UKIP, England and St George

Labour tends to view UKIP like Nelson viewed the signal at the Battle of Copenhagen. He held the telescope to his blind eye and said, ‘I really do not see the signal’.  Our image of  UKIP is a protest vehicle for disaffected, older, right wing Tories in the South. But UKIP represents more significant trends than this caricature suggests.

UKIP is a symptom of the deep social and economic changes that have taken place over the last thirty years. Its focus might be on the Tory right, but in the medium term its eye is on Labour’s English heartlands, the ex-industrial areas in which decent work and the old culture of the working class  have disappeared. In their new book Revolt on the Right Robert Ford and Matthew Goodwin argue that UKIP, like the radical right on the continent, seeks to mobilise nationalist sentiment to win over the disaffected ex-industrial working class.

Some will point to the fate of the SDP and dismiss UKIP as  another temporary blip on the political landscape. That is quite possible, but the trends are not temporary blips. Ford and Goodwin’s work is backed up by a growing body of evidence – for example in the work of Mike Kenny, Nick Pecorelli, and Anthony Painter and Nick Lowles. The politics of cultural identity and belonging  are increasingly shaping the political landscape. In the medium term UKIP has the potential to be a significant threat to the Labour Party.

Like social democratic parties across western market economies Labour has lost its anchorage in the  coalition of class interests and solidarities that centred around a skilled working class. Deindustrialisation and our shift to a service economy has devastated it. The loss of this political coalition and the emergence of a much more plural and individualistic society means  that the social institutions and solidarities workers created to defend themselves against  the power of capital and threats to their way of life have either disappeared or been considerably weakened. New institutions have yet to emerge and society lacks ways to mobilise our interdependency to protect people, and to contain people’s anxieties and insecurities. We can see the consequences across the economy and society in the stagnation and fall in wages, in the rise of low skill, low paid work, in workplace stress, and in the growing levels of mental illness and loneliness.

The loss of this institutional expression of solidarity has resulted in two things. It has given greater prominence to expressions of national, regional and local cultural identities. And it has led to a politics  of victimhood and resentment. UKIP grows where these two trends converge. For example in the idea, that Britain is in decline, in the belief that Europe has robbed England of its sovereignty, in the widespread anger at immigration, in the cynicism toward the political establishment, and in the perception that the welfare state – our greatest institution of interdependency – gives to those who don’t deserve and takes from those who do.

Across England, in response to the rapid changes over the last few decades and the uncertainty and insecurity they have created, the predominant mood is conservative with a small c; a desire for continuity, familiarity and security. But this is not a Conservative moment. The Tories are a liberal market party of Southern England backed by the financial elite and they are failing to connect and build a truly national coalition.

To conserve what matters to people – pride in country, the familiarity of a common life, caring family relationships, decent work fairly rewarded, and a sense of belonging –  requires radical changes. Ed Miliband has set out Labour’s One Nation response to these challenges with policies for regional banks, powerful city regions, world class vocational skills system, and extending free childcare. We are working in the policy review to build a politics that is both radical and conservative and which will set world standards for a prosperous democracy.

The British have led the world with our democratic institutions and our innovations. We are an outward looking, entrepreneurial trading nation whose history has placed us at the centre of global networks. It is how we have paid our way, and how we will do so in the future, but the Tories have entered us for a global race to the bottom they can never win. They have locked people out of politics, denied people more control over their lives, and divided the country. We  cannot build a competitive economy without everyone being able to play their part and use their talents. The Tories and UKIP share a common failure, they have no future to offer people and no plan to build a better country.

Labour will build a better country by drawing on our traditional strengths of hard work and entrepreneurialism, and by setting new standards for a prosperous democracy.

The first standard is an inclusive economy. It is both pro-worker and pro-business; helping business in innovation and wealth creation, for example by freezing business rates for small businesses; and supporting workers gain opportunities and achieve a fair reward for their labour. It means reforming institutions to deal with the causes of our economic problems so that the economy is fair from the start and not dependent on markets whose allocation of resources ratchets up inequality, and on low paid jobs that require continual taxpayer subsidies to workers. And it is an economy that is properly balanced across the country through the devolution of power and resources to our cities, towns and communities.

The second standard is an inclusive society that builds our common life together, invests in preventing social problems, and recognises contribution, ensuring that people are rewarded for the effort  they make throughout their working lives and reinforcing the contributory principle in our social security system. To create an inclusive society means encouraging a model of citizenship based on reciprocity and character for developing individual resilience, good relationships and wellbeing.

The third standard is an inclusive politics that reforms our political institutions, opening them up to people’s participation in order to strengthen our democracy and devolve power to our cities, towns, communities and to individuals. Devolving power in this way means  asking more of people by helping them to help themselves. It means giving individuals more say in the design and delivery of the public services they use, and building cooperation between public bodies.

Without these standards we cannot develop people’s talents to build a competitive economy and earn Britain’s place in the world.  On St Georges we might reflect that the struggle for the future lies in England and with the English people and  that in our globalised world renewing the country begins in local places because they are the agents of political change, the places of belonging, and the sources of identity.