningful way.

This is something that the Tories have been willing to do. While some on the left scoff at Cameron’s new big idea, others recognise it for the dangerous intellectual framework it has the potential to be. Francis Maude, the Tories’ moderniser in chief, is right to argue that the coalition’s first hundred days have been more radical than Thatcher’s. Far reaching reforms have seen the state rolled back in a range of key policy areas. Yet Labour would be wrong to caricature Cameron as an unapologetic Thatcherite individualist. He has staked his reputation on the belief that a strong society and small state need not be mutually exclusive. While his views remain half-baked, the Big Society is far from superficial spin. Much worse. It has the makings of a post-Thatcher Tory ideology.

And here lies the key to beating Cameron; you can’t fight ideology with policy. To defeat the modern Tories, Labour must win a fundamental ideological debate about the rightful role of the state. This requires a powerful set of ideas that reflect the political and economic realities of today. As we face what Patrick Diamond describes in Anticipations as the three structural crises of our time – the fall out from the financial crisis, the emergence of competition from the East and the pressing threat of climate change – winning this debate could not be more important. Yet to engage in it, Labour must escape the spectre of its past and accept that it is possible to be both ideological and electable. Ideology isn’t about swinging to the left or reverting to unworkable dogma. Rather, it’s about developing an intellectual road map that can be used to navigate a complex and interdependent world.

Some will argue that such a debate is self-indulgent, distracting us from the real task at hand – opposing the Tories’ cuts agenda. But if we are to be seen as a future government we must offer more than blanket opposition to the coalition’s cuts. The public have real concerns about the deficit and, as Allen Simpson highlights in our new economics column, there are structural issues within the UK economy that need to be addressed. Indulgence doesn’t come from ideology. Rather, it comes from dogma and clinging to outdated ideas.

It is often said that the greatest challenge in politics is not having the right answers but asking the right questions. As it elects its new leader, Labour must ask what social democracy means in the 21st century. It’s a question that goes to the heart of what the Labour Party stands for; and surely that is what renewal is all about.

James Green is Editor of the Young Fabians magazine, Anticipations

An online taster edition of the conference edition of Anticipations is now available on the Young Fabians website.