Nancy Riley
When asked to name her greatest achievement, Margaret Thatcher simply responded, ‘Tony Blair and New Labour.’ Thatcher strongly believed that her politics was behind the Labour Party’s sudden shift to the centre from their unionist past. In some sense, she may have been right – this version of Labour was certainly the beginning of a new political era.
Young, self-confident Tony Blair became prime minister in 1997. He signified a new identity for Labour and in turn, a new image for centrism.
There was something about its newness, the sharp shift in Labour policy made it feel almost exciting.
There was something about its newness, the sharp shift in Labour policy made it feel almost exciting. However, whilst politically centrist, Tony Blair was certainly not moderate. Drastic measures to make quick and radical changes, such as the devolution of Scotland and Wales, as well as the UK’s role in the Iraq war, proved deeply controversial, yet they captured people’s interests long enough to give the Labour Party three consecutive terms and the eventual succession of Gordon Brown.
Brown was starkly different to Blair. Centrist ideology was no longer new to the Labour Party and Brown was markedly more moderate and decidedly more dull.
After the financial crash, Brown did not last very long and the pendulum swung right back to a 14-year stint for the Conservatives. After what can only be described as the debacle of Brexit, the people, once again, found themselves fed up with the status quo of successive Conservative governments.
He [Starmer] possesses the least endearing aspects of both centrism and moderatism.
At last, in a win for New Labour, Starmer’s centrist party finally regained power, but was, somewhat predictably, faced with an unparalleled level of contempt from both the left and right.
Here, Starmer’s main issue has evidently been his ongoing attempts to try to appeal to too many people at once; he possesses the least endearing aspects of both centrism and moderatism. It is just not attractive to the average voter.
Starmer’s form of centrism has an arguable sort of nothingness about it. This is the fundamental issue with centrism, unless it takes on a real radical form, headed by a charismatic figurehead, such as in the case of Blair, it just does not fit into the neat little boxes of left and right that we all have in our heads – it is far less tribal. There is no clarity on what it is or which ‘side’ it belongs to.
Starmer has neither. He does not appeal to the desire of us versus them. He is disparaged by the right, but will never be revered by the left.
Humans have a tendency to want to be part of a clear group, the ins and the outs, the good and the bad, and our current political system feeds that. The left and the right sanctify themselves whilst vilifying the ‘other.’
Starmer has neither. He does not appeal to the desire of us versus them. He is disparaged by the right, but will never be revered by the left.
Yet humans will always have a penchant for the glamour of radicalism.
This fundamental mistake of the Labour Party is becoming increasingly obvious. People want someone they can get behind, someone with dreams of revolutionising the system, after all – dramatics are sexy. Most of the time, it does not particularly matter what the politicians are actually saying; most people cannot tell you the manifesto aims of the parties that they vote for. Yet humans will always have a penchant for the glamour of radicalism.
This brings us to today. Reform versus the Green Party. Once outliers of the archaic British political system, now they are the two main discussion points of the next election. The Gorton and Denton by-election is representative of this. How has this election in a once Labour stronghold boiled down to a fight between the two parties on opposing sides of the political spectrum? I would argue that the British public has fallen out of love with the muddled and unclear politics of the last 30 years and are looking for a more defined, sexier alternative.
Nancy Riley
Featured image courtesy of Phil Shaw via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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