John Smith and the opportunity to serve

I had a soft spot for John Smith ever since one evening at the Edinburgh Festival in 1988 when, looking up, I realised that he and at least one Smith daughter were filing out of the same show I’d been in – an hour of stand-up by the great Arnold Brown.

“You know he used to be an accountant,” his daughter said. “He escaped, did he?” Smith replied.

Only when the obituaries had been written and the heartfelt tributes paid were members of the public let in on the fact that Smith had had a lively sense of humour and a huge appetite for life. There had been occasional glimpses of it at the despatch box – for example, the time he twitted Nigel Lawson, who was falling out with Mrs Thatcher, by quoting the words of the theme tune to “Neighbours” at him: “Everybody needs good neighbours, next door is only a foot-step away.” But by and large Smith normally came across as restrained and serious – a reassuring “bank manager” figure.

That in part explained the shock, 20 years ago  today, when Smith died suddenly at the age of only 55. He embodied solidity and, it seemed, timeless virtues. He was surely going to be around for a good while longer, almost certainly as Prime Minister, and quite possibly for more than one term.

What iffery is often entertaining though ultimately futile. Others will argue, as some New Labour figures did, that Smith was insufficiently energetic in modernising the party. They accused him of believing that “one more heave” would be enough to secure victory. Some even suggest that success at the next election under Smith was far from certain. In my opinion the Major government was doomed in the wake of Black  Wednesday (16.9.1992) and the parliamentary debate that followed. When Smith said that Major was “the devalued prime minister of a devalued government” he delivered a knock-out blow from which the grey man never recovered.

Let’s not speculate too much on what a Smith-led government would have been like. We cannot know for sure. But it is possible to reflect on Smith’s attitude and behaviour as leader of the opposition. What can that teach us?

In an interview with ITN in late 1992 Smith offered this response to the suggestion that oppositions needed to set out an alternative programme for government, and sharpish:

“I don’t believe you should rush forward and put everything in your shop window for next Wednesday. I think you’ve got to do the patient and careful work, taking some original thoughts, working them through in practical ways, and when you’re ready to do so, presenting them to the public in a way commands and maximises not only the support for the policies but for the party.”

Admittedly he had only just become leader at that time, and was at least four years away from the next general election. The party was still burned by the memory of the “shadow budget” which had provided the Tories with ammunition in the ’92 election. But the point still holds. Smith wanted to go at his pace, not at one dictated to him by others. There was a time to present worked-out policy ideas. But that did not need to happen too fast.

In an interview with Womans Own magazine the following summer Smith confirmed that he was his own man, too. He wanted to have a serious and substantial debate about policy, not dabble in silly posturing. He criticised “the black art of public relations that’s taken over politics. We’re talking about the government of the country – not the entertainment industry.

And as if to prove how little interest he had in trivia, Smith once failed completely to offer a view on Sonic the Hedgehog in a Radio 1 interview.

What would Smith have made of David Cameron’s husky-hugging, glacier-worshipping photo ops, or that cute little wind turbine he had stuck on his roof? I think we probably know. It would have been great to hear.

Ed Miliband, I suspect, would have a lot of sympathy for the Smith view on “media management”. (We know that Smith’s widow, Elizabeth, holds the current leader in high regard.) But in 2014 the reticence of 1994 may no longer be entirely possible. The decline of traditional media allied to the rise in dynamic social media makes it harder for public figures to remain aloof. Smith did not have to deal with the level of intensity (and silliness) that the media manifests today.

Nonetheless, Smith’s example can help point the way to a calmer, more restrained and more purposeful way of doing politics. His much-quoted final public words, made at a dinner the night before he died, are a reminder of that more serious tone, and content, which political leaders could still try to muster:

“I believe that everything is moving our way. We must never be complacent and must never take anything for granted, but I believe the signs are set fairer for the Labour Party than they have been for a very long time.” 

“Thank you all very much for coming here tonight and helping us perhaps partly to achieve that objective. We will do our best to reward your faith in us, but please give us the opportunity to serve our country. That is all we ask.”

(I have drawn extensively on Mark Stuart’s superb biography of John Smith in writing this piece)