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Ed Miliband lacks the oomph to sell Labour's latest proposals Ed Miliband lacks the oomph to sell Labour's latest proposals
(35 minutes later)
Last night Peter Mandelson and Jeremy Paxman faced each other in the Newsnight studio for one last time. Two jowly survivors, like veterans in a retirement home, going through the needling motions of a confrontation that defined political communication for a generation. The salesman v the showman. They did it very well, but they didn't do anything new. Politics has always been as much style as substance. Just occasionally they combine in a match of terrifying brilliance.Last night Peter Mandelson and Jeremy Paxman faced each other in the Newsnight studio for one last time. Two jowly survivors, like veterans in a retirement home, going through the needling motions of a confrontation that defined political communication for a generation. The salesman v the showman. They did it very well, but they didn't do anything new. Politics has always been as much style as substance. Just occasionally they combine in a match of terrifying brilliance.
It is 40 years since the Centre for Policy Studies, Margaret Thatcher's pioneer corps, hit the politics of the right with the force of a small meteor – an anniversary it has been celebrating this week with a conference, obviously, about liberty. By providing the intellectual ballast for her reverse takeover of her party, the CPS reset the whole political agenda. The Thatcher Bolshevik libertarians captured the one nation party of Disraeli, and we all know what happened next. It is 40 years since the Centre for Policy Studies, Margaret Thatcher's pioneer corps, hit the politics of the right with the force of a small meteor – an anniversary it has been celebrating this week with a conference, obviously, about liberty. By providing the intellectual ballast for her reverse takeover of her party, the CPS reset the whole political agenda. The Thatcher Bolshevik libertarians captured the one nation party of Disraeli, and we all know what happened next.
Some years later, a group of intellectuals on the left led by John Eatwell and backed by the businessman Clive Hollick recognised that Labour's Mensheviks needed a similar outrider to provide the energy for a social democratic agenda. In 1986 the IPPR was launched. Labour lost two more elections. Then in 1994 the IPPR's Commission for Social Justice report made the case for a new progressive politics. It become the basis for the party's 1997 manifesto. Today's Condition of Britain report is meant to pull off the same trick.Some years later, a group of intellectuals on the left led by John Eatwell and backed by the businessman Clive Hollick recognised that Labour's Mensheviks needed a similar outrider to provide the energy for a social democratic agenda. In 1986 the IPPR was launched. Labour lost two more elections. Then in 1994 the IPPR's Commission for Social Justice report made the case for a new progressive politics. It become the basis for the party's 1997 manifesto. Today's Condition of Britain report is meant to pull off the same trick.
Not before time. The condition of Britain is pretty rackety. Evidence of the need for a radical change is growing faster than the mould on walls of substandard housing. The difficulty is that confidence in politicians to do anything about it has never been so low.Not before time. The condition of Britain is pretty rackety. Evidence of the need for a radical change is growing faster than the mould on walls of substandard housing. The difficulty is that confidence in politicians to do anything about it has never been so low.
The IPPR's big insight is that it is not just politicians that the rest of us don't much believe in; it's the power of the state itself. Forty years on, Thatcher's libertarian friends are in control of the British political mindset, and only partly because not enough of us took them on. The state is now widely perceived as the enemy of freedom and individual success.The IPPR's big insight is that it is not just politicians that the rest of us don't much believe in; it's the power of the state itself. Forty years on, Thatcher's libertarian friends are in control of the British political mindset, and only partly because not enough of us took them on. The state is now widely perceived as the enemy of freedom and individual success.
The IPPR has submitted to the argument too. Twenty years after its radical approach to social justice made the state the principle vehicle for reform, it no longer believes the state can make change happen. Its ambition to reset politics is less about the era of no money, but the era of the small state.The IPPR has submitted to the argument too. Twenty years after its radical approach to social justice made the state the principle vehicle for reform, it no longer believes the state can make change happen. Its ambition to reset politics is less about the era of no money, but the era of the small state.
So that's the idea, and there are many policies that derive from it. But the grim truth for those who think politics is about policies is that it isn't. At most, politics is a loosely secured series of identities. The IPPR acknowledges that with its ambitious (although hardly novel) proposals for devolving power out of Whitehall. Many people who have zero interest in party politics will band together at neighbourhood level and give up precious time to work towards a local objective, at least if it is of obvious benefit to someone nearby.So that's the idea, and there are many policies that derive from it. But the grim truth for those who think politics is about policies is that it isn't. At most, politics is a loosely secured series of identities. The IPPR acknowledges that with its ambitious (although hardly novel) proposals for devolving power out of Whitehall. Many people who have zero interest in party politics will band together at neighbourhood level and give up precious time to work towards a local objective, at least if it is of obvious benefit to someone nearby.
Unfortunately for the IPPR, it lacks the single most important asset it acquired in 1994; the same asset the CPS gained in 1974: a political figurehead who does much more than talk about the ideas, but embodies them. Thatcher and the CPS propelled one another into the political stratosphere: without the CPS Thatcher would have been an intellectual lightweight; without Thatcher the CPS would have been one more fringe outfit with whacky ideas.Unfortunately for the IPPR, it lacks the single most important asset it acquired in 1994; the same asset the CPS gained in 1974: a political figurehead who does much more than talk about the ideas, but embodies them. Thatcher and the CPS propelled one another into the political stratosphere: without the CPS Thatcher would have been an intellectual lightweight; without Thatcher the CPS would have been one more fringe outfit with whacky ideas.
What Thatcher did for the CPS, Tony Blair – and the Blairites around him – did for the IPPR: there were worked-through ideas from one, and utterly persuasive salesmanship from the other. So it is pretty tough for the IPPR that this time it is relying on Ed Miliband to roar off the launch pad fuelled by 250 pages of carefully argued social policy.What Thatcher did for the CPS, Tony Blair – and the Blairites around him – did for the IPPR: there were worked-through ideas from one, and utterly persuasive salesmanship from the other. So it is pretty tough for the IPPR that this time it is relying on Ed Miliband to roar off the launch pad fuelled by 250 pages of carefully argued social policy.
The cruel truth is that Miliband, for all his many qualities, would struggle to sell a subscription to Politics Today to an undergraduate politics student. His personal ratings would compare with an unsuccessful encyclopaedia salesman. And the party's former salesman in chief, Mandelson, made it crushingly obvious in the Newsnight studio last night that he despaired of the product. Oh, and it's being launched on the day England fights to stay in the World Cup. Better hope for the slow burn.The cruel truth is that Miliband, for all his many qualities, would struggle to sell a subscription to Politics Today to an undergraduate politics student. His personal ratings would compare with an unsuccessful encyclopaedia salesman. And the party's former salesman in chief, Mandelson, made it crushingly obvious in the Newsnight studio last night that he despaired of the product. Oh, and it's being launched on the day England fights to stay in the World Cup. Better hope for the slow burn.