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SPECIALELECTION ISSUE Fabian Review www.fabians.org.uk Spring 2010 Call yourself a progressive? Cut through the election rhetoric With Michael Marmot, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, Jonathon Porritt, Martin Narey, Richard Reeves and Phillip Blond Plus Mary Riddell interviews Alastair Campbell The quarterly magazine of the Fabian Society Volume 122 no 1 £4.95 REVIEW OF THE SPRING Image: Adrian Teal The real test The election campaign will be fought over whether or not the Tories have changed for real. But we need to get beyond the rhetoric to tell whether Cameron represents airbrushed Thatcherism or a true break with the past “Same old Tories”. Conservative party abortion time limit, both on free votes Future outcomes depend on the chairman Eric Pickles had no hesitation in government time. political arguments we have now. The when asked, in a recent interview, All of that may look more like a case defining issue should be distributional to identify his party’s main electoral of back to the future than change we can fairness in response to a fiscal crunch. vulnerability. believe in. Rhetorically, the parties agree that the His opponents agree. That the But there are reasons why it is in test of the political and policy response Conservatives haven’t changed will be Labour’s long-term interests that the should be how it impacts the worst a central Labour and Lib Dem campaign Conservatives do change, and why off, not the affluent. Progressive rhetoric message. They will have plenty of Labour’s strategic problem is that they matters – as long as it can be tested. In ammunition to the central charge that haven’t changed enough. the next parliament, the proof of the the Cameron ’change’ agenda owes Both Clement Attlee and Margaret pudding will be in the eating. more to the airbrush than any deep- Thatcher realised that a key test of deep Britain also faces a series of long- rooted ’progressive Conservativism’. change in society and politics was how term challenges where any progressive The early promise of a less pessimistic far it converted or constrained political outcome depends on locking-in solutions Toryism – “you can’t be the man on the opponents. That can determine whether for five Parliaments or more. These issues park bench saying the country’s gone to political changes endure for three can’t be taken ’above politics‘: political the dogs, and things were much better Parliaments or for three decades. competition about how to achieve the in 1985, or 1885” said George Osborne To ignore areas where arguments carbon emission commitments could – has given way to hyperbolic claims were won would underestimate make for better legislation. But it about the ‘broken society’. In the Tory Labour’s record. Traditionally, should mean all sides placing limits on age of austerity, the spending pinch will Conservatism rarely gets on to the hyper-partisan politicking – such as the be felt by public sector workers and the progressive front foot but often finds populist Tory assault on “death taxes” squeezed middle, while wealth taxes are it can live within what others create. over funding social care – which fails to cut at the top. The minimum wage, civil partnerships, engage seriously with challenges which Many of Cameron’s candidates are devolution; better maternity and all should acknowledge. sceptical about climate change and paternity leave; spending on aid and The election battle of 2010 will want a “fundamental renegotiation” even the NHS: these now form part of show how we often remain well short of Britain’s EU membership to be a the largely uncontested common sense of a progressive consensus in British priority in government. It is very likely of British politics. This is an important politics. That remains a cause worth that a Conservative majority in the progressive legacy of the last decade, fighting for too. House of Commons would see it vote but is one that doesn’t go deep enough to restore fox-hunting and restrict the to guarantee a progressive future. SK Spring 2010 Fabian Review 1 THE SPRING IN REVIEW email your views to: [email protected] © Rex Features Rex © Tim Horton and James Gregory’s Fabian book, The Solidarity Society, continues to have an impact on the future shape of Britain’s welfare strategy. Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper (below, right) launched the report in the House of Commons and the authors have presented its conclusions across Whitehall as well as to the TUC. Will Hutton recently called it “a landmark book” and its findings have been discussed in The Political Quarterly, IPPR’s journal Public Policy Research and CPAG’s Poverty. Fabian Research Director Tim Horton and economist Howard Reed published a detailed analysis of Lib Dem tax plans, which concluded that “the Liberal Democrats’ proposed tax cut fails the fairness test.” The report, published by Left Foot Forward, said that the Lib Dem’s proposed policy of “spending £17 billion on increasing the personal allowance is a very poor way to help those on low incomes…In short, it is neither the best use of the resources nor a policy which achieves its central Michael Foot (1913 – 2010). Fabian General Secretary Sunder Katwala said “Foot was an aim.” To download the report visit enduring champion of the left’s great literary traditions.” www.leftfootforward.org The Fabian New Year Conference hosted Gordon Brown’s first major speech of the election year, in which he said “social mobility will be our theme for the coming election and the coming parliamentary term… because social mobility is modern social justice”. The Prime Minister endorsed The Solidarity Society’s theme of universalism in his speech and was joined at the conference by Peter Mandelson (right), Vince Cable, Ken Livingstone, Hilary Benn and many more. Stonewall’s Ben Summerskill described the conference as ‘unmissable political detox for the start of every new year’. 2 Fabian Review Spring 2010 Fabian Review Fabian Review is the quarterly journal of the Fabian Society [email protected] INSIDE Editor Tom Hampson Assistant Editor QUESTIONS WE’RE ASKING The progressive Ed Wallis benchmarks 4 Fabian Review, like all publications of the Fabian Society, represents not the Wouldn’t it be nice 6 collective view of the Society, but only the views of the individual writers. The Sunder Katwala responsibility of the Society is limited to approving its publications as worthy Labour’s task 8 of consideration within the Labour movement. Graeme Cooke Printed by The Colourhouse Where the Lib Dems London SE14 6EB fail on fairness 10 Designed by POST ELECTION LABOUR Stuart White SoapBox Communications What makes A new political ISSN 1356 1812 a progressive identity? government? The Fabian Interview 11 Fabian Society 11 Dartmouth Street p4 p8 Call me Dave London SW1H 9BN Mary Riddell Telephone 020 7227 4900 Fax 020 7976 7153 [email protected] The top ten terrible Tories 14 www.fabians.org.uk Laurie Penny General Secretary Sunder Katwala Goodbye, hello RESEARCH 16 Research Director Paul Richards Tim Horton Research Fellow James Gregory Making Every Adult PUBlications LIB DEMS TERRIBLE TORIES Matter 17 Editorial Director Why shouldn’t How bad would “A question of whether Tom Hampson Labout voters be a Tory election Editorial Manager tempted? win be? we care” Ed Wallis p10 p14 David Blunkett EVENTS Events Director The Fabian Essay 19 Fatima Hassan Events Manager The myth of inherited Richard Lane inequality Events Manager Genna Stawski Danny Dorling FABIAN OFFICE Finance Manager Books 22 Phil Mutero Local Societies Officer American psychodrama Deborah Stoate Tom Hampson Membership Officer GENERATION NEXT INTELLIGENCE Giles Wright Who will be Are we born INTERNS Labour’s new unequal? The Fabian Society Rayhan Haque MPs? Stanