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Tony Blair has talked much about 'the project'.
ambition over the past 18 months, Mul-
gan's idea that nothing requires serious
attention apart from pragmatic effective-
ness is not only wrong but curiously 'off-
message' and wholly out of synch with His
Master's Voice. It was clear from the outset
that Mr Blair saw himself in the Thatch-
But what precisely is it? Stripped of the hyperbole, erite mould and he has worked hard to
the continuities with Thatcherism are all too obvious. model himself on her style of leadership.
And with some success! Recent polls sug-
Stuart Hall examines a great missed opportunity gest the electorate is impressed with 'what
they regard as the strong Thatcherite style',
though they also seem unsure whether this
is more than 'better gloss, more PR and
spin' and, more worryingly, they doubt that
New Labour 'will make a real difference
W
hat is the political charac- the sociological trends on to the political
ter of the Blair regime? Is screen. She never supposed Thatcherite sub- and force a clean policy break with the Tory
New Labour a radically jects were already out there, fully formed, years' (The Guardian, September 28 1998).
new response to the core requiring only to be focus-grouped into Mr Blair has also modelled his ambitions
political issues of our time? Is its perspec- position. Instead, she set out to produce to make everything in Britain 'New' on
tive as broad in sweep, modern in outlook new political subjects - Entrepreneurial Thatchcrism's project of national self-
and coherent as Thatcherism's neo-liberal Man - out of the mix of altruism and com- renewal. Consequently, these days, no New
project, only different - because it is break- petitiveness of which ordinary mortals are Labour spokesperson opens his/her mouth,
ing decisively with the legacy and logic of composed. Above all she knew that, to nor journalist reports the event, without
the Thatcher years? Or is it a series of prag- achieve radical change, politics must be reference to 'the Blair project'. It is New
matic adjustments and adaptive moves to conducted like a war of position between Labour, not the intellectuals, who put this
essentially Thatcherite terrain? Since tak- adversaries. She clearly identified her ene- 'meta-political' question on the agenda. It
ing office, New Labour has certainly been mies, remorselessly dividing the political is Blair who talks of New Labour in apoca-
hyperactive, setting policy reviews in place field: Wets v Drys. Us v Them, those who lyptic terms - 'one of the great, radical,
here, legislating and innovating there. A are 'with us' v 'the enemy within'. reforming governments of our history', 'to
careful audit of the achievements and fail- be nothing less than the model twenty-first
When Marxism Today first began to dis- century nation, a beacon to the world",
ures of these early years remains to be cuss Thalcherism as a 'project', smarl-arsed
made. But that is for a different occasion. 'becoming the natural party of govern-
journalists and Labour analysts joined ment'. ("Natural parties of government' are
Here, we want to stay with "the big picture'. forces to pour scorn on the idea - a thought
Where is New Labour really going? Does those whose ideas lead on all fronts, carry-
altogether too concerted and 'continental' ing authority in every domain of life; whose
Mr Blair have a political project? for the empiricist temper of British political philosophy of change has become the com-
Thatcherism, from which Mr Blair has culture. Geoff Mulgan - Director of mon sense of the age. In the old days we
learned so much, certainly did have a pro- Demos, former MT contributor and now in used to call them 'hegemonic'.) Mr Blair is
ject. Its aim was to transform the political the Number 10 Policy Unit - advances a definitely into 'the vision thing'.
landscape, irrevocably: to make us think in similar view elsewhere in this issue. 'Mela-
and speak its language as if there were no political' questions, he says, are irrelevant - ew Labour's latest bid to give
other. It had a strategy - an idea of where it a sign that the left intellectuals who ask 'this vision thing' historic cred-
wanted to get to and how to get there. Mrs them are hopelessly isolated from the 'real' ibility and so to capture and
Thatcher had no fondness for intellectuals: business of government. They would be define 'the big picture' is the
the word 'ideas' did not trip lightly off her better employed, like Demos, thinking up 'Third Way'. This comes in several shapes
tongue. Nevertheless, everything she did concrete proposals which New Labour and sizes. There is the intellectual's version
was animated by a social 'philosophy'. could put into effect. of the 'Third Way' offered by Anthony
From a reductive reading of Adam Smith, Guilty British academics on the left are Giddens. Mr Blair's most influential intel-
she learned to see individuals as exclusive- particularly vulnerable to this kind of gross lectual, which sketches out a number of sig-
ly economic agents. From Hayek, she anti-intellectualism. However, Mulgan's nificantly novel sociological shifts which
learned that the social good is impossible to position seems disingenuous. Of course, seem to have major political consequences.
