I have to begin with a confession. And, in the context of a blog purportedly about the inner workings of Labour Party conference, it’s quite a big confession. You’ve seen those empty seats in the conference chamber, right? Not just empty at any old times, but at important times, like when senior party figures are speaking - an emptiness that has inspired mild consternation in the John Craigs and Andrew Neils of this world. Well, the thing is, for one reason and another, my derriere is on my sofa and not where it was supposed to be, on the plastic chairs of the conference hall.
This is a source of some guilt. My Grandchildren may one day ask what I did during Operation Fightback and my tale will begin inauspiciously. The words of Al Murray’s pub landlord to an American on World War II echo round my head: “Sorry, squire, if you are not in a fight from the beginning, you are not in the fight at all”. But if the Labour Party is going to win this fight, it needs not just to inspire and galvanise absent activists like myself, but to reconnect with the wider electorate.
What evidence have I detected from my sofa that the Party have this week begun to do this? More than you might imagine. Sky/YouGov are tracking support for the parties on a daily basis throughout the conference season and support for Labour has climbed five points since the start of the party conference. Cornell Belcher, a pollster for Barack Obama, conducted a focus group on British voters for Newsnight and found that, while they do dislike Labour’s leadership, they do not “dislike Labour’s issue positions”.
So, maybe The Spectator and the like have written Labour’s obituary too early. Nonetheless, Daniel Finkelstein’s briefing note on how to revive the party in the magazine’s latest issue makes interesting reading. “An enormous amount of Labour’s time is being devoted to establishing dividing lines with the Conservatives. It is being wasted. You cannot define the Conservatives, only they can do that. You can only define yourself. But it’s worse than that — your dividing lines are worse than just a waste of time ... Your dividing lines and attempt to define David Cameron as a right-wing toff make you look as if you have things out of proportion, only care about politics and may not be nice. In other words, you are squandering what has often been a Labour advantage — that you care, that you are likeable”.
It’s debateable, given the Tory bashing and attempts to construct dividing lines that conference has so far witnessed, whether this lesson has been fully accepted by the party. What is not up for debate is that we are now in the deepest recession since World War II. Bank of England figures announced on the morning of the Prime Minister’s main conference speech confirmed this. This should be a time for compassion and fairness. Let’s hope that we now focus, not on dividing lines and negative tactics, but on fully fleshing out a positive case for Labour based upon these values.
The very least we should be able to do is define ourselves as people who care and are likeable. It might be hard for Labour people to accept this, but Tory bashing doesn’t always help us towards this end. If the electorate do not dislike our “issue positions” and come to view us as caring and likeable, may be Operation Fightback could really be on – and I’ll happily look forward to that embarrassing conversation with my Grandchildren.
Jonathan Todd is a member of Dulwich and West Norwood CLP
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