The Fabian New Year Conference 2012: An Economic Alternative?

On Saturday 14th January, the Institute of Education in central London played host to the 2012 Fabian Society New Year Conference.

Hundreds of Fabians attended the all-day event, which featured some of the leading lights of the British Left and a selection of some of Labour’s most prominent frontbenchers.

This year’s theme was ‘The Economic Alternative’. Unsurprisingly, I left the conference with a sense that the Left is not offering just one alternative to the Coalition’s programme of unchecked austerity, but several, each occupying a different space on the political spectrum.

The alternative offered by Labour was set out by Ed Balls in his keynote speech. To the acclaim of some, and the horror of others, he made it clear that Labour would not reverse the cuts imposed on the country by the Tory-led government. However, in contrast to the Coalition, he did promise that the party’s focus would be fixed firmly on job creation rather than blind deficit reduction.

The overall impression received from those representing the Labour party on Saturday – which included Rachel Reeves and Chuka Ummanu – was that they were firmly sticking to their leader’s view. As Ed Miliband explained earlier last week, regardless of the Coalition’s performance over the coming three years, the next government will still inherit a deficit and in consequence have few spending options available to them. A future Labour government, therefore, would be a government of austerity too.

The need for Labour to allay suspicions that the party is, in Ed Balls’ words, “out of tune with the public mood” on the deficit is obvious from the view of narrow, immediate political interest. But as Sunny Hundal explains, by shifting the debate onto Tory territory, Labour instantly puts itself at a disadvantage. Labour will never look comfortable using the language of ‘fiscal conservatism’, or be able to dislodge the country’s preference for Conservative stewardship of the economy by promising “tough decisions on tax and spending”.

Historically, Labour has a poor record on economic management. From the historic debts of 1945 to the strikes and public sector strife of the 1970s, Labour has either inherited or created dire economic circumstances. Even New Labour, which was unique among Labour governments in presiding over eleven years of GDP growth, failed the economic test in the end when the financial storm broke. The Conservatives will always be able to claim that they are the party to be trusted with the economy when times turn hard. A Labour party promising to ‘out-macho’ the Tories will always struggle to make headway.

Other Left thinkers offered alternative visions of a future progressive approach to the economy. Caroline Lucas MP, leader of the Green Party, argued against our current economic model and stated her support for the introduction of alternate measures of national prosperity based on citizens’ perception of their own well-being and consideration for the environment. She also impressed on the audience the need to redistribute the existing wealth in society through a programme of progressive taxation and capital investment in Green infrastructure projects. The applause she received from the conference rivalled anything Ed Balls mustered, suggesting that the Left is not ready to pull on the hair-shirt of austerity just yet.

What I discovered throughout the conference is that Fabians responded better to policies and positions that promoted positive messages. Chuka Ummuna MP struck a chord by arguing that the British economy needs to be geared towards ‘pre-distribution’, and shaped in such a way that the proceeds work to lessen inequality rather than exacerbate it. The conference warmly acclaimed Will Straw’s pitch on the need for a National Investment Bank to fund SMEs, embracing the positive message that even a little investment could go a long way to transforming the fortunes of those trying to make their way through the economic turmoil.

Effective intervention, equality and redistribution were the buzzwords of the day, and if any consensus emerged from the conference it was that the economic alternative would have to reflect these three values. Let us hope that Labour’s more positive messages on jobs, ‘pre-distribution’ and ‘a responsible capitalism’ can shift the debate onto the Left’s territory, and force David Cameron to fight on our ground and on our terms.

If you were at the 2012 Fabians Conference and want to share your thoughts on the blog, please contact the team at: blog@youngfabians.org.uk

Louie Woodall is Assistant Editor of the Young Fabians Blog

Labour Conference – Young Labour makes its mark

In this guest post, Susan Nash and Callum Munro reflect on the activity by Young Labour activists at last week’s Labour Party Conference.

Everywhere you turned at Labour Party Conference last week there were references to the promise of the next generation; the importance of protecting the futures of young people who are being priced out of education and left isolated and unemployed by this Conservative-led coalition.

But what was refreshing at Conference were the faces leading these debates.

It was young members themselves – affected by the betrayals of the Lib Dems and Tories – who took to the stage.

For the first time ever, Young Labour held a Youth Conference at Annual Conference. Packed with fringes, an exciting array of speakers and a lively reception, it was a huge success. Reduced conference passes helped boost the numbers of young people flocking to Liverpool’s ACC, as well as the jammed packed agenda.