define and that to try to harness markets to policy innovation is essential to any politi- Many of these one would be happy to agree
social objectives led down a one-way slip- cal strategy - that is why Martin Jacques with or to debate further. After all, eco-
pery slope to the nanny state, misguided dreamed up the idea of Demos in the first nomic globalisation is a reality and has
social engineering, welfare dependence and place. There is lots of room for lateral transformed the space of operations and
moral degeneration - 'There is No Such thinking. But - Mr Blair's Rendezvous the 'reach' of nation states and national
Thing As Societv'. From the Monetarists With Destiny notwithstanding- May 1997 economies. There is a new individualism
she learned market fundamentalism: mar- was not the start of 'Year Zero'. All ques- abroad, due to the growing social complex-
kets are 'good' and work mysteriously to tions of perspective and strategy have not ity and diversity of modern life, which has
the benefit of all; they are self-instituting been 'solved'. As Decca Aitkenhead put it undermined much of the old collectivism
and self-regulating entities; market ratio- recently, the Blairites sometimes behave as and the political programmes it under-
nality is the only valid mode of social cal- if 'Number 10 is sorted for nuts and bolts; pinned. Many problems do present new
culation, 'market forces must prevail!' it's just not sure what sort of machine they challenges or assume new forms not well
What is more, she armed herself with a add up to". In fact, it's impossible to know covered by the old political ideologies. We
decisive analysis of the points of historical how radical and innovative a concrete pro- do need to broker a new relationship
change which had created the opening to posal is until you know which strategy it is between markets and the public good, the
Thatcherism. But she did not, like some attempting to put in place and the criteria individual and the community. These
versions of the 'Third Way', simply project against which its 'radicalism' is being sociological shifts are part of the great
T
he 'Third Way' is hot on the
responsibilities of individuals,
but those of business are passed
over with a slippery evasiveness.
'Companies,' Tony Blair argues in his
Fabian pamphlet The Third Way, 'will
devise ways to share with their staff the
wealth their know-how creates.' Will they?
The 'Third Way' does observe accelerating
social inequality but refuses to acknowl-
edge that there might be structural interests
preventing our achieving a more equitable
distribution of wealth and life-chances.
As Ross McKibbin recently remarked,
although most people 'do believe that soci-
historical rupture - the onset of late-late- also to have transcended them - to be ety should be based on some notion of fair-
'The Third ness', they also believe 'that the rich and
modernity - which Thatcherism first mas- 'beyond Right and Left'. These shifting for-
tered politically but certainly did not origi-
Way speaks mulations are not quite what one would call powerful can only be made to acknowledge
nate or set in motion. This is where as if there a project with a clear political profile. this by political action'. The 'Third Way's
Marxism Today's 'New Times' analysis and are no In so far as one can make out what it is discourse, however, is disconcertingly
its call for the reinvention of the left began, claiming, does it offer a correct strategic devoid of any sustained reference to power.
longer any Mr Blair is constantly directing us,
all those years ago. So much is indeed perspective? The fact - of which the "Third
shared territory . conflicting Way' makes a great deal - that many of the instead, to 'values'. But when one asks,
ut when we move from the interests traditional solutions of the left seem histor- 'which values?' a rousing but platitudinous
intellectual to New Labour's which ically exhausted, that its programme need- vagueness descends. He can be very
(more political and strategic ed to be radically overhauled and that there eloquent about community, an inclusive
cannot be society, with the strong supporting the
version of the 'Third Way', we are new problems which outrun its analytic
are less on the terrain of political strategy
reconciled' framework, does not mean that its princi- weak, and the value of facing challenges
and more, as Francis Wheen recently ples have nothing to offer to the task of together. The problem arises when this
observed, in some 'vacant space between political renewal on the left. Welfare communitarian side of the Blair philosophy
the Fourth Dimension and the Second reform is only one of many areas where meets head-on the equally-authentic, rock-
Coming'. The 'Third Way' has been hyped there is a continuing debate between two like, modernising, targeting, moralising
as 'a new kind of polities'. Its central claim clearly competing models, drawing on if streak in 'Blairism'. In practice it is difficult
is the discovery of a mysterious middle not identical with, the two great traditions fervently to believe in 'the politics of com-
course on every question between all the that have governed political life: the left-of- munity' and at the same time to hold
existing extremes. However, the closer one centre version, looking for new forms in unshakably to the view that the task of gov-
examines this via media, the more it looks, which to promote social solidarity, interde- ernment is 'to help individuals to help
not like a way through the problems, but a pendence and collective social provision themselves', especially when the ways of
soft-headed way around them. It speaks against market inequality and instability; implementing each so often point in dia-
with forked, or at the very least garbled, and the neo-liberal, promoting low taxes, a metrically opposed directions. Besides, as a
tongue. It is advanced as a New Interna- competitive view of human nature, market timely Guardian editorial observed: 'What
tional Model to which centre-left govern- provision and individualism. Can the distinguishes governments of the centre-
ments around the world arc even now 'tough decisions' on welfare which New left is not their values ... but their perenni-
rallying. However, when it is not raptur- Labour have been 'taking' for 18 months al dissatisfaction with what markets -
ously received, it suddenly becomes, not 'a really be 'beyond Left and Right'? Or is necessary as they are - produce.'
Model", just a 'work in progress'. Can it be that a smoke-screen thrown up to evade ' It therefore seems most unlikely that the
both heroic and tentative? It cannot make the really hard questions of political prin- shifting indecisions and ambiguous formu-
up its mind whether its aim is to capture ciple which remain deeply unresolved. lations of the 'Third Way" offer us clear
'the radical centre' or to modernise 'the guidelines for assessing the underlying
One of the core reasons for the 'Third thrust of the Blair political project. For an
centre-left' (and should not therefore be Way's semantic inexactitude - measured by
surprised to find young voters placing its answer to our original question, we will
the promiscuous proliferation of such trou- need to look at the Blair performance over-
repositioning as clearly 'centre-right'!). It bling adverbs as 'between', 'above' and
claims to draw from the repertoires of both all, sifting the strong tendencies from the
'beyond' - is its efforts to be all-inclusive. It ebb and flow of everyday governance.
the New Right and Social Democracy-but has no enemies. Everyone can belong. The
Blair: 'The reason we have been out of power for fifteen years is simple - that society changed
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It treats the global economy as being, in ince globalisation is a fact of life
effect, like the weather. In his speech to the Blair idea, and I am talking about Blair
to which There Is No Alterna-
Labour Party conference. Mr Blair por- not other people, is of a centre-left
tive, and national governments
trayed the global economy as moving so cannot hope to regulate or which is between the Democratic Party
fast, its financial flows so gigantic and so impose any order on its processes or in the US and New Labour. He believes
speedy, the pace at which it has plunged a effects. New Labour has accordingly large- that is the model for the centre-left.
