Bring me sunshine

Labour and Ed Miliband are having a tough couple of weeks. Our conference never got off the ground and Ed’s speech was not well received (or indeed delivered). Others here have talked about their confusion over our policy and strategy. Having been through the NPF process, I think we have the bones of a decent policy offer. It could be radical enough, but only if we allow it to be.

Labour do not currently talk like an insurgent opposition. We do not currently allow ourselves to offer hope – only to counsel that our despair will be less awful than the despair others may bring. Vote Labour because we’re not the Tories (and aren’t the Lib Dems awful) seems to be our most constant and consistent refrain. It will not be enough and it will not be heard – not from us.

One of Ed’s greatest insights in his leadership campaign was how broken our politics has become. How essential it is that we reach out to those who have lost faith altogether in our political system. In 2010 UKIP were not yet on the trajectory we now see them on, but all the signs were there and Ed had the foresight to heed them.

Throughout his leadership there have been flashes of brilliance which are always reflected through the prism of this understanding. Taking on Murdoch and Dacre and the energy price freeze being two such moments. This wasn’t about Labour not being the Tories. It was about taking a stand and offering the people in this country who are without anything to believe in an alternative. We didn’t tell people we aren’t the Tories – we demonstrated it.

The last person who is going to convince the public that one set of politicians is better or worse than another is another politician. The public don’t view things through our tribalistic perspective. The more we waste our public dialogue talking down our opponents, the more we look like we’re all the same, and the less the public are willing to listen to anything we have to say.

New Labour was jointly led by a man who offered hope and a man who offered caution. Things Can Only Get Better was a pretty bleak summation of where the country was in 1997, but it did at least offer the hope of better. Things will at least not be run by the Tories doesn’t do that. It may feel like the same message,  but only to those for whom the gap between their hatred of the Tories and their hatred of politicians in general is sufficiently great to be their motivating factor. The caution is important, but people vote for the hope.

I get that we can’t promise the world. But we have lost the art of promising anything at all. Our leaders sound like tired cabinet members not people desperate to get into government and change the country for the better. They sound – frankly – like they already have the Civil Service on their backs, not like they are willing to fight the establishment’s innate conservatism.

I believe we can offer better than this. I believe that we are offering better than this. The set of policy principles that came out of the NPF are a decent set of promises that will make a real difference to people’s lives. They fit far closer with the theme of togetherness and devolution of power that will be key to making the next Labour government a success.

My challenge to the Labour Party is this: stop talking about David Cameron. Stop talking about Nick Clegg. Doing so is our reflexive comfort zone and it’s winning no voters. Instead we need a positive vision of what Labour is for. Who Labour is for and how we are going to deliver.

Now is  time to inspire. Ed’s inspired me before, I know he can do so again. Ed’s brought the country with him before, I know he can do so again. But we must be bolder.