No Fun

The results of the local elections are in so now the mud can really fly between the warring factions of Labour. As always, the left will argue that the party need to be more radical and the centrists will retort that it should be more Tony Blair.

Who would win in a contest between the Tony Blair of 1997 and Boris Johnson today? A lot would depend on the support of Rupert Murdoch who is fond of telling us that he backs winners. It is one thing to back the relative newcomer Blair against Michael Howard who famously gave his own party colleague Anne Widdicombe the shivers but quite another to make the comparison with the almost cult personality status that Johnson has. Tony Blair was the right person at the right time but the political landscape has changed. Indeed, one of the most significant changes is that left wing voters are a lot more suspicious of slick talking, spin doctored politicians. It is a depressing failure of imagination to see his victories presented as the only route to electoral success.

In my first post I suggested that the British public has no real appetite for the progressive policies espoused by the left because they are just too weary. Its a bit of a sweeping statement so I had better explain myself. Listening to the language of Tory politicians, they use the expression "people are tired of..." quite often and in recent interviews, I'm pretty sure I have heard them just say "people are tired." This phrase has two effects. The obvious one is that it dismisses the topic under discussion as inconsequential and not something that should sway voters opinion. The second effect is similar but subtly different. Subliminally, the suggestion that, yes, we are tired is planted along with the implication that this party won't bother us with something so trifling in future.

The character who "works hard and plays hard" is often presented as an ideal that we should aspire to. It encourages us to enthusiastically devote energy to boosting the country's GDP as a worker so that we can become equally enthusiastic consumers of the country's services sector during our leisure time. This also works on another couple of levels for the Conservatives. It ensures that more of us are genuinely tired and wearily accepting of the status quo that is written into their name. It also means that they can portray progressive parties who would use taxation to improve equality as killjoys who are just waiting to take the money that you need to "play hard".

That leads on to another phrase which has successfully damaged Labour: "nanny state". The smoking ban is one of the greatest successes of the last Labour government and it has vastly improved public health and our environment. It is rightly lauded but it also fed the perception of the left wing as puritans who are waiting for an excuse to take away our fun.

Ultimately when we are at the ballot box we all ask the question "what's in it for me and my family?" Labour need to give a coherent answer to that question and do more to shed the image of being the party of no fun.