third of the world economy into crisis so ly withdrawn from the active management But the alternative is New Labour or
rapid, that its operations are now effective- of the economy (in the long run, Keynes is the traditional European centre-left,
ly beyond the control of nation states and dead!'). What it has done, instead, is to set marxist, social-democratic and social-
probably of regional and international about vigorously adapting society to the christian. And there is a great difference
agencies as well. He calls this, with a weary global economy's needs, tutoring its citi- between the two. The American tradi-
finality, 'the way of the world". His zens to be self-sufficient and self-reliant in tion is fundamentally not that of the
response is to 'manage change'. But it 'New Labour
order to compete more successfully in the European social state. It may be that as
seems that what he really means is that we deals with global marketplace. The framing strategy between Republicans and Democrats,
must 'manage ourselves to adapt to globalisation of New Labour's economic repertoire the Democrats are, in terms of class
changes which we cannot otherwise con- as if it remains essentially the neo-liberal one: the composition and topographical posi-
trol' - a similar sounding but substantively deregulation of markets, the wholesale tion, the Left. But they are not the
very different kettle of fish. is a self- refashioning of the public sector by the same as the European tradition. If you
regulating, New Managerialism, the continued privati-
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his accounts for the passivity of look at the reaction, for instance, from
the Blair government, despite its implacable sation of public assets, low taxation, break- Blair and others to the election of the
pivotal role in Europe and lead- Force of ing the 'inhibitions' to market flexibility, Left in France, and Clinton in the US, it
ing position in the G7 etc, in the institutionalising the culture of private is very different. Whatever it is, New
Nature, like provision and personal risk, and privileging
face of the current crisis in Asia, Russia and Labour is not a centre-left government
elsewhere. It continued until very late to the weather' in its moral discourse the values of self-
in any traditional sense in which we in
reiterate the false reassurances that the sufficiency, competitiveness and entrepre-
neurial dynamism. Europe perceive it and that includes
Asian crisis would have little noticeable not only socialists but demo-christians,
effect on Britain. It has shown a surprising Economic Man or as s/he came to be the whole of the social state which is
lack of flexibility in the face of mounting called, The Enterprising Subject and the the central tradition of the 19th and
evidence to the contrary. It seems content Sovereign Consumer, have supplanted the 20th centuries on the continent'
to reiterate the mantra: 'The goal of eco- idea of the citizen and the public sphere. As
nomic stability and stable inflation will the government's Annual Report boldly
never be abandoned or modified. New Eric Hobsbawm, Marxism Today
reminded us: 'People arc not only citizens,
Labour is not for turning,' which sounds Seminar, 4-6 September 1998
they are also customers'. The most signifi-
increasinglv like a desperate struggle to cant breaches in this neo-liberal edifice
win. not the present, but the last war. were the statutory minimum wage and the
It has signally failed to seize the advan- Working Time directive - commitments
tage of the rapidly changing terms of New Labour would have been too abject to Labour has been quietly seduced by the
macro-economic debate to offer early, abandon. It has, however, set the minimum neo-liberal view that, as far as possible, the
effective or radical leadership to the inter- wage at the lowest politically-negotiable economy must be treated like a machine,
national community, as one country after level, excluding the sector most at risk to obeying economic 'laws' without human
another deserts the neo-Iiberal ship and structural unemployment - young people intervention. In practice, what is gained in
moves towards thinking the unthinkable - between 18 and 21. credibility by being able to say - 'The Gov-
that the unregulated movement of curren- Giving the Bank of England its indepen- ernment is not involved! Rising interest
cy and capital, aided and abetted by de- dence may have been a good idea. But only rates, an over-valued currency, falling
terrestrialised corporate power and new a touching faith in economic automatism order books and rising regional unemploy-
technology, will, if left to the 'hidden hand' can explain why this meant restricting its ment have nothing to do with us. They are
of macro-economic forces alone, bring the brief, effectively, to one dimension of eco- unfortunate 'facts of life' which folks must
whole edifice crashing to the ground. His nomic policy only - inflation - with, in simply put up with. You can't buck global
belated proposals for the reform of the effect, only one tool of economic manage- trends!" - is lost in terms of strategic con-
IMF are far from radical. Paradoxically, it ment - interest rates. It suggests that trol. Whether New Labour acknowledges
O
n the domestic front, the policy principle of 'social insurance' was not only
repertoire seems at first sight however, considerable evasiveness, both in efficient but a way of underwriting citizen-
more diverse, but has tended to Giddens's argument and in New Labour's ship; that 'universalism', despite its costs,
follow the same tendenlial appropriation of it, around the question of was essential to binding the richer sections
groove. The main emphasis has been how important the income/economic factor of society into collective forms of welfare.
