The bread and butter relaunch?
"Do you think," asked my contact, a parliamentary researcher, "they are planning one, big policy that turns things around and makes them unstoppable?" He was referring to the Labour government, and he was not the first to ask me that. There is much nattering in the bacon sarnie joints around Westminster about a planned "Autumn Relaunch" of Gordon Brown's government.
If true, a key element of it will be at the level of micro-policies, not big bang. Word on the street is now that Labour will hit the Conservatives with a series of "bread and butter" measures aimed at making life "easier and fairer - and that the current strategy of the unions is to offer a whole smorgasbord of such bread and butter at Labour's forthcoming Warwick II policy forum.
The policies may include "maximum working temperature", broadband access for all, free school meals, a rise in Child Benefit, the right to time off (and not just to "request" it) at times of family stress.
"Where is the narrative?" I asked those who've run this idea past me. The answer seems to be there isn't a narrative. Any narrative about Labour "delivering" to its low-paid traditional voting base is considered unwise. "What about union rights?" I asked: because I have - maybe mistakenly - formed the impression that Unite, GMB and Unison would like there to be a Trade Union Freedom bill and that they would be arguing strongly for this at Warwick. It seems that some in the unions are resigned to losing the argument over this. What is certain is that the unions have decided to be nice to Labour in the run up to the next election and to avoid using their new financial leverage (the party is nearly broke) to demand even the "lurch to the centre-left" Jon Cruddas MP joked about in his Compass speech. ().
The danger for Labour is that, if it manages to deliver all this bread and butter, voters refuse to notice because of the negativity surrounding Gordon Brown. However Labour strategists now believe that Harriet Harman's introduction of the Equalities Bill constitutes a model of how to regain momentum in the political battle: they believe the Conservative response to it was muted, reflecting a conflict between the desire of an old guard to slag it off as crazy feminist hyper-regulation and the Cameron group's commitment to social justice and family-friendly policy. Hit them again and again, the theory goes, with non-ideological micro measures, and watch them squirm.
My hunch though, is that with so much noise going on about an Autumn Relaunch and a "big policy" to front it up, it is likely that the "bread and butter" forms only one part of what Gordon Brown is formulating. The relaunch will inevitably be centred around economic policy because the current policy framework is so clearly flagging in the face of what many analysts this week have decided will be technical recession.
One "low hanging fruit" I've heard touted would be to redraw the inflation target, more loosely around a range rather than a line, possibly coming up with a revision of the CPI definition (Lehman Bros economists are helpfully working on their own proposed replacement for the CPI inflation measure, which may come in handy). Another would be to re-task the Bank of England, eleven years on from independence, with a wider remit than inflation targeting.
But in the end most of Gordon Brown's circle, especially the Treasury old guard and the journalists, are Keynesians: not just in the loose sense but in that they have read Robert Skidelsky's magisterial biography of the great man and signed up to the idea that bold action in the face of recession is the mission of social democracy, and that the action taken is seldom to be found in the existing playbook of economic policy but has to be improvised by brilliant minds.
My best guess - and it is a guess not a briefing - is that there will be an economic plan combining financial re-regulation, windfall tax and action to stimulate demand and free up credit - and that we will know about it by the time the PM speaks at the TUC.
Hit the Comment button if you know more, or different!
Comment number 1.
At 3rd Jul 2008, barriesingleton wrote:WHEN IN THE HOLD STOP DRILLING
Good grief! Re-launch the SS (sinking ship) 'New Labour'? Will they drill the apocryphal 'second hole' (attributed to inhabitants of that eponymous island) to let out the water coming in the first, before relaunch? I can just see it: as the 'New Labour' founders: on deck will be jaunty matelot Blears dancing the 'Good Ship Lollypop Hornpipe' while Hoon plays foghorn, long after the rocks have ripped out her bottom (no not hers).
Up-aloft, Lookout Straw will be blowing in the wind, eyes narrowed as he wonders what he is looking for. Ship's cat Harriet will stalk disarmingly, ripping off the odd arm, and Cap'n Brown is nowhere to be found.
Belowdecks, Cook Vas clutches his recently acquired treasure map (a gift from the Captain for judicious feeding) and smiles that smile. Meanwhile: Chaplain Smith is commanding the waves to cease and poor
Rating Cooper finds her escape barrel has been filled with (cannon) Balls and is sunk.
You couldn't make it up.
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Comment number 2.
At 3rd Jul 2008, lordBeddGelert wrote:Paul,
am loving the new blog - but I think you are way off target on this one.
The idea of a 'smorgasbord' fills me with dread.
What Labour need, above anything else, is a simple, clear, single idea about what they 'are for'..
Love him or loathe him, David Davis has hit the 'sweet spot' of the voters with a 'freedom agenda'. Critics may well point out that a lot of the people commenting on his blog may be of the 'hang 'em and flog 'em' brigade - and that is just for gay people - criminals might be treated even less favourably...
But he isn't really representing those guys - he is standing for giving the person in the street a bit more freedom and latitude to live their lives in the way they see fit.
That has some problems - I am not a fan of the idea that one can discriminate against hiring women, but neither am I totally of the opinion that loading up yet more legally compelled diktats onto small business is the way to solve the problem.
I am all in favour of recycling - but the actions to use RIPA to pick up what is being fly-tipped and by whom ain't the solution either.
I hate people who leave their dogs to foul footpaths - but I really don't want to live in a society where people settle old scores and grudges by grassing up their neighbours.
I want to see more people using public transport - but they need encouraging by ensuring that 'walk-up' fares for trains and buses aren't hiked up to go straight to the bottom line of corporations whose capital investment is largely paid for through the taxpayers' subsidy they receive.
Hitting the motorist again with VED and the 'Residential Parking Scheme', 'Congestion Charge' and 'Parking charges in hospital' scams is simply unnecessary, superfluous and designed to drive away goodwill when the price of oil is currently at an all time high.
The current theme of 'New Labour' seems to be 'If you've got 'em by the balls their hearts and minds will follow' - which is a fast-track to a Conservative government which would be hell-bent on destroying any dissenting voice from the Guardian and ´óÏó´«Ã½, if the speculation on the blogosphere is to be believed.
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Comment number 3.
At 4th Jul 2008, threnodio wrote:If this is about New Labour reconnecting with the people, I wonder whether they have considered consulting them directly and relaunching themselves as the opposition?
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Comment number 4.
At 5th Jul 2008, busby2 wrote:"The bread and butter relaunch?"
Good grief, is this new Labour's version of John Major's "back to basics"?
The way things are going with prices and with the Govt increasing taxation on the low paid, being able to afford the bread let alone the butter will be quite something for many voters!
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Comment number 5.
At 5th Jul 2008, brossen99 wrote:All Labour need to do in a re-launch is ditch all the Corporate Nazi policies mentioned by bedd gell like congestion charging for Manchester, Bin tax and other eco-fascist ideology and ease off on the anti smoking propaganda.
They are basically a good government if they keep off the above, one has to be pretty gormless not to notice that rip-off hospital car park charges are a tax on using an allegedly free at the point of use service for the majority. The ten bob fat cats whinge about prescription charges but you can get free prescriptions for only two quid a week.
Once upon a time if you went to the doctors and they couldn't fix you you went onto disability benefit with no questions asked. Those on incapacity benefit are now scapegoated like the Gypsies in the prevailing Corporate Nazi political climate.
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