Jonathan Todd

Jamie Reed, MP for Copeland, reacted to Gordon Brown’s resignation as Labour leader by writing for Progress on 11 May 2010: “The PM’s decision has set in motion a leadership contest, but it also marks the beginning of a new post-Blair/Brown era in the Labour party.”

That Tony Blair’s autobiography has been published on the same day as ballot papers have been sent to party members in this contest is an unwelcome echo of this era. While his actions as PM, particularly on economic policy, have had a distinctly Thatcherite flavour, David Cameron was the first Tory leader to fully emerge from Margaret Thatcher’s shadow. He was also the first of these leaders, since John Major in 1992, to win a General Election. There is a lesson in this for Labour. And Blair’s seeming desire to play back-seat driver isn’t helpful in assisting Labour avoid the electoral fate of the Tories post-Thatcher.  

While Labour needs to move on from the Blair/Brown era, this shouldn’t mean a lurch to the left. Blair is, actually, sensible in imploring from the back-seat that any such lurches be avoided. The trouble is that it is the driver who the electorate needs to hear and their voice is drowned out by any noise coming from the back-seat. The driver also needs to hear himself think and to think afresh. Such thinking is unlikely to be assisted by the noise coming from the back-seat. The back-seat driver is right to avoid lurches to the left but the very meaning of left and right are much in flux and it is far from clear that the back-seat is truly able to think whatever unthinkables need to be thought in this context. 1994, after all, is not 2010.