So what’s the next chapter going to be, Mr Brown?

7th March 2008
By Peter Snowdon

Free Access

This article is provided free-to-view for all visitors to thepolitician.org.

We are now in a period where we are only just beginning to mark out the differences between Brown’s New Labour government and Blair’s.

So far we have seen a subtly different shade of red, or perhaps blue, the Prime Minister’s preferred backdrop for his speeches. Buffeted by events rather than commanding the political landscape, a perilous position for any political leader to be in, Brown might be forgiven for occasionally glancing back over the last ten years.

Why couldn’t he have enjoyed Blair’s large majorities, economic prosperity (that he would claim to have fostered) and such a weak opposition? A keen student of history, the prime minister would do no better than to add a new book to his reading list.

As a valuable compendium of essays, Ten Years of New Labour, published this month by Palgrave Macmillan, provides a wealth of insight and analysis into the party’s longest uninterrupted period in government since its creation over a century ago.

As one of its editors writes in the introductory preface, the book does not seek to offer a single thesis or coherent critique of New Labour under Tony Blair. That is no bad thing; many other accounts exist -— both biographical and analytical. It is refreshing to read such divergent commentaries from the volume’s two editors.

Matt Beech’s argument that New Labour has successfully shifted the terms of debate towards the centre-left, thus forging a new consensus, is persuasive up to a point. Gordon would approve. However, Simon Lee’s view that Labour’s success at winning elections has not been matched by a victory in the battle of ideas also holds true. Gordon might not wish to dwell for too long on this chapter.

Such different conclusions reveal the paradox at the heart of New Labour. For such a consummate election-winning machine, its lack of intellectual self-confidence is staggering. In fact one could plot a graph showing the inverse relationship between its electoral success and strength of policy direction and implementation, where the former declined while the latter improved.

Blair’s pursuit of a ‘choice and diversity’ agenda in public services and firm embrace of the Lisbon agenda in his European policy in the latter years of his premiership contrast with the timidity of his policy programme in the first term, despite being buoyed by landslide majorities. By the time Blair grasped what had to be done mid-way through his second term, he had little time to make significant and lasting progress.

Collectively the essays in this book explain how this paradox played out in policy terms. Stephen Driver’s analysis demonstrates that the government’s successive attempts, mostly driven by Gordon Brown from the Treasury, to reform the welfare state through a combination of market-based measures and redistribution has had mixed results. There has been considerable investment to help the less well-off, but social mobility has declined.

Mark Evans explores why Labour’s constitutional reforms, though motivated by pragmatism rather than idealism, have left the UK in a puzzling state of ‘political asymmetry and rising cultural nationalism’.

Raymond Plant’s examination of Blair’s liberal interventionism shows that national self-interest often weakened his ‘doctrine of international community’.

David Lonsdale’s chapter on defence identifies Blair’s leadership qualities and failings over Iraq, neatly summarising the strategic dilemma he confronted.

The absence of a chapter on New Labour’s attempts to tackle climate change is a pity, given that so much of Blair’s energies were committed to shifting the international community over this issue, not least in persuading the Bush administration to recognise its salience. But this is partly excusable given that Blair, as on other issues, only settled on a coherent policy agenda towards the end of his premiership.

So what will be the lessons for Gordon Brown from this book? So far he has failed to crystallise a convincing and coherent narrative for his government. ‘Events, dear boy, events’, as Harold Macmillan famously said, have not helped.

His personality may not be entirely suited to being prime minister either. But if there is one lesson he should heed, it is that a strong sense of direction and purpose are required from day one. Having had ten years to prepare, Brown shows surprisingly little sign of being able to lead the party into a second decade of government.

Peter Snowdon is co-author, with Anthony Seldon and Daniel Collings, of Blair Unbound, published by Simon & Schuster.

Filed Under: Tony Blair, , New Labour
Back to Top^