Of course it's never enough to judge a speech simply from reading the text on a PC screen. You have to be in the hall, or at least watch the whole thing on television, to get some idea of its impact.
So I cannot offer a definitive verdict of Gordon Brown’s address to the Labour Party conference this afternoon. Instead, I’ll confine myself to a few observations on the main themes.
I lost count of the number of times the prime minister - pictured above in full flow - used the words ‘fairness’ and ‘fair’. I expect somebody out there is even now totting up the final figure, but even without a tally, most of us will have got the message.
The word fairness has become a New Labour staple, and with good reason. It represents the bare minimum defining value to which everybody from the far left to the centre left can subscribe, while remaining entirely ideologically open-ended.
A speech that very largely trades on the concept is at high risk of either banality or simply meaninglessness. No-one in politics openly advocates unfairness.
Nor did the repeated insistence on Britain’s standing as the best country in the world go unnoticed. As one of those who has never quite understood what it means to love a country, the markedly patriotic subtext left me cold.
And while no-one questions Brown’s insistence that New Labour remains ‘pro-enterprise, pro-business and pro-competition’, couldn’t he have found it in himself to utter the words ‘trade unions’ just once?
But let’s forget the rhetoric. I suppose it is up to a prime minister to choose the benchmarks he or she wants to be measured against. Let us compare the vision to contemporary society.
It’s all very well proclaiming that being on the side of hardworking families is the only place you ever want to be, and then go on to praise NHS cooks and cleaners, porters and paramedics. But how fair is it to expect these very people – along with millions of other public sector workers – to take a pay cut at a time of rising inflation?
How fair is it that British workers still have the poorest employment rights of any industrialised countries? How fair is it to allow employers to sack staff by text message? How fair is it that cleaners pay a higher marginal rate of tax than hedge fund bosses?
How fair is an education system that allows the de facto systematic purchase of class privilege? How fair is a health service still subject to post-code lottery and queue-jumping by the rich?
How fair is a society with sweeping differentials in life expectancy between those living on sink estates and the more prosperous parts of the country? How fair can it be that 22% of the population live in poverty?
How fair are Britain’s undemocratic electoral mechanisms that leave perhaps millions of voters without adequate representation of their political beliefs?
Don’t get me wrong; Labour remains fairer than the Tories, in many of the small but important ways that Brown emphasised in the better parts of his oration. Far, far better a nugatory minimum wage than no minimum wage at all. It’s just that with the requisite political courage, Labour could and should be somewhat fairer still.
Posted at 18:01, 23 September 2008
Comments (12)
Trade unions, Dave? What, does your pseudo-Marxist leanings force you to miss Jimmy Hoffa? How typical.
Gordon Brown today:
'Everyone who can work, must work.
With the above, Brown in his party speech has now unequivically said he is going to force millions into unpaid, unsuitable or even dangerous work and despite him saying disabled people will not be part of the programme, James Purnell, the DWP Boss has said he wants over 1 million disabled people back into work. Only in Pollyland/(neo)liberal Guardianland can this be seen as progressive: this is real right wing US style politics and wouldn't be out of place at a Republican convention.
It seems no one now speaks up for the really poor(or those soon to be)only 'hard working families'(another US import.) Where are the Unions?, the Labour Left? civil society. Where are the jobs going to come from, we are in a massive recession with unemployment rising, its not about fairness its about bashing the poor and being punitive.
The lack of opposition to all this is baffling and shaming, not least that some of the draconian welfare reforms first victims will be those who are to made redundant, no waiting for suitable work, clean those bogs/pack that salad or else!
and why wasn't welfare reform which will hit millions not covered at all in the Convention Of The Left and people wonder why the left is tanking!
I watched it on bbc parliament it was fairly sickening in parts he got a few standing ovations before hed even finished!
The bits attacking the tories were good and of course we would be in a much worse situation if the tories had been in charge over the last few weeks and life will be worse under the tories.
But the points about fairness that you make are spot on he also made a point of mentionin and thanking the 5 million carers - so then stop privatising them and forcing them to work for minimum wage,
However everyone will have their own specific point I spose but the most sickening for me was when he mentioned a migrant charge for public services and got a huge round of applause! The cameras swung round and there's the unison delegation clapping away! Disgraceful!
If you're going to troll, Ronald Reagan, the least you could do is to try to write in sentences. A working knowledge of rudimentary logic would be nice too. Or perhaps you're deliberately going for the whopping non sequitur angle on things.
Speech or no speech, New Labour is stuffed.
they turn people off by the droves, even a JFK type speech won't change the perception of New Labour as smug, middle class and useless.
But living in that New Labour bubble they won't see it, still I'll bet that Miliband won't take over from Brown, no matter what the bookies say.
oh fuck, the Tories again :(
A lot of valid points, Dave. Brown talked about creating a fair society, without a single apology or mention of the gross inequity, lack of opportunity and barriers to success that he has presided over since 1997.
Paulson 'n' Bernanke were on the other channel..
Don't know if Jackie Wilson's 'Your Love is Lifting Me Higher and Higher' was the best choice of background music. Maybe 'Living in the Love of the Common People' by Paul Young would have been better.
Ronald Reagan,
Jimmy Hoffa was a Republican!
Dave
I noticed that his list of achivements failed to mention trade union recognition.
The only change that actually gives people a chance to improve their own lot.
Your mention of "hard working families" reminded me that Christine Shawcroft has a good line in the current Briefing about wanting to support "families who like to put their feet up". Here here.
And finally Ronald Reagan fancies himself as a surrealist genius. He's best ignored.
Miles
Dave
Everything you say is correct. And yet.....I did like the speech, far better than anything he or Blair ever did before. Gullible I may be, but I will be voting Labour this time round, everything he said about the Tories was right, and I hope it inspires more of a turnout against them . Brown and co may not deserve it, but the prospect of Cameron and co coming to power is just too awful to contemplate, and, who knows, it might still be possible to stop it.
PS: For God's sake Dave, please get round to banning "Ronald" sociopathic saddo "Reagan", how hard can it be?
I'm not sure I see what it is that Brown offers the unions other than not being a Tory. The challenge to the Unions must be whether we can exert any influence - but for that to happen our leaders would have to want to...