What is the most urgent issue confronting our political parties in the
post-Thatcher era of adjustment? This is not a trick question. It is a
very serious problem for those of us who are concerned with
presentation, image and soul. The answer is, of course, a sense of
identity.
Until Margaret Thatcher laid waste to the post-war pale pink political
consensus, socialism and the Labour and Tory parties as we knew them,
the party conference season was primarily an exercise in distilling an
impression of unity out of the inherent conflict of ‘broad church’
institutions. Labour generally found it more difficult than the Tories.
Nobody had any idea what the Liberals stood for before they became
Liberal Democrats although, for a time, they had a clearly defined
image: beards, sandals and corduroys. Now we find the Liberal Democrats’
distinctive appeal even more elusive other than higher taxes and a self-
serving attachment to PR - proportional representation, that is. The Lib
Dems don’t really matter unless no party can govern without them, which
is a good reason for casting your vote decisively at the next election.
But Labour and Tories do. And thereby hangs a tale. What do they stand
for? What is their distinctive appeal - and their identity? Exactly the
same question is being asked in the presidential election campaign in
the US, as I discovered there last week. This is because President
Clinton, like Labour leader Tony Blair, is shamelessly giving the
impression of moving right and his Republican challenger Bob Dole, like
Prime Minister John Major, is trying to distance himself from his own
way-out Right, which in Britain would like to ditch Europe. The battle
is on for the centre right.
This explains the violence which Mr Blair is doing to Labour’s
traditional values. He desperately wants the votes of the C1s and C2s
who deserted Labour by the million when Baroness Thatcher came up with
her tax cuts and ambition to make everyone a capitalist. The party of
compassion with other people’s money has apparently become the party of
enlightened self-interest with due obeisance to community action. This
leaves ‘Old’ Labour wan and palely loitering. Oh what ails thee, Wedgie
Benn?
If the Tories were not preoccupied with Britain’s future role - or
indeed future - in Europe, they would see this as an opportunity. After
all, their philosophy controls the nation’s political thinking. But all
they do is negatively give Mr Blair demon’s eyes when they might
positively proclaim their identity as the only true, consistent, free
enterprise party of limited government which sees personal
responsibility as a desperately needed virtue for the 21st century. We
thus have a conference season of mists and mellow confusion.