The Youth Conference began with an explanation of the radical and fundamental reforms that were passed as part of Refounding Labour, which amongst other things grant Young Labour affiliate rights. But discussions didn’t just focus on the past but centred on the tasks ahead; looking at the policy review where delegates got an opportunity to showcase their ideas to Liam Byrne MP.

The busiest session of day was the lunchtime fringe which included Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls and Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee. The room was so packed some were turned away, and the debate didn’t disappoint with rousing speeches and questions on how to tackle youth unemployment, looking at both the Coalition’s failure to act, and what we could do from opposition.

As a party we have strong international links. This too is true of our youth wing. Young Labour was honoured to have fraternal greetings at our first youth conference from Eskil Pedersen, the President of AUF; the Norwegian Worker’s Youth League, which was so tragically attacked on the 22nd July on Utoya island. Eskil spoke with eloquence and deep heartened thanks and gratitude to all those across the world who had shown solidarity in action, and supported him and his members through those challenging times.

Young Labour is the largest youth wing of any UK political party, with over 20,000 members aged 26 or under, but we recognise this conference is just the start of the continuing important work of building and strengthening our movement.

At conference we discussed the challenges of engaging young people on politics and we know there is a lot more work needed to train our activists, to develop young labour groups across the country, and to build effective campaigns which reach more young people beyond our party members.

This week was just the start but an important and significant one. These developments would not have been possible without the leadership of Ed Miliband and the support of both the outgoing and incoming General Secretaries: Ray Collins and Iain McNicol. The success of this week also pays testament to the dedication of our volunteers and the support of the newly appointed National Youth Officer.

As we look to build on from this success we hope Young Fabian members will continue to play a central role in transforming Young Labour into a even greater, more powerful and effective organisation. An organisation at the heart of our party. A party which has and will continue to offer real hope and prosperity for young people.

Susan Nash is national Chair of Young Labour and a former Young Fabian executive committee member.
Callum Munro is the Youth Representative on Labour’s National Executive Committee.

Conference – a view from outside Liverpool

The 2011 Party Conference season is giving me déjà vu.

Watching Labour from outside Liverpool, through the prism of media, blog and twitter coverage – to be fair – there was a lot to be happy about.

Keynote speeches received a lot of airtime and the key message punched through, particularly Balls on fiscal discipline (which coincided nicely with the Fabian publication “The Credibility Deficit”), Cooper on police bravery and reform, and Ed Miliband on ‘I’m my own man’.

The fight against the (perception at least) of a lurch to the left is going well. Ed M is speaking more passionately and more confidently. I believe he’s having speech training. That was a good idea, which is paying off. Ken also made some noise, that punched through to national media, on transport fares. And he dovetailed nicely with a simultaneous SMS campaign.

Ed’s main message, around ethics in markets and not-business as usual, needs a bit more work to stick in the minds of the man on the Clapham omnibus. But I think it could resonate well. I’d caution though, that just “being against business as usual” only works when you explain quite a bit of context.

On the down side, there were a lot of blogs and tweets pointing to the party being in lemming mode. There is a body of opinion that is frustrated by a sense that we know we have an unelectable leader and we are not landing the blows against the coalition, but that we are happy to stick our heads in the sand and keep congratulating ourselves. From outside of Liverpool, I picked up quite a bit of this sentiment.

But what do I mean by déjà vu?

It was the summer and autumn of 2008 when the credit crunch turbulence escalated into a full-blown financial and economic crisis. It came to a head around the time of the Party Conference season. In 2011, the Labour leadership speeches were ok. There were no big fails. But the Labour conference seemed slightly blind to the fact that the global economy is standing on a knife edge, in a similar position to where we were in the Autumn of 2008. Failure to reach a solution to the eurocrisis will affect all our lives in a very bad way for a long time to come. It will be a source of economic malaise and deprivation and, who knows, potentially a source of conflict.

In 2008, Cameron – in opposition – grasped the severity of the 2008 financial crisis and ripped up all the main speeches (and conference agenda) and refocused on what was happening in the economy. That showed a bit of vision.

Unfortunately, Labour didn’t do the same in 2011. Perhaps our heads are a little too far in the sand.

Nick Maxwell is Partnerships Officer for the Young Fabians.

