David Miliband, writing in tomorrow's New Statesman, will say that the "failure" of Tony Blair to take account of people's struggles with the impacts of globalisation on their communities led to voters "turning their backs" on the Labour Party.
David Miliband, writing in tomorrow’s New Statesman, will say that the “failure” of Tony Blair to take account of people’s struggles with the impacts of globalisation on their communities led to voters “turning their backs” on the Labour Party. Miliband, frontrunner in the race to be the next Labour leader, also criticises Gordon Brown for not resolving “Labour’s English question”.
The shadow foreign secretary writes:
“Tony Blair’s connection with ‘Middle England’ was a profound electoral attribute. It is less well remembered that early on Tony made the patriotic case for strengthening the bonds of community. I know how passionately he felt.
“But, over time, he failed to take sufficient account and respond fast enough to the real struggles that many communities faced in confronting the impacts of globalisation – migration, low wages and public services under strain.
“When I campaigned in the last election it was very clear that the effect of this failure was people turning their backs on Labour. They felt we were no longer standing up for them at a time of huge change in their lives.”
Of Mr Brown, he says:
“Gordon Brown faced a different problem. As a Scottish prime minister confronting the Anglocentric media, he sought to emphasise the bonds of Britishness. His was a heartfelt and rigorous account of British national identity but it failed to capture the public imagination.
“Moreover, as Gordon was seeking to construct an idea of Britishness from above, more and more of our fellow citizens were expressing an identity bound up in the history and iconography of England, Wales and Scotland. Gordon’s great achievement was to solve the Scottish question (of a Scottish prime minister governing the UK in an age of devolution), but he did not resolve Labour’s English question.
“Labour needs a revived politics of Englishness rooted in a radical and democratic account of nationhood. We need to draw upon a specifically English story that points to the battle for social justice born of a proud tradition of personal liberty and independence – as resentful of corporate elites as meddling bureaucracy.”
On immigration specifically, he cautions against suggestions from some Labour figures that “the easy answer is that immigration was the cause and that we should have been tougher”, saying he doesn’t want to “engage in a Dutch auction on immigration”:
“It’s not my way and it is not Labour’s. In fact, I don’t think it’s our country’s way either. Just ask Michael Howard about the 2005 general election – he tried it and lost.”
He concludes by insisting Labour has to look outside its heartlands and identify with England’s “traditions and values” if it is to win power again:
“If Labour is going to gain support outside its metropolitan heartlands and aspire to government again, it needs to speak for England and identify with its traditions and values.
“In four years’ time, as the English football team lifts the World Cup in Brazil, Labour needs to be leading that national conversation.”
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10 Responses to “Miliband: Blair failed to address impacts of globalisation on communities”
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