thrown on to the supply side of the equa- in 'social exclusion' is and what to do about He anticipated Galbraith's argument that
tion. There have been many commendable it. Giddens' bald statement that 'exclusion the whole system would be in danger as
social-democratic interventions. But its key is not about gradations of inequality' looks soon as the rich could willingly exclude
watchwords - 'Education and Training, like a sentence in search of a 'not only' that themselves from collective provision by
Training and Education' - are driven, in went missing. buying themselves out. Why should they go
the last analysis, less by the commitment to These issues are at the heart of New on paying for a service they had ceased to
opportunities for all in a more egalitarian Labour's profound ambiguity and duplicity use? This potential 'revolt of the elites' is,
society, and more in terms of supplying around welfare reform. After months of a of course, the critical political issue in wel-
flexibility to the labour market and re-edu- Great Debate, and a disastrous and abort- fare reform. The establishment of a two-
cating people to 'get on their bikes' when
'Blair's image tiered system, with the richer sectors buy-
ed effort to begin to put 'it' into effect, we
their jobs disappear as a result of some of the citizen are still really none the wiser about what ing themselves into private provision, is
unpredictable glitch in the global market. is of the Mr Blair really thinks or proposes to do what helps to fix in stone the political
New Labour does not and cannot have lonely about welfare. We do not know whether he threshold against redistribution. It destroys
much of an industrial economic policy. But proposes to transform the welfare state to the public interest in favour of private solu-
it can and does expend enormous moral individual, tions dictated by wealth inequalities and
meet its broader social purposes more
energy seeking to change 'the culture' and "set free" of effectively, or intends to go down in histo- must drive what is then left in the residual
produce new kinds of subjects, kitted out the state to ry as the politician with the 'courage' to 'public' sector to the bottom, perpetually in
and defended against the cold winds that wind up the welfare state as the basis of the crisis and starved of investment, and propel
face the those who are left out to the margins.
blow in from the global marketplace. social settlement between the 'haves' and
hazards of the 'have-nots' which has kept twentieth
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To this source also we must trace the his 'law' is already manifest in
remoralisation of the work ethic, and the
the global century capitalist societies relatively stable education - though New Labour
restoration of that discredited and obscene weather and free of social violence. 'Reform' is the systematically refuses to confront
Victorian utilitarian distinction between alone' weasel-word, the floating signifier, which it. Buying the children out of pub-
'the deserving' and 'the undeserving' poor. masks this gaping absence. lic education and into the selective private
The New Deal subsidises training and Mr He says welfare is not reaching those system has become a habitual middle-class
Blunkett attacks class sizes and expands who are most in need. True: but it does not pastime, which New Labour's own leaders
nursery places for lone parents willing to follow that 'targeting', as such, is the cor- have indulged as lightheartedly as any
seek employment - very commendable, rect overall strategy. He says Britain, in a other ordinary, unreflective, Thatchcrite,
and about time too. New Labour will not, global economic context, cannot financial- possessive individual. 'Targeting', 'selectiv-
however, intervene to ensure that there are ly sustain it. But he does not make anything ity', and 'means testing', which Mr Blair has
jobs, though its entire welfare reforms are of the fact that the UK is about fifteenth in surreptitiously slid into place as his great
riveted to work and paid employment. the world league table of social security 'principles of reform', are destined, as sure-
Since it must depend on the private sector spending. He treats the present level of ly as night follows day, to deepen already
to provide them, it can only morally exhort. wealth distribution as a Natural Law rather existing inequalities, to increase marginal-
Hence the paradox of Jack Straw holding than a political outcome. He believes wel- isation and social exclusion, to divide soci-
parents exclusively responsible for their fare is bad for us, corrupting our morals ety into two unbridgeable tiers and further
childrens" misdemeanours while Welfare - and inducing us to commit crime. But the fragment social integration and reciprocity.
