British Labour pledges change, reengagement

The annual British Labour Party conference kicked off on Sunday. The party, which lost power in a landslide election in May 2010, is battling to appeal to an electorate disenfranchised after 13 years of Labour rule. The conference has focussed heavily on regenerating the party. The official slogan of the conference “refounding Labour to win” reflects the crisis that Labour is currently facing. The conference guide acknowledges: “our election defeat in May 2010 showed that Labour needs to change fundamentally if it is to lead progressive opinion and win again.” Shadow Cabinet Ministers have urged party members to be patient, stressing that the transformation will take time. The party, which shifted to the Centre under the leadership of former-Prime Minister, Tony Blair, eroded much of its traditional and Leftist base. It is now struggling to re-attract these voters. In the backdrop to the conference is a poll released by the Independent today that shows that only one in four voters (24 percent) consider the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, a credible alternative Prime Minister. The poll also put the Conservative Party ahead of the Labour Party by one point at 37 percent, a concerning figure for Labour given that the Conservatives have overseen a raft of unpopular spending cuts. The party’s leader, Ed Miliband, is scheduled to speak to the conference this afternoon. At the same conference last year, Miliband pledged to “lead a new generation of radical optimists determined to take on established thinking, speak for the majority and reshape the centre ground of politics.” The polls would suggest that he has struggled to achieve this aim. Today’s speech is expected to focus heavy on morality, something that the Labour Party has traditionally avoided. The speech is crucial to convincing the electorate of Miliband’s leadership qualities. In an interview on Sunday, Miliband acknowledged that the party had a “long way to go” in convincing the British population to vote Labour. He also acknowledged past mistakes, including failing to change “the ethic of our economy” and misunderstanding the immigration issue. Miliband surprised observers by announcing yesterday that Labour would cap university tuition fees at £6,000, a response to the Conservative policy that has seen fees at most universities skyrocket to £9,000 per year. The party’s Chancellor, Ed Balls, also spoke yesterday, telling the audience: “it wasn’t too many police officers, nurses and teacher sin Britain that caused Lehmans to go bust in New York.” Balls also apologised for a number of Labour policies in government, including the 10p tax cut and the 75p pension rise. However, there has been some criticism of this focus on the past, with some members saying that Labour needs to stop apologising and begin looking to the future. Hazel Blears, MP, was highly critical of the current coalition government’s policies, including its failure to address the issue of integration in the community. She accused the government of developing “fluffy” policies to target radicalism which will not produce results. MPs at fringe meetings on the Palestinian state yesterday also slammed the coalition government’s failure to clarify its position on Palestine’s UN bid. Labour announced its support for the bid last week. Richard Burden, MP, told the conference that he was proud of Labour’s decision to support Palestine. “We have heard no such thing from the UK’s Conservative-led government. “It is time for the UK to get off the fence. We always say we believe in a two state solution and that recognition of Israel is a precondition to that. “If the UK is to have any credibility, we must now say yes to the recognition of Palestine too”, he said. One seminar discussed the Palestinian situation in the shadow of the Arab Spring. The Israeli-born Oxford University Professor, Avi Shlaim, praised the Palestinian bid for UN statehood as a “courageous act in the face of US pressure and crude Israeli threats.” “It is a moment of truth in the century-old conflict over Palestine”, he said. “Abbas’ speech was a Declaration of Independence for Palestine, not just from Israel, but also from the US.” He called for Britain to “unambiguously and strongly support the bid.” The Labour Party is currently in opposition in Britain, although declared its support for the bid last week. The British government is also yet to clarify its position on the matter. “Britain bears a historic responsibility for the creation of the Palestinian problem”, Shlaim said, urging Britain to become more involved in the dispute. He also accused Britain of betraying the Palestinian people on a number of occasions. He called the former-British Prime Minister and current member of the Middle East Quartet, Tony Blair, a “solid nuisance.” Richard Howat, MEP, also expressed his support for this “historic moment.” He urged the world to get behind the Palestinian bid, as it was not a decision that the Palestinians had taken lightly. “The Arab Spring changes what happens in the region, and more than ever we cannot be part of the hypocrisy that supports democracy in North Africa but not in Palestine”, he added. He said he was “saddened” by the US response to the bid. Rushanara Ali, MP and Shadow Minister for International Development, echoed the others’ calls. “This is an opportunity to re-engage with the issues impacting the Middle East”, she suggested. She slammed the human rights violations carried out by Palestinians are “completely unacceptable.” She also urged the current British government to develop a more coherent and principled foreign policy, free of the double standards that have discredited Western governments for so long. However, despite this ostensible support, senior members of the Shadow Cabinet were noticeably absent, suggesting that Palestine remains largely a fringe cause within the Labour movement. All in all, it is clear that much needs to be done before Labour can win back the loyalty of the electorate, and Miliband’s speech today will give us some idea of how much has been achieved so far. However, as the Shadow Minister for International Development, Rushanara Ali, told a fringe meeting yesterday, “one of the benefits of being in opposition is that you have a lot of time on your hands.” With years to go before the next British election, there is still plenty of time for Labour to make the transformation that it is looking for. The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has given his much-anticipated address to the annual British Labour Party Conference. Party members, stakeholders, NGOs and members of the media queued for hours to gain entrance to the arena. Hundreds were turned away. The speech has been viewed as crucial to convincing the electorate of Miliband’s leadership capabilities. It comes as a poll released by the Independent this morning revealed that only 24 percent of British voters considered Miliband a credible alternative Prime Minister. However, Miliband remained resolute, and spoke with conviction that Labour would win the next election. “This is a dangerous time for Britain, and for Britain’s economy”, Miliband said. “The Government’s austerity plan is failing. The Labour Party lost trust on the economy and under my leadership, we will regain that trust.” His main focus was on “British values”, which he said was in disarray. He said that a series of crises had hit Britain over the last few years, including the summer riots, the banking crisis, the MPs’ expenses scandal and the phone hacking issue. “We see the true British character in moments of crisis”, he said. “We saw it during the riots. For every person hat looted, there were hundreds, thousands who said this will not stand and came out to help with the clean up.” He praised Britain’s youth for their role in the clean-up effort, and the police-officers for “putting themselves in harm’s way.” “They are the true values of Britain.” He expressed pride in Labour’s record in government, but distanced himself from its past leaders. “I’m not Tony Blair. I’m not Gordon Brown either” “I’m my own man and I want to do things my own way”, he said to rapturous applause and cheers from the crowd. Tellingly, this was probably the most popular line of the speech. “We need a new bargain. Based on Britain’s values”, he urged. “Britain’s values in our economy, in our society, and in the way our country is run.” He accused the current government of eroding these values, undermining the NHS, stripping people of welfare and favouring the rich.“Only David Cameron could believe that you make ordinary families work harder by making them poorer and you make the rich work harder by making them richer”, he said. The speech was low on policies, mentioning only the previously announced £6,000 cap on the higher education fees. There was no mention of Labour’s foreign policy. He advocated greater support for those struggling in the current economy, support for business and a crack down on the media and welfare cheats. He questioned the popular dichotomy that the Tories are the party of business. “You’ve been told that the choice I politics is whether parties are pro-business or anti-business, but all parties must be pro-business today.” Time will tell whether the speech, which appeared to be welcome by the crowd, will make any headway with the electorate. At this stage, voters may be concerned by the lack of hard policies advocated by Miliband, who privileged values over policy commitments.