Labour Party Conference predictions

This is the first “proper” conference since the Labour Party’s General Election defeat of 2010, given the 2010 conference was dedicated to the results of the Labour Leadership election, and the subsequent shock win of Ed Miliband.

Aside from the almost certain grumbles about the conference venue – no grand old conference hotel in the secure zone for politicians and the media to hobnob – this year’s conference is likely to be almost entirely dominated by conversations on the internal structures of the Labour Party itself.

The Refounding Labour process, spearheaded by Peter Hain, has proposed  various measures with the aim of reconnecting the Labour Party with the public, and making it more focused on community activism.

Firstly, the relatively needless process of having Conference rubber-stamp the change from an elected Shadow Cabinet to one which is solely nominated by the Leader, Ed Miliband. In truth this change should be a matter for the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) given it is simply a change in the standing orders. However, since it was the Refounding Labour process that proposed it, it will go onto the conference floor for discussion. As a result of this expect to hear lots of chatter about which of the current incumbents wags think will be for the chop – and of course the much-mooted (hoped-for?) return of the ‘Prince Over The Water’ figure, David Miliband.

Secondly, the far more interesting proposal to add a new section to the Affiliates section of the electoral voting college of the Labour Party. So alongside the Trades Unions and the Socialist Societies such as the Fabian Society and others, registered supporters of the Labour Party will be invited to vote for leaders in the future. One can only assume that Ed Miliband won’t be expecting this to be used for a long time yet…

Further changes in this respect include restricting members and others to a maximum of one vote in a maximum of two sections of the electoral college. One for psephological  wonks really. The Trades Unions reaction to this has been relatively muted – they are presumably relieved that this is a relatively minor adjustment to their power in the party structures.

On the policy front, Shadow Ministers will set out in their keynotes a broad-brush approach to their policy portfolios, giving little specific detail but setting out a direction of travel. After the plethora of policy reviews (some say in the high 20s, others have counted over 70), members will want to see that some hard thinking has been done on issues such as health and social security – and of course on economic growth.

Names to watch on the fringe? My money is on strong performances from John Woodcock MP, Stella Creasy MP and Kate Green MP. Encounters to look out for? Well, I wouldn’t like to be stuck in the lift should Ed Balls and Alistair Darling meet unexpectedly!

Steve Race is Equalities Officer for the Young Fabians.

What is THE alternative?

Tomorrow, tens of thousands of people will descend on London to “March for the Alternative” – an anti-cuts demonstration organised by the TUC, but which is likely to draw broad support amongst the left.

In my mind, the name of the event – “March for the Alternative” – encapsulates two strategic issues for the left when opposing the cuts.

1. What is THE alternative? Does it even exist?

I’d wager that there will be a multitude of different reasons for people attending the march – they are a public sector worker facing redundancy, their local library is being closed, an elderly relative is seeing their care reduced.

And it is entirely rational for these individuals to oppose cuts in government spending for these personal reasons.

But as Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem implies, you are unlikely to achieve a coherent macro-policy simply by aggregating individual preferences – if you agree that government spending will need to be reduced, then at some point you will have to make choices as to how this is achieved.

So I don’t agree there is one alternative – THE alternative. March for AN alternative might have been a better slogan.

This isn’t a trivial point, and links to a potentially more significant issue for the left and Labour in particular in opposing the government.

2. Focusing on THE (or AN) alternative is a strategic error.

By defining clearly what you stand for, you take the focus off what you are against. Opposition should, by definition, be primarily about opposition.

But if Labour pretends to be in government* by setting out specific alternatives, rather than general guiding principles, it will become a hostage to fortune; a lot will change between now and 2015.

*Something Ed Balls is more than a little guilty of. For example, in yesterday’s Commons debates he said:

“Under Labour’s plan, the economy was set to grow strongly, unemployment was falling, and we were on track to halve the deficit in four years.”

But Labour lost an election on their plan. So it’s probably time to reflect on alternatives, while opposing the only plan being implemented – the government’s.

Alex Baker is Secretary of the Young Fabians.

A single issue voter

During the general election I came across plenty of single issue voters and in this Labour leadership election I plan on being a single issue voter myself. My issue is women in the Labour Party and what our next leader plans to do to increase the number of women participating in the Party and standing for election. My experience of being a candidate was of operating in what at times felt like an all male world. Even within the Young Fabians it is a challenge to get young women to stand for election to the Executive, although our Young Fabian Women event the other week showed we have no shortage of bright, young women with lots to offer. I want not just commitments around All Women Shortlists and balancing the cabinet, whilst important, in many ways these just disguise broader issues around the engagement of women in politics. I want to hear the candidates’ ideas around how they will get more women involved in grass roots politics, the role of women at Party Conference and how they will encourage more women to seek selection as parliamentary candidates. That’s my single issue, so far there have been a few promising murmurings from some candidates but I want more. Whoever comes out with a clear plan for getting more women active in the Labour Party gets my vote.

