One Term in Opposition

After a tough first year in opposition where Ed Miliband was wholeheartedly written-off by large sections of the media, the narrative has changed. Flatlining growth, a series of U-turns after an ill thought-through budget and infighting between the coalition partners has turned the ever capricious media against the government. Journalists are beginning to take Ed seriously, and there is now hope that people will sit up and take notice when his comprehensive policy review is presented.

Boldness is opposition is necessary and Ed has made a good move in appointing Jon Cruddas to lead the policy review. A left-winger who worked closely with Tony Blair, Cruddas is difficult to place on the political spectrum and will certainly not be in thrall to conventional thinking. Including Blair himself in the project is another clever move – Labour is at its best when it draws on both wings of the party and Tony Blair is the most successful and experienced leader Labour has to offer. He will have plenty of invaluable advice for government next time around.

But with the economy in such a state this policy review will not be able to make big spending promises – nor indeed should it. The 1997 election promise to stick to the Tory spending plans was what really made conservative voters stand up and take notice. Even though we made vast improvements to public services and were not the authors of the financial crisis, spending did get out of control in the last term and we must confront the hard fact that in the eyes of the public Labour arrives in government with noble ideas and spends the country into bankruptcy to try and implement them. ‘With you in tough times’ is the right slogan and we must concentrate on policies that will improve the country without breaking the bank. The riots last summer painfully exposed just how weak the sense of community has become in more deprived areas of the country, and policies such as some kind of national service for teenagers and compulsory parenting classes should be seriously considered.

We must also be disciplined in opposing the government. As tempting as it is to characterize the Tories as the ‘nasty party’ and make barbed comments about the number of privately-educated ministers seated around the cabinet table, this would be an electoral cul-de-sac. It is true that the number of state-educated ministers means that at present our education system is not succeeding but to attack the government using the language of class is partisan and cheap. The British public do not especially care where people come from, what matters is what they are doing now, and the ‘charge’ of being educated at Eton pales into nothingness when set next to what we should really be roasting the coalition about: total lack of direction. It is becoming increasingly difficult to work out what it is that the Prime Minister stands for other than keeping D. W. D. Cameron in Number 10. The Omnishambles Budget was totally devoid of purpose, taking with one hand and giving back with the other, and most of the key measures have since been reversed! Most importantly, Osborne’s policies have choked the economy into complete stagnation and he seems to have no idea how to get things moving again.

Labour’s best strategy is to concentrate on how a government that looked so shiny and new when Cameron and Clegg stood in the Rose Garden and pledged their love ‘till 2015 do us part’ already looks as directionless as a government coming to the end of a long spell in power. Conservative voters will not be wooed by being lectured about how morally inferior they are for voting Tory. Instead we must show that their negative conceptions about Labour are unfounded and how we are the party who will govern best for the entire country, delivering fairness without harming aspiration. If we do this, we may only be in for a short spell in opposition.

Jonathan Metzer