Wednesday 16 October 2013

The Family, Patriotism, and The Language of Loss


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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