to-Work insists that anyone who can move actual level of fraud is one of the most con- Hence the muffled confusion surround-
and wants to draw a benefit must leave tested social statistics, and the Fraud Office ing the Harriet Harman/Frank Field fiasco.
their children, get up off their sick beds, systematically fails to produce the missing Mr Field bats with the best of New Labour
overcome their disability, come back out of millions. There is as much evidence that the in terms of self-righteous moralism about
retirement and work. Not since the work- really poor, of whatever kind, can't live poverty and the desire to do to people
house has labour been so fervently and decently on the level of benefits they are things which are good for their souls. His
single-mindedly valorised. offered and that many are thereby driven Methodist spirit is riveted by the fantasy of
Social inequality, broadly defined, is one to crime as there is for the proposition that the great Demon Fraud and the Feckless
of the critical defining issues of national millions of people are making a 'lifestyle Work-shy. But he understood that the prin-
politics and a crucial test of the distinction choice' to live homeless on benefit in per- ciples of contributory social insurance and
between the Blair project and market petuity. He promises the poor not social 'universalism' had to be preserved, howev-
Blair: 'The centre-left may have lost the battle of ideas in the 1980s, but we are winning now. Ai
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er modified their forms; that a network of 'Despite the gain, through debate, some broader reso- he same can be said of New
voluntary agencies could only be intro- nance in terms of the everyday lives and Labour's sense of agency - of
duced if regulated, underpinned and talk about experiences of ordinary folks, and genuine- who exactly are the political sub-
enforced by the state. He believed that participation ly be modified or win consent, has been jects in whose image the Blair
benefits must provide, not a residual but a one gets the ruthlessly emasculated. A terrifying and Revolution is made. Many of us responded
decent standard of life for those who qual- queasy obsequious uniformity of view has settled to his election as leader of the Labour Party
ify for them; and that the costs of transition over the political scene, compounded by a with the same optimism we greeted the
from one form of delivering these princi- feeling New powerful centralisation of political author- nomination of Bill Clinton. Not because we
ples to another had to be borne. These Labour finds ity, with twenty-something Young Turks agreed with everything he believed, or
were the 'unthinkable' thoughts for which the rituals of beaming out ill-will from ministerial back- properly knew what it was he did believe,
he was dismissed. The debate about how rooms, the whole caboodle under surveil- but because he was of the generation who
much, in what form, with what effects,
democratic lance from Millbank and cemented in place had lived through the Thatcher-Reagan
therefore, remains to be had. Tiered uni- practice by a low-flying authoritarianism. era, through the 1960s and the social and
versalism. combinations of public/private tiresome' The Labour benches have, with a few cultural revolutions of our time. We hoped
contributory solutions etc, remain to be honourable exceptions, been the most he would respond - however much we
debated. There is work for Demos to do! bedazzled by the hope of preferment, the might disagree in detail - with sensibilities
But only after the principles of reform have most obsequious of all. Critics, welcomed informed by these late-modern experi-
been openly and thoroughly debated. at the front door, are systematically ences. How wrong we were. The Blair
It is deeply characteristic of the whole discredited through innuendo and spin- social project is 'modernising' but modern
style of the Blair project that Great doctored at the back door as being trapped only to a very limited extent.
