Young Fabians PPC Week: Join the Debate

David Boot is Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Mid Sussex.

Why Labour can win and why the country needs a centre-left government

We’ve all heard the hype regarding the next general election:  ‘this will be the most important election since 1979’, we’re told. For once, believe the hype. This election offers the starkest choice to the electorate in a generation; between a Conservative Party licking its lips at the thought of spending cuts and a Labour Party that strives, despite the odds, to invest in the country’s future; between a party suspicious of the role of the state and one that wants to use it to build a progressive and fairer country; and between a party that baulks at the concept of greater equality to one that has it at its heart.

It is clear why Labour must win, but can we? The answer, unsurprisingly from a Labour PPC, is yes. The electorate has not yet fallen for David Cameron and his followers; the volatility of polls show that their lead is fragile and not yet ingrained. Indeed, it could be said that we are in an anti-Labour rather than a pro-Tory period after twelve years of the same party in power. The economic crisis has cracked the Cameronian veneer, revealing the Thatcherite beneath. Nice becomes nasty as the party takes on a darker shade of blue. The chasm between the two parties is Labour’s opportunity to press its progressive cause, wearing the badge of equality firmly on its sleeve.

On the door-step, Labour must argue for progressive, positive politics. We have a proud past but an even prouder future.