"Fairness doesn't happen by chance"
sunderkatwala Fri Jun 27, 2008 at 10:33:18 PM GMT 
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Is this the argument that Labour should make its central dividing line with the right? We can only test the would-be "progressive" Tories by attacking them from their left, not their right.
From my Comment is Free piece on what Labour should do know if the next year is to be different from the last.
"Labour must again be the fairness party, or it is nothing ... Of course, nobody is against fairness, least of all David Cameron's shiny New Conservatism. Fine, but Labour must stand for doing something about it.
Cameron argues that he is now the true progressive because he knows it is not the state's job to act on inequality, climate change or international development. One day, we may find out what – if anything - this amounts to.
Labour's argument must be the opposite: "fairness doesn't happen by chance."
New Labour is routinely accused of political timidity. But it was the party of the minimum wage, the windfall tax for youth unemployment, of making the case for taxation to pay more extra investment in the NHS, and combining its championing of aspiration with a distaste for rewards for failure and fat cattery at the top. A "popular fairness" agenda must find that voice again. Giving it practical focus would provide some important tests of those who believe that adopting the rhetoric of tackling inequality is consequence free.
David Cameron is New Labour's achievement. If New Labour was simply Thatcherite, there would be no minimum wage, civil partnerships, higher public spending or devolution to come to terms with. That he can get away with such vagueness is New Labour's weakness too. But Labour will never extract any greater clarity until we realise that we must test this would-be progressive Toryism from its left, not its right.
"Labour must again be the fairness party, or it is nothing ... Of course, nobody is against fairness, least of all David Cameron's shiny New Conservatism. Fine, but Labour must stand for doing something about it.
Cameron argues that he is now the true progressive because he knows it is not the state's job to act on inequality, climate change or international development. One day, we may find out what – if anything - this amounts to.
Labour's argument must be the opposite: "fairness doesn't happen by chance."
New Labour is routinely accused of political timidity. But it was the party of the minimum wage, the windfall tax for youth unemployment, of making the case for taxation to pay more extra investment in the NHS, and combining its championing of aspiration with a distaste for rewards for failure and fat cattery at the top. A "popular fairness" agenda must find that voice again. Giving it practical focus would provide some important tests of those who believe that adopting the rhetoric of tackling inequality is consequence free.
David Cameron is New Labour's achievement. If New Labour was simply Thatcherite, there would be no minimum wage, civil partnerships, higher public spending or devolution to come to terms with. That he can get away with such vagueness is New Labour's weakness too. But Labour will never extract any greater clarity until we realise that we must test this would-be progressive Toryism from its left, not its right.
"Fairness doesn't happen by chance" | 1 comment (1 topical)
"Fairness doesn't happen by chance" | 1 comment (1 topical)