Debates are announced which do not actu- in a time warp, if not actually barking mad. His key social constituency in the run up
ally take place. Instead of a clear and open Anyone who does not pass the loyalty test to the election was 'Middle England' - a
laying-out of the alternatives, we have a is labelled with the ritual hate-word, 'intel- profoundly traditionalist and backward-
massive public relations and spinning exer- lectual', gathered into one indiscriminate looking cultural investment. His discourse
cise, and policy forums to speak over the heap - those who called for the reinvention on the family, social values and diversity
heads of the much-abused 'experts and crit- of the Left while Mr Blair was still, meta- remains deeply conventional. Middle Eng-
ics', direct to selectively chosen members of phorically, in his political cradle lumped in land commands some votes. But as a char-
the Great British Public. There may be an with Trotskyist wreckers - and the whole acterisation of New Labour's political
open invitation to participate, to join the shooting-match branded as 'Old Labour'. subject, it is the repository of English tradi-
consultation. But this openness is effective- 'Bring me the head of Roy Hattersley!' tionalism, irredeemably small 'c' conserva-
ly closed by Mr Blair's own already-settled Against a majority of people on the left, tive. As Jonathan Freedland recently
conviction that he is Right - what Hugo Marxism Today argued that bringing the reminded us. Middle England is a place of
Young called 'his unfreighted innocence, Labour Party into the late twentieth centu- the mind, an imagined community', always
wide-eyed rationality and untroubled self- ry and transforming many of its traditional located somewhere south or in the centre
belief. When in difficulties, the party faith- habits and programmes were necessary, if of the country, never north - though Mr
ful - about whom he is a less than devoted traumatic, events. But the reduction of the Mandelson has recently put in a claim for
admirer - are summoned to hear the mes- party to a sound-box is quite another thing. Hartlepool Man. Middle England is
sage, not to state their views. The Labour It reveals, to borrow a phrase of Martin peopled by skilled, clerical or supervisory
Party, as an organisation within which Kettle's, how far the demotic has tri- grade home-owners, never manual workers
these profound matters of strategy may umphed over the democratic in the New or public sector professionals. It is commit-
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ince the election, wc have heard charmingly characterised them, the 'chat- tions, trying to finesse the difficulties. It
less of 'Middle England' and tering classes'. Recently, he declared him- may therefore turn out to be a half-way
more of 'The People'. This is the self to have been 'never a partaker of the decent Labour government, one which one
great body of unknowns, the chattering classes'. Critics and whingers to would have been grateful to have in 'nor-
Essex Lads, the 'Babes', homines el filles the backbone, this lot 'pocket everything mal' circumstances. The times - and the
moyen sensuelles. 'The People', Jonathan that they do like and then moan about the task - however, are exceptional. And the
Freedland argues, arc the imagined subject 10 things they don't like'. He clearly found higher the spin doctors pump up the bal-
of phrases like the 'People's priorities', the it difficult to keep the tone of exasperation loon, the more firmly one becomes aware
Lottery as the "People's money', the 'Peo- out of his voice. The 'sneer squad', as he how much of it is hot air.
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ple's Princess'. The People are definitely dubbed them, occupy the forbidden zone of hat wc knew after Thatch-
not the 'working classes' or the 'under- Radio 4, The Guardian, The Observer. er was that the New Right
classes' or the 'chattering classes' or man- Newsnight, Channel 4 News. They are out- could respond to the
ual workers or lone parents or black fami- side the circle of influence, 'below the new historical conditions,
lies or trade unionists or public sector radar'. There is little doubt that the readers though the results of its attempt to do so
'Historic workers, or Labour Party rank-and-file of Marxism Today belong firmly to the were an unmitigated disaster. But could the
members, come to that. Their desires must lower circles of this encampment. Left? The Left was certainly not in good
opportunities
be flattered: 'wooed' rather than 'repre- It will inevitably be said that this account shape when New Labour took office.
don't last sented". They are spoken to rather than However, the fact is that Mr Blair does
has been unfairly selective. What about all
forever. speaking. When not watching GMTV or the good things New Labour has set in train not seem to have any deep political roots in
And they Sky Sport, they arc to be found in focus - the peace deal in Northern Ireland, its hopes and traditions. He is in some
groups. The People, Nick Sparrow ways a modern man, at ease with some
don't keep remarks, 'are those who matter once every
incorporating Human Rights into British
legislation, the minimum wage, family tax of the changes which now characterise
coming back, five years'. Their voice is The Sun. our world. But, politically, he is essentially
credit, expanding nursery places, the school
offering you Then there are The Businessmen. The and hospital building programme, breaking a post-Thatcherite figure, in the sense
a second longer New Labour governs, the more it the tide of Euro-scepticism, the move that the experience of Thatcherism
chance' cosies up to Business, reinventing itself in towards devolution, constitutional reform? was, it seems, his shaping and formative
full-dress corporate disguise. Mr Blair is Of course, these initiatives are welcome. political experience.