You can be too nice…

I was a candidate in the General Election and at my first hustings my opponent pulled out my chair for me to sit down. He was simply being polite and it was well meant, but straight away it left me feeling that I was somehow (as I was) being treated differently to the other candidates.

At tonight’s leadership hustings all the candidates went to great lengths to talk about their aspirations to widen the appeal of the Labour Party and in particular get more women involved. They were also super supportive and friendly to Diane, but in doing so somehow singled her out as different, as if she needed that extra bit of support. Now I know that people will respond with comments about nominations (indeed, one of the candidates made the same remark tonight), but regardless of how she got there, Diane is in the contest for Labour leader. She has proved herself more than capable of holding her own in public debates and whilst the older brother routine of her opponents is well meant (and probably unintentional) it risks undermining her contribution.

I realise there is no malice involved, and the other candidates are as well intentioned as my chivalrous Conservative, but if we are going to have a serious discussion about women in the Labour Party and about changing the culture of politics, we need to start with the contest itself.

The same, but different. What I learnt from the first Labour leadership hustings.

Don’t forget the Young Fabians are co-hosting a leadership hustings on Monday 14 June. For more information, visit this website.

I was lucky/unlucky enough (depending on your perspective) to attend the New Statesman Labour leadership hustings earlier in the week. As the hustings took place on the same day as nominations closed, I imagine they’ll get more media attention than the other fifty-odd hustings taking place across the country over the coming weeks. So much that could have been said about them may already have been said.

For what it’s worth, this is a (personal) summary of what I learnt at those hustings:

• The two Eds could barely conceal their contempt for one another. Ed M had a good line about it “being like the Treasury” when Ed B was pulled up for waffling. Ed B made some pointed remarks about the manifesto Ed M wrote.
• Diane Abbott will make the hustings more entertaining, for sure. But she’s likely to drag the other candidates left as they attempt to combat her popularity amongst a fairly vocal section of the Labour party. (See Hopi Sen’s post on why Mili D may come to regret Abbott being on the ballot).
• We should avoid a three-month long public self-flagellation. We lost the last election because we didn’t have a positive vision/narrative for the future of the country. Spending the whole leadership contest picking over what went wrong in 13 years will be an horrifically pointless waste of time and is unlikely to endear us to the electorate (this is an question of balance, not one of avoiding talking about the difficult introspective issues).
• Only two candidates, in my view, showed they had the ‘common touch’ – Diane Abbott and Andy Burnham. The Milibands show flashes of passion, although at times came across as managerial automatons. Ed Balls has a surprising ability to mix verbosity, pomposity and aggression when speaking.
• All of the candidates need better lines on the economic issues facing the country – Abbott, Burnham and the Milis need more substance, Balls need to stop sounding like he’s reading from a textbook.
• The consensus from those in the room tweeting about the event was that Andy Burnham had an awful hustings. I disagree. I thought he performed well and certainly better than could have been expected. He was passionate and refused to abandon his record for expediency – not populist, but principled. I think he will play well on television, too – unlike some of the other candidates. Far from being an “also ran”, I think Andy Burnham may be a dark horse in the campaign. Some of his answers lacked polish and substance, although this will change as the campaign drags on.
• David M was impressive on defence and foreign affairs. His answers on Trident showed real leadership potential, even if they weren’t universally welcomed by the audience (the event was co-sponsored by the CND).
• The battle between the Miliband brothers is going to be a key focus of the media, and their facile analysis of it will annoy and irritate me by the end of the summer.
• Andy Burnham’s make-up was good.
• This is going to be a long campaign, fuelled by the same half-baked phrases and jokes. I’m glad I’ll only be going to a couple of hustings. I’m more glad I’m not one of the candidates.
• We should have had a proper leadership contest in 2007.
• Hecklers should stop looking so smug with themselves. They are not big. Or clever.

I am undecided as to who to support. Genuinely.

In truth there is more that unites the candidates than divides them. Hopefully by September there will be an obvious choice for Leader.