Daniel Bentley writes:
Jon Cruddas brought his special brand of
down-to-earth candour to Civitas last night for a speech on the direction of
One Nation Labour.
He isn’t a glitzy speaker but he displays a
frankness and honesty that is rare today among frontline politicians. He also
does a masterful job of connecting a sophisticated understanding of Labour’s
history with the present task of re-connecting with voters who feel
disempowered by modern politics. But above all, he doesn’t step around issues
that have come to be seen as out of bounds by some sections of his party
despite being foremost in the minds of voters.
The family, patriotism, immigration. It would be
unfair to say these issues are ignored by the Labour leadership (anymore) but
Cruddas brings a stridency to them with which some of the party’s supporters
remain uncomfortable.
He speaks the language of loss: “grievance and
dispossession”. He is not afraid to talk about England, to the exclusion of
Scotland and Wales, and the need for “belonging”. He is also confident in
addressing the challenges to the traditional family structure posed by more and
more women taking on the role of principal breadwinner.
These concerns are central to the “Blue Labour”
project with which he has been closely associated, as is the need for a new
political economy. Cruddas, who is leading Labour’s policy review, is clear
that “the old top-down approach – where the state does things to or for people
– won’t work”.
He also has a strong message about who Labour
should be targeting at this time – the “powerfully aspirational” who, if they
haven’t stopped voting altogether, have switched their allegiance to the
Conservatives.
“They are teaching us the hard lessons. They are
the people who tend to think of themselves as both English and British. They
care about their families and work hard for a better life.
“The ethic of work is deeply held because it is
about self-respect and self- reliance. They are responsible and look after
their neighbourhoods. But they don’t feel they get back what they deserve.”
The question is how far Ed Miliband is prepared
to embark along this path. What is One Nation Labour going to add up to, in the
end? An essentially statist approach to protecting the poor, shoring up the
core vote and getting the party across that much talked about 35% threshold – or a genuine attempt to reach across the
divide and engage with small-c conservatives who feel aggrieved and dispossessed?
It is not difficult to imagine which approach
will put the Conservatives under the most pressure over the next 18 months.
A full text of Jon Cruddas’s speech, ‘Caring,
Earning and Belonging’, can be read here.
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