Labour conference, Ed Miliband and the English question

With all the usual attention to the policy thrust of the Leader’s speech, too few commentators recognised the radical new approach to England when Ed Miliband’s spoke to conference on Tuesday.

Identity, an inescapable part of politics in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for years, is now part and parcel of English politics. It’s true, as Ed Miliband argued, that a desire for wider change drove much of the Scottish campaign. But once people see the chance of change tied up with their own view of their identity and nation, the two will not easily be separated again.

Miliband’s drew an explicit link between changing our society, changing our nations, and changing the way we are governed. He set out first a familiar pitch about how people feel about politics ‘They think it is not about them and we’ve got to change that. We don’t just need to restore people’s faith in the future with this economic and social plan we need to change the way politics works in this country.’

That could have just meant doing what we say we will. But it was reinforced by emphasising Labour’s plan to devolve power in England. ‘Ambitious proposals to reverse a century of centralisation, bringing power closer to people right across England’.

A moment’s thought tells that the Plan’s six points can only be delivered if this happens.

Apprenticeships? Only if skills investment can be determined locally.

A better NHS in tough financial times? Only if health and social care spending is pooled locally.

Raising wages as the economy grows? Only if the city-regions can deliver economic growth at a far faster pace than in recent years.

Even the UK wide minimum wage? Only if enforcement is effective at local level.

To make that link was important, but then he went further. Miliband was explicit about the nations’ base of the United Kingdom. ‘Four countries and one. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and Britain too.’ While this may hardly sound more than a statement of fact, this has not been the way Labour has usually talked about our country in my political lifetime. In contrast to his predecessor who would barely mention England in recent years, Ed Miliband seemed to be saying ‘England is here, England exists, England is a political identity’, ‘we are proud to be English and proud to be British’.

And this Labour will not lightly let other claim to speak for England. ‘We must fight for these traditions and not cede them to others. Englishness: a history of solidarity.’

So where does this leave EVEL? The surprise of the speech was the commitment to put Lords reform at the centre of changing Westminster. Never in recent years has a Labour leader described the replacement of the House of Lords explicitly as a ‘ Senate of the nations and regions’

Intriguingly, this opens up the possibility of a very different solution to EVEL. Under the current system, it is clearly unfair if one MP can vote to impose tuition fees on the children of another MP, knowing their own children won’t have to pay them (to put it in the most personal terms). But trying to solve this by changing the Commons alone is fraught with difficulty.

The Commons has to bear the burden of being both a UK parliament and a legislature for England. As it is, it is unfair to England. Do what Cameron suggests and it will be weakened as a UK parliament.

But a representative second chamber opens up many different ways of retaining the integrity of the UK parliament and ensuring that English legislation is supported by representatives elected in England.

To be fair, it’s clear that Labour has not yet settled on one particular approach, and it is right that it should not. The ‘proper constitutional convention’ Ed Miliband proposes is not just a different process to Cameron’s unworkable ‘Westminster stitch up’, it reflects a very different politics that seeks as much popular involvement in the changes as possible. It may not be possible to generate all the excitement and engagement of the referendum campaign, but Labour clearly believes in getting as many people and views involved as possible

Some conference speeches are quickly forgotten. Others mark the start of radical change. It is not clear why Cameron’s predicted strike on England Votes on English Legislation surprised Labour. But it would be a shame if Labour’s first, hesitant, response overshadowed the potential radicalism of Ed Miliband’s Tuesday conference speech.

For progressive patriots, this week’s speech is an opportunity not to be missed.

John Denham is a Labour MP and blogs at www.theoptimisticpatriot.co.uk