Tribune leader, 10 January 1992
It is by no means guaranteed, but it is increasingly likely
that within six months Britain will have a Labour prime minister, if not a
majority Labour government. The focus of British politics has shifted from
Europe, on which the Tories, however dismal their actual performance, had a
significant advantage over Labour simply by dint of being in office. From now
until the election, Labour should be able to get the upper hand by focusing
attention on the domestic issues that touch everyone's everday life: the
recession, the health service, the housing crisis, the appalling state of the
economic infrastructure and so on.
It is possible that Labour will fail to turn all this to its
advantage. Accidents and the effects of Tory accusations about
Labour's tax plans apart, a commanding opinion poll lead could be undermined
by a giveaway budget in March. Nevertheless, it is not unreasonable to ask
again what has seemed for most of the past decade a daft question: What will
the next Labour government be like?
A minority Labour government would put together a Queen's
Speech largely composed of measures with which the Liberal Democrats and
nationalists had little argument and challenge them to vote against it. If they
didn't, Labour would spend a few months doing all it could to give the
impression of being a new broom then, as in 1974, go to the country again,
perhaps on a quite different manifesto. (Here, the bets must be on adoption of
electoral reform.)
A government with a small Commons majority would be only
slightly different. Given the dire state of the economy and the tiny amount of
room any government now has for macroeconomic manoeuvre, the best anyone can
expect from a Labour government without a large majority is small but
significant changes and clear signals of radical energy and intent. Socialism,
in any commonly understood sense of the word, is not on the agenda for some
time yet, if at all.
But a start can be made on repairing some of the damage done
to our economy, our society and our politics by 13 years of Tory misrule.
Labour can take Britain into the European social democratic mainstream. If
Labour manages to increase spending on pensions, child benefits, education,
health and public transport, sets up its new industrial relations framework
and makes a vigorous start on implementing its ambitious plans for democratic
reform, it will earn itself the respect of the British people and a thumping
election victory when it goes to the country again. If it dithers, it will
fail, with consequences almost too horrible to contemplate.
SHOOTING TO KILL
Last week, a Yorkshire policeman shot dead Ian Bennett, a
drunk wielding an ornamental gun who had just had a blazing row with his
girlfriend. The killing has provoked much argument about whether replica guns
should be banned, but that is not the most important question it should raise.
The police made only a cursory attempt to talk Bennett into surrendering and
the warning given him before he was shot was wholly inadequate. The police
should use firearms only as a last resort in exceptional circumstances. In this
case, they fired first and made their excuses later. Guidelines for police use
of guns need to be tightened up at once.
