WITH a throwaway remark in his last TV interview on BBC Scotland, Gordon Brown let slip a revealing snippet by saying: "When Jack McConnell lost the election…" Those with ultra-sensitive political antennae recognised a depressing truth: Labour still have not learned the lessons of their 2007 defeat and are still in a state of self-delusion.
By so precisely pinning the blame on the former First Minister, Brown deliberately avoided saying "the Labour Party" or "we" – or even "Tony Blair". Coyly, the executive report to the Scottish Labour conference admits: "The mood for change was strong
." But it fails to face up to the reasons behind the mood. McConnell's lacklustre leadership was a factor but, far more, it was Blairism, cash and honours, Iraq and lies, and a taken-for-granted feeling that lost Labour its loyal heartlands in Scotland. Nor are the new leader Wendy Alexander and her financial fankles solely to blame for the horror polls which, week after week, show Scottish Labour hitting new lows.
The big question hanging over the conference should not be "Can Wendy survive?" Nor should it be about the yah-boo games at Holyrood, where Alex Salmond demonstrates his supremacy in the politics of insult and contempt. It goes without saying that the Prime Minister will offer complete support for his Scottish leader in defiance of poll results showing 70% think Salmond is doing well as First Minister, while fewer than a third think Alexander is up to her job. But Brown has an even tougher task than that: to offer a definition of Brownism that will win back Labour's lost Scottish voters.
Despite the heady early days of his leadership, when Blair was allowed to do what he wanted as long as he guaranteed victory in 1997, Scotland never bought into Blairism/New Labour. What worked in 1997 will not work now and it would be a major mistake to fall back on those policies; Brownism must not be seen as just Blairism without the bling.
As the gloss wore off Blairism, Labour lost four million-plus votes between 1997 and 2005, but they did not go to the Tories, who are still regarded as a leap too far for disillusioned left-of-centre voters. In Scotland and Wales there are alternatives – and enough electors used them to cause changes of government. Those who urged Blair to go before he lost the Scottish election were proved right. The Scottish Labour executive report explains complacently: "The SNP were seen as less dangerous than the Tories at a UK General Election. Independence was unattractive, but for many voters it was a distant concept."
When Brown took over the leadership promising change, change, change, it was no wonder he and Labour leapt in the polls. The Brown bounce, backed by an initially impressive performance in government, has turned into a slump because of a growing perception that Brownism is just a return to Blairism. In response, the Prime Minister has been talking less about his "moral compass" and more about "this new age of rising ambition, a new meritocracy, a new wave of upward social mobility". Meanwhile, core supporters are worried by ultra-Blairite utterances from ministers like James Purnell, who wants the long-term unemployed to find work or lose their benefits.
Neal Lawson, chairman of the left-wing Compass group, voiced the unease in the party last week, saying that when Brown took over last summer "we saw a new leadership style, with new ideas. Somehow over the autumn that got completely lost. The party has become demoralised as a consequence. The polls are showing this reversion to the old New Labour politics of Blairism is not where the country wants to be." The PM's task at Aviemore is much more basic than to bolster Alexander; he has to tell us what Brown's Labour stands for, especially in Scotland, but also throughout the UK.
As the leader of the party that gave Scotland devolution and the PR voting system which inevitably created a hung Holyrood and led to SNP government, Brown has to show he is prepared to live with the consequences. The argument is no longer over whether the Scottish Parliament should have more power, but how much; Brown can clear up the muddle created by cack-handed responses from the Scotland Office in Whitehall and flip-flops over whether the Barnett formula is to be reviewed.
He should also take the opportunity to crack a few heads together in the Holyrood Labour team and tell them to get over the shock of losing power and start providing some positive opposition to Salmond. Alexander's vision statement, claiming "change is what we do" may be the starting point – but the first change has to be in the huffy "we wuz robbed" attitude of those around her.
There is a danger and an opportunity for Labour in the new volatile politics in Scotland. Traditional allegiances have disappeared, but that also means poll leads and majorities can disappear like snow off a dyke. The Salmond swagger disguises the fact that there is only one seat in it and a few hundred votes might have kept Labour in coalition power. To the Scottish voters, the SNP are an alternative crew who make a tolerable show of government, but as the Salmond bandwagon rolls on, the wheels are starting to look wobbly.
Gordon Brown's task is to restore the lost soul to Scottish Labour and give some comfort to the despairing diehards who cry: "Please, can we have our Labour Party back?"
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tom.brown@scotlandonsunday.comThe full article contains 942 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
