What is this “New Generation for change”?

By Kathryn Rose

When Ed Miliband became the leader of the Labour Party he invited us to ‘join a new generation for change’; in order to do this we need to understand exactly what this ‘new generation for change’ means.

The media appears to share my interest in what this phrase stands for and has started comparing party leaders’ ages. George Osborne and David Cameron seem to think it is an age thing too: as they enthusiastically point out that they are about the same age as Ed Miliband. This interpretation seems to be fuelled by the association of the term ‘generation’ with age; given the fact that our new shadow cabinet contains more young politicians than the last maybe there is an element of truth to this, however, age is not the defining element of the ‘new generation’.

The easiest way to get at what Ed Miliband means by the term is to look at what he has said on the subject. In his conference speech Ed told us that “The new generation of Labour is different“. Yet the interesting part is how he said it was different from the old generation and how age is not one of his core concerns: “different attitudes, different ideas, different ways of doing politics“. These points indicate an ideological change rather than an age-based one.

“This new generation that leads our party is humble about our past and idealistic about our future“. So the New Generation is not about disowning the past; it is about acknowledging it and being ready to learn from the mistakes we did make. Yet the fact it is also about being “idealistic about our future” means that having made some mistakes will not leave us downhearted; rather, we shall be better informed when we launch bold ideas for the future: ideas as bold as the minimum wage was when we dared bring that in.

Whilst this New Generation “is a generation that will always stand up for the mainstream majority” this does not mean that we will appeal to what the media tells us the mainstream wants. “It is a generation that will fight for the centre ground, not allow it to be dominated or defined by our opponents“. So this is about coming-up with ideas that will benefit the many and then winning the ideological argument to show the many why our ideas are the best option for their future.

“It is a generation which thirsts for change” but it is not just politicians who want change: the public who thought all politicians were the same at the election want change too. “This week we embark on the journey back to power“: through reaching-out to the many and offering them the meaningful change they thirst for we can regain power.

“It will be a long journey involving hard thinking for our party” true change is not a quick and easy process but involves serious consideration about the ideological priorities we will take forward and use to guide us in the future. “We do not start that journey by claiming we know all the answers now” the very point is that we are now at the beginning of exploring the ideology and values which will underpin our future direction; as a party we need to start this thinking process now. “We do so by setting a direction of change” we need to signal the direction in which this country should look for progressive answers.

“Let me tell you what kind of country I want us to build together:” Now we have established that the New Generation needs to start by adopting new ways of thinking and new solutions to benefit the many not the few; the following is the agenda that the New Generation needs to focus on, here are our concerns about which we need to engage our minds in order to find the new solutions:

– “This generation wants to change our economy so that it works better for working people and doesn’t just serve the needs of the few at the top“: We need to devise new ways to make our economy fairer.

– “This generation wants to change our society so that it values community and family, not just work, because we understand there is more to life than the bottom line“: We need to consider how we can improve the nation’s work-life balance and thereby provide people with the free time to engage with their community.

– “This generation wants to change the way government works because it understands the power of the state to change lives but also how frustrating it can be if not reformed“: Government has the power to achieve a great deal of good; but we need to fix the flaws in the political system that are overshadowing the good it can do.

– “This generation wants to change our foreign policy so that it’s always based on values, not just alliances“. International alliances can help us to achieve our goals; but we must examine how we can use them to further our goals without allowing them to dictate our actions.

– “And this generation knows very profoundly that to change Britain we need a new politics“: In order to bring-in changes such as these, we need to restore politics to being a process that people can believe in. Such belief can only be re-gained by identifying and changing the systems which are flawed at the present time.

– “Above all, I lead a new generation not bound by the fear or the ghosts of the past“. We do need to look at how we can learn from the past; but we should not close our minds to new ideas for fear of going anywhere near the past, therefore: “As we emerge from the global economic crisis, we face a choice: we can return to business as usual or we can challenge old thinking” including old fears “to build a new economy” built upon a new idea base.

This ‘New Generation’ is not about laying-down a new set of cast-iron laws; it is about looking at the new problems our country faces and coming-up with new suggestions and ideas to address them. For this reason, I would like to suggest that it is not about a ‘New Generation’ in the age sense; but a new generation of ideas based upon a theme of increasing fairness in society. This New Generation is open to anyone with new ideas, regardless of age, and for this reason it incorporates our new shadow chancellor: it is because it is about new ideas that it does not incorporate George Osborne and he is right to say that he will never be part of it.