This isn’t just about internships, it’s about a vision of community

By Patrick Macfarlane

The Prime Minister’s recent intervention on the internships debate was a stark reminder of what lies at the heart of Conservative policy.

The Tory vision of family and community is one in which elbowing aside your nearest and dearest to advance the career of a useful contact takes primacy over our basic instincts of social justice.

It’s the penetration of the morals of the market into even our domestic and social lives. It debases the spirit of neighbourly co-operation, by using it to retain privilege in the hands of those with existing financial and social capital.

Helping friends and family might seem a core part of blue Labour thinking. But preferring an individual with no reference to his or her talent, energy or diligence actually attacks a community, rather than supporting it.

A blue Labour neighbour says: “I’m really glad to hear your daughter’s interested, and I’m happy to answer her questions about the organisation. As for internships, we run an open applications policy – here’s the website link.”

That’s the right thing to do, and even David Cameron knows it. Just because the situation has become ingrained in a number of industries (including politics) does not mean we should accept it.

Any less well-off voter with a kid who is interested in politics should consider these words from the prime minister carefully:

“In the modern world, of course you’re always going to have internships and interns – people who come and help in your office, who come through all sorts of contacts, friendly, political, whatever. I do that and I’ll go on doing that. I feel very relaxed about it.”

That kind of thinking means that, at the very least, your kids have a significantly worse chance of getting to work at CCHQ. Maybe this won’t come as much of a surprise to political insiders. But it’s the perfect tool for Labour to counter arguments that the coalition is out to deliver social mobility.

And it’s the perfect opportunity for Labour to take an unequivocal stance on the issue: unpaid internships obtained through contacts are against everything the party stands for.

Patrick is secretary of Putney CLP and author of blue-labour.blogspot.com