The Labour Party needs to transform into a 21st century social movement

The Labour Party commentariat is deep in its comfort zone. Since the 1980s they have viewed British party politics as a battleground between Labour and Conservative fought from an ever-shifting centre ground. The only lessons many have drawn from our defeat in 2015 are those that relate to this battleground. They miss, or fail to understand, the electoral dangers that lurk where we have ceded ideological and geographical territory in what we once considered our core vote. They miss, or fail to understand that elements of this “centre ground” are so far to the right of what even the most “ultra” of “ultra-Blairite” believed even five years ago and that to chase them would lead to moral bankruptcy.

Consider the rhetoric of “spongers”, “scroungers” and “skivers” and the sheer hatred that has been whipped up against people who need to access social security. I made the mistake of reading a comments thread on a Huffington Post article about the women and children who have gone missing from Bradford, feared travelling to Syria. Comment after comment applauded the money apparently saved on “their benefits” (presumably made by people who have no more knowledge of the families’ economic circumstances than I have) and all wrapped up in such ugly racism. Several comments hoped that the children were dead.

Consider the equally foul rhetoric whipped up against migrant workers and also against refugees and asylum seekers. We live in a country now where a popular national newspaper publishes a column comparing desperate refugees to “cockroaches” and “norovirus” and calling for gunships to stop them.

It is unacceptable, in these political circumstances, for a Labour politician – a Labour politician – to talk about people on benefits needing “a kick up the backside” or perpetuate myths about “benefit tourism”. There is no appeasing the extremism that is being peddled in an increasingly open way about the most vulnerable in our society; the Labour Party must openly and unashamedly take the route of moderation and compassion. Tony Blair once said “moderates are not moderate through weakness but through strength. Now is the time to show it in defence of our common values.” He was right.

When we read the “what went wrong?” pieces, they tend to avoid spending too long considering Scotland, and they tend to reduce concern about the increased UKIP vote in Labour heartlands to “we need to show we take concerns about immigration seriously.” Actually we need to analyse these twin developments much more closely as, combined, they are the primary reason for our election loss.

While one party were to our left (not in policy terms, apart from on Trident, but in the public perception and presentation) and the other to our right, I suspect the real lessons are less left and right and more distinctiveness and passion. Chasing the Conservatives over that ever-more-right-wing “centre ground” will not help in either regard.

People are not enthused to vote for us because they question the point. Anybody who pretends they haven’t heard this on the doorstep is deliberately dissembling to push their own political agenda. “They’re all the same.” “You’re all public school, posh… none of you had proper jobs”, “Red Tories, “They don’t understand real life”, “LibLabCon”, etc. People who think that but then go and vote for a further-right Tory Party with a public-school-educated ex-banker leader are not necessarily seeking ideological consistency, but nor are they animated or excited by our right-wing consensus. Those that couldn’t be persuaded to vote for anybody fit even more firmly in that bracket.

The Labour Party needs a fundamental modernisation to transform it into a 21^st century social movement that does not approach these questions like amateur psephologists but instead identifies our fundamental core beliefs and leads an organic, bottom-up movement to win the arguments.

We need an economy and an economic policy that serves the people and makes our society less unequal; we should never support policies that would plunge people into deeper poverty or pull away their lifelines; we should be internationalist and campaign for peace, freedom and human rights at home and abroad and challenge all forms of discrimination; we should, in our dealings with other people, be respectful, moderate and compassionate. It isn’t rocket science. It isn’t “loonyism”. It’s putting forward an agenda and an approach that we all believe in and inspiring thousands to join us in that moral crusade.