I made two decisions last week – having contemplated both of them for months. One was to leave the Conservative party. I set out many of my reasons for that decision in my letter to David Cameron. The other was to join Labour. That I have not so far had the opportunity fully to explain.
In a sense I agreed with New Labour since its inception. After all its two cardinal principles, a competitive enterprise – friendly economy combined with social justice, are what I have stood for all my life. But it took me a long time – many years – before I appreciated the reality and the seriousness of the changes in the Labour Party. Meantime of course all my instincts were to try to get my own Party onto the right course rather than to join another. That endeavour obviously failed.
More recently Labour has adopted a programme of reform in the public services which has some of its origins in the patient-choice and parent-choice proposals of Iain Duncan-Smith (in whose Shadow Cabinet I served) and, in the case of City Academies, in Ken Baker’s concept of City Technology Colleges (I also served under Ken as a PPS in Education and Science in my first Parliament). Of course the Government have gone much further than these precursors did, and I am sure that under Gordon Brown they will go a great deal further still.
What kind of Government will Gordon Brown lead? First of all it will reflect many of his own well-known qualities. It will be very serious and very thorough. Some people may at times call it unglamorous and boring. Everyone will have to do their homework – and do it very well. The idea of tossing out policy initiatives to suit a PR agenda will be inconceivable. It will also be very straightforward. And there will be a strong sense of purpose and direction. Everyone will know exactly where they are going and why.
As far as the policies themselves are concerned I am sure that the great themes that came out in my private discussions with Gordon this spring will predominate. Competitivity will be a big one – this is a word he often uses, and it covers a vast range of Departmental areas from education and skills to energy and tax policy. I was particularly struck by Gordon’s comments to me about the need for a lighter, more intelligent, “risk based” approach to regulation.
Another big theme will be poverty – domestic and international. Gordon has a passion for this issue – and the minimum wage, and the tax credit system and our doubling of aid for Africa are already evidence of it. Here again, domestically, as in the international context, education and training are vital. But I shall be surprised if there are no measures announced to help more people out of benefit dependency and back to work. I certainly hope there will be. There are few more depressing things than healthy people spending their lives watching television or hanging out aimlessly all day on street corners.
Thirdly I think we will see a big change in openness and frankness in government, and a better balance and division of roles between the Executive and the Legislature. I believe Gordon shares the very widespread view that things did not go quite as well in this area as they should have done over the past few years. I genuinely think that the days of dodgy dossiers and “this is a good time to bury bad news” are over – at least on the Government side of the Chamber. If there is bad news – and inevitably there will be – it will be faced fairly and squarely and there will be a very serious response.
That of course has already happened. There would have been important announcements on defence and security, even if last weekend’s terrorist outrages had not occurred. We now all recognise that we face an existential threat, and that we will probably face it for some years. The fact that we have Gordon Brown in Number 10 gives me a great sense of reassurance. There are probably only three Prime Ministers since the Second World War who have faced major physical threats to the country and to our people and territory, Churchill himself, Attlee (who helped to found NATO) and Thatcher (who retook the Falklands). When it comes to the qualities needed to face a really major crisis Gordon Brown is in exactly that tradition.
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