Who are the Tories?
And how should Labour seek to define them?
Back in 2008, towards the end of - but still very much during - the New Labour years, there was a by-election in the then Labour-held seat of Crewe and Nantwich. The long-serving MP Gwyneth Dunwoody had died creating a vacancy. The Labour Party ran Tamsin Dunwoody - the daughter of the deceased.
The Conservatives ran Edward Timpson. Timpson was a barrister working in nearby Chester and part of the family who run the well-known key cutting company.
Labour ran a highly personal and aggressive campaign against Timpson, calling him Lord Snooty and getting activists to run around after him wearing top hats. It backfired spectacularly and the Tories won their first by-election gain since 1982.
While there were many factors to Labour’s loss and the Tories gain, this story exemplifies what happens to Labour when it tries to run against the Tories of its fevered imagination rather than the real politicians and people they are or who the public see them as.
For example, Timpsons is famously a great employer, routinely appearing in the top ten places to work. They treat their employees well with many perks that are far from standard. They also run a scheme whereby 10% of their workforce is made up of ex-offenders. This is a long way from the image of a money-grubbing, hang ‘em and flog em, out of touch toff. Labour’s campaign didn’t ring true because it wasn’t true - and the public could see that.
Given this, long term Tory watchers will have found this year’s Conservative Party conference more fascinating than usual.
What we were presented with was a Conservative party that put on a united front while telling completely different stories about who they are and what they want to do. Sometimes from each other and sometimes in the same speech from the same person.
For example, Rishi Sunak gave a speech that wouldn’t have been out of place in the mouth of George Osborne. He talked of the need for an austerity response (though not quite in those terms) to the spending taken during the pandemic. While he made it clear that currently planned tax rises are happening, he also indicated that there could well be a pre-election tax give away too. So far, so Thatcherite.
But Johnson’s speech was something different. His approach to the current crisis of labour shortages, food shortages, petrol shortages and vast hikes in energy costs is to own them all as part of a transition to a new economy where more people will prosper with higher wages as employers are forced to better value scarce labour in a post-immigration society.
While the get through the wrecking part to reach the sunlit uplands may be reminiscent of Thatcher’s uncaring and unthinking destruction of the mining communities, Johnson’s approach is different. Thatcher was aiming squarely at the lower middle class made good under the years of deregulation. Johnson is aiming his rhetoric at the low paid. Those who have seen years of wage stagnation and nothing done about it. If his gamble pays off, he won’t just have been lent the Red Wall votes over Brexit, he will have earned them over pay.
Personally, I don’t think his gamble will pay off, but I do think he’s got the charisma and personal following in the country to keep selling this snake oil for some time. And hope is powerful. The Tories are offering people hope.
And whatever else it is, this isn’t Thatcherism. Boris may still pay lip service to bankers and capitalism, but in the same breath he also makes it clear that ‘fuck business’ wasn’t an off the cuff remark. This isn’t the free market allowed to run rampant. This is a strong state - there to be used in the service of populism.
Labour has to deal with this Tory party as they are not by how we see them or would prefer others did. The endless digging out of that Bullingdon photograph did little or nothing to persuade the country that David Cameron and his pals were out of touch posh boys (however true). Equally, no one really cares about Boris Johnson’s wallpaper. It may not be fair, as we know a Labour politician would be crucified for the same, but it is the case. As long as it remains that way, Labour needs to be cannier in how it attempts to attack and frame the Tories.
Because I am currently on holiday and this was my day:
I’m going to beg off giving any thoughts on how we do this in this newsletter. But accepting where we are, and who we’re up against is a good start.
What I’ve been up to
I was really honoured to be the first guest writer for Guayaba Live - a site for Latin American people living in the UK. I wrote two pieces this week - one overview of party conferences and one looking at what happened at Labour conference.
I also recorded a podcast with Marc Stears - talking about his book Out of the Ordinary. This is a lovely book about how a generation of socialists took their inspiration from the everyday and how we could again.
Finally, there is a new episode of the Zeitgeist Tapes. This month, Steve and I discuss The Founder. This 2016 film is the true story of how Ray Kroc made McDonalds what it is today. But it is about the ultimate capitalist and American tension between Main Street and Wall Street.
Reading List
No articles from me today. But I do have a reading recommendation. I have come to Norfolk - and Kings Lynn in particular - because of a series of books I absolutely adore - the Ruth Galloway mysteries by Elly Griffiths.
My whole family adore these books - we fight over who gets to read them first on our shared Kindle account. The world Griffiths has built is so wonderful and real and consuming and Ruth is such a great and achievable heroine. I have adored running around pretending to be her.
Questions, comments and arguments are very welcome. Insults will get you summarily blocked on every platform that no longer hosts Donald Trump. I’m at emmaburnell@gmail.com or on Twitter (far too often) at @EmmaBurnell_.