Real change means changing cultures not just systems

I have been thinking a lot about change. About how to achieve it and how to make it last. The very difficult realisation I am coming to is that the way we try to create change in politics – through changes to the law and changes to the system – just isn’t, and won’t ever be, enough.

On the left, we have sometimes adopted a “Field of Dreams” attitude to changing hearts and minds, A sense that if we create the right framework, changes in attitude would necessarily follow. For example, we have enacted some fantastic and historic legislation around equalities. But we have not achieved a society where equalities legislation is no more necessary than a law telling us to breath in and out. We have legislated to right some of the wrongs of inequality – we have not ended it.

We created a minimum wage of which we are justifiably proud. But we have not changed the system that rewards some vital jobs so much less than others. We have not got a culture in which those who enrich society through their contribution are recognised and rewarded equally with those who enrich themselves. We have not even achieved universal recognition that such a society would be preferable. Because while we legislate to protect those vulnerable to the current system we do not talk enough of changing it.

Political discourse has broken down to a fight between a few parties who offer different remedies to our short term problems. We are given different retail offers and a fight over the pound in our pocket and who will best protect our loved ones. Our immediate fears are stoked or assuaged, our immediate hopes championed or dashed. But all within the narrow confines of incremental, systemic change.

This cannot and will not change overnight. Ed Miliband is probably the political leader who has come closest for 30 years to talking about cultural rather than systemic change and those who win under the current culture widely mock him for it. It can feel vague and I’m not clear how we go about it. But the first step is to keep up this conversation. To keep up the narrative that we know the current culture is wrong, That is doesn’t work for far too many.

But equally vital is not just diagnosing the problems we have currently but an understanding of a different future and thinking more clearly about how we get there. A positive vision of a more equal future where women are not penalised financially for being the bearers of children. Where children do not have their future chances curtailed for being born black. Where being born poor does not practically guarantee you will die poor and earlier than your rich fellow countrymen. Where that gap ceases to be a chasm we inherit, but a narrow gap that resets with the different contribution of every generation.

All of this can be done – and there are countries in the world that are on their way to achieving many of these. As always we should look to Scandanavia for so many clues as to how progress can and should be achieved. But we cannot simply adopt their laws alone and hope change will follow. As we have seen with this government, when we do good by stealth, they will wreck that good publicly. When we fail to stand up for what is right because we are afraid of being on the wrong side of the public, we lose both hard fought for rights as well as the chance to reinforce the cultural argument that supported those rights in the first place.

MPs make, scrutinise and change laws. This is vital and I am not arguing that we should lose our focus on getting these right.

But we need a bigger focus too. We need to live the changes we want to see. To challenge not just our unjust laws, but the unjust culture that allows such laws to pass. This is much harder, much less solid. The wins are harder to achieve, harder even to understand. Campaigning to change a law is an easier ask than campaigning to change minds. But if we are to really achieve the society we deserve, we have to start to lift our eyes from the daily struggle to the horizon more often. We have to see and understand the future this country deserves and ensure we are fighting for it.