constantly to be seen in their company. They add up to a substantial claim on our So, try as he may to find an alternative
Visually, he is exclusively associated with support. There are many others which ground on which to stand, he finds the
Success, a dedicated follower of celebrity, point in the right direction, which we imperatives of a soft Christian humanism
which is the modern form of the success should support, though their implementa- more compelling; its cadences come to him
story. He looks decidedly uncomfortable in tion may be controversial. These include more naturally than those of the centre-left.
the company of the poor. No doubt a some of the proposals for urban renewal, He is an able and clever politician and has
Labour government needs support from the efforts to reach through to some of the become a clever, even to some a charismat-
the business community. But New Labour's deep, underlying causes of social exclusion ic, leader. Just now he is basking in the
relentless wooing of the new business nou- in communities, and the general commit- power a landslide majority has conferred
veaux riches is nothing short of abject. ment to improve standards in education - on him. And, far from betraying his princi-
Businessmen can do no wrong. Their logo though whether letting Chris Woodhead, ples, he seems totally and honestly per-
adorns every Labour Party conference del- Thatcherism's chief Enforcer, loose to suaded that what he is doing is right. He
egate's name-tag ('Serving the community brow-beat schools and abuse teachers is the has and will continue to make many impor-
nationwide' - courtesy of Somerfield super- best approach to the latter objective one tant adjustments to the legacy he inherited.
market). Their ads will soon be beamed begs leave to doubt. There is also a genuine humanity which
into every classroom that is wired up to the one would have been unwise to put any
T
he momentous landslide victory
National Grid for Learning. Their expertise of May 1997 was indeed an his- money on in Mrs Thatcher. They are simi-
is required on every public, regulatory or toric opportunity, inviting New lar figures, but they are not the same.
advisory body. They are the 'wealth Labour to the difficult task of However, the difficult truth seems to be
creators', whose salaries are beyond con- facing up to the complexities of historical that the Blair project, in its overall analysis
trol, dictated by some extraterrcstrially change and. at the same time, offering an and key assumptions, is still essentially
defined 'rate for the job': the big spenders, alternative political strategy, different from framed by and moving on terrain defined
the off-shore investing 'patriots', the and breaking decisively with the neo-liberal by Thatcherism. Mrs Thatcher had a pro-
Mercedes-Benz and Don Giovanni crowd, project which was, internationally, the first ject. Blair's historic project is adjusting Us
with a finger in every share-option deal and to It. That touches half- the modernising
- but cannot be The Only - political
a luxury pad in every global city. The fact part - of the task, as Marxism Today
response to the crisis of 'New Times'.
that, comparatively speaking, they are set argued it.
Historic opportunities, however, don't last
fair to also being the most poorly educated,
forever. And they don't keep coming back, But the other, more difficult, half- that
philistine. anti-intellectual, short-termist
offering you a second chance. So in answer- of the Left reinventing a genuinely modern
and venal 'business class' in the western
ing the big questions about the Blair pro- response to the crisis of our times - has
world does not seem to matter.
ject, one has had to be ruthlessly selective been largely abandoned. At the global and
In an ill-advised attempt to appropriate and go for the strategic choices, trying to domestic levels, the broad parameters of
the spirit of the new British cultural revival, identify the persistent tendencies: what the 'turn' which Thatcherism made have
there was, briefly, 'Cool Britannia'. But it seems to be the underlying framework of not been radically modified or reversed.
was short-lived. The energy levels here assumptions, the shaping 'philosophy'. The project of renewal thus remains rough-
proved too high, the swing too wild and The picture is ambiguous. There are still ly where it did when Marxism Today pub-
unmanageable, the rhythms too loud, the counter-arguments to hear. New Labour lished its final issue. Mr Blair seems to have
fashion too see-through, the culture too remains in some ways an enigma, and Mr learned some of the words. But. sadly, he
'multi-cultural', too full of clever creative Blair, either despite of or because of his has forgotten the music.•