by David Butler
Labour looks like it is coming apart at the seams. A big Labour rebellion on welfare, a leadership contest that is dragging the party ever further from the centre ground and George Osborne busily moving the Tories onto the territory vacated by Labour – this is the backdrop to Labour’s long hot summer.
Just over a week ago, Tristram Hunt called for a summer of hard truths. Anthony Painter gave an excellent starter for ten. Here are ten more:
1. The state can be just as oppressive, destructive and amoral as market forces. This manifests itself in actions from the harsh sanctioningof benefit claimants to NHS staff behaving in an unpleasant, uncaring and unaccountable manner.
2. Power in the modern world is more fragmentedthan in the past. This reduces the governments to impose change from above.
3. Labour has offered no convincing answer to the challenges posed by secular stagnationand the UK’s productivity puzzle.
4. The idea that Labour loses elections because it is insufficiently left-wing has no basis and is a myth that should not be indulged.
5. The public are not interested in the talk of bold, radical plans so beloved of certain sections of the party. In a post-election poll by GQR Research on behalf of the TUC, when asked to choose between parties offering “concrete plans for sensible changes in this country” and parties promising “a big vision for radical change in this country”, the public overwhelming preferred the former. This result was replicated across social grade, country, 2015 vote, gender and age group.
