Delivery, delivery, delivery

Delivery, delivery, delivery.
Ed Miliband, searching for some kind of touchstone for the early part of his leadership might look for inspiration to some of the more sympathetic reviews of politics under New Labour which are now appearing, not least ‘The Verdict’ by Polly Toynbee and David Walker The theme of much of this kind of writing is that New Labour ‘failed’, not because its policies were flawed or because of the Iraq debacle or even because Tony Blair and Gordon Brown proved to have feet of clay. Rather it was the party’s failure to deliver enough of its programme to satisfy the appetite of the electorate which had been so successfully whetted over three successive election campaigns. What is more, the party was unable, or unwilling for some reason, to make enough of what it did achieve.
It is very hard to argue that the reduction of poverty, especially among the young and the old , the resurrection of the health service, improvements in educational standards and outcomes and the reform of the welfare system to replace disincentive effects with incentives, political and constitutional reform were not eagerly supported by the vast majority of the politically literate population. The problem is that, given thirteen years of opportunity, Labour only half did the job – perhaps a bit more than half in some cases (constitutional reform, the NHS, educational improvement, pensioner poverty) and a bit less in others (welfare reform, child poverty), but overall about half (Toynbee and .....suggest a little more, at about 6/10). Put another way, if, in 1997, Tony Blair had suggested that New labour’s aspirations would take 26 years to achieve, the electors would have been decidedly unimpressed. But that is the rate at which Labour was progressing.

So, Miliband junior should perhaps be declaring that Labour does not need a makeover but instead, a fresh mandate to actually deliver what it, and most of the country, believes in.
Ironically, too, New Labour did deliver on one policy, about which it never even convinced itself. That is ‘tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime’. The extraordinary reduction in the incidence of most forms of crime since 2000 in particular. So great was the overall reduction (about 40%) that even the most sceptical commentators, who question dubious counting methods, could deny that huge progress had been made. But Labour was tough on crime ( longer sentences, increased prison population, more police officers) and tough on its causes ( less offenders, improved order in schools, improved anti drug provision), it simply seemed uncomfortable on such unfamiliar ground.
Miliband could also attack more positively on Labour’s economic performance. The party seems to have been far too passive on attacks which accuse Brown of somehow ’causing’ the credit crunch and its economic aftermath. This is, at best, a huge exaggeration, at worst an absurd over-simplification. Whether or not Britain’s impressive growth record between 1997-2007 was partly built on private and public credit, the fact remain that much of the growth was converted into tangible national assets, notably new schools and hospitals, new universities and research facilities, the regeneration of many decayed city centres and an improving rail network. In other words, Labour may have re-mortgaged Britain, but it did not waste all or even most of the money on fast cars and holidays, to a great extent it built a new extension and had the property rewired and better insulated. But Labour leaders seem to have taken the punches when they might have fought back by pointing out such demonstrable truths. The accusations that the huge post 2008 budget deficit was somehow the result of outright profligacy ignores the clear fact that much of the increase in the national debt was the inevitable consequence of Brown’s largely successful (and much admired abroad) exercise in saving the financial system, and therefore Britain’s economic future, from disaster. Why are Labour’s leaders so reticent about pointing this out ?
So there are three challenges for Miliband and, if he can meet them, he may just unseat the coalition in 2015. First he must persuade the electorate that New Labour was not so bad after all, second, he must restore trust in political leadership and thirdly he must promise that, this time, Labour can deliver.

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