New Times,
New Thinking.

10 March 2010

Iraq, the free market and a clean break for “Next Labour”

Why a new generation of ministers must say sorry.

By James Macintyre

In a report for this week’s magazine, I refer to what you could call “Next Labour” — a generation of ministers determined to drag the party out of the Blair-Brown shadow. There is a bit of detail on a private election-planning meeting at the house of Ed Miliband, Labour’s manifesto co-ordinator, and an interview with Douglas Alexander, the election co-ordinator (who was also present at the gathering).

“We are still behind. But the momentum is with us,” Alexander said. Of the Tories, he said: “The ‘same old Tories’ is not a line: it’s a truth . . . Change is a process, not a destination.”

Alexander, who has been studying Tory manifestos from 2001-2005, added: “What we’ve seen of the Tories’ draft manifesto suggests that they’ve changed the cover, but not the content . . . In 2005, they asked: ‘Are you thinking what we’re thinking?’ But they seem still to be thinking what they were thinking.” And then he said, with a smile: “It’s a bit like someone who puts an old pair of flares in the drawer for five years and then gets them out again to see if they’re fashionable.”

Alexander is a leading figure in a new generation of Labour ministers trying to shed some of New Labour’s baggage. Unlike some cabinet ministers, he — along with Ed Miliband — has remained focused throughout the past two turbulent years on fighting for a Labour victory that he believes is still possible. He is part of “Next Labour”, the party’s best hope of renewal: in office, not in opposition.

To read further, see the magazine, which is out on Thursday. Meanwhile, one footnote. There is, of course, a shadow hanging over the group. If Labour supporters and voters are crying out for a post-Iraq leadership, they will not find one here, as every single current cabinet minister (apart from 56-year-old John Denham) backed the toxic 2003 invasion.

In order to break away from the Blair-Brown years, this generation will need to find ways to gain real catharsis on the issues that matter. Similarly, though some are privately critical of New Labour’s over-reliance on the City and anti-regulation stance, none of them has fully “come out” in favour of this position.

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Aspiring successors to Brown may have to offer the electorate an apology for both of these very different policy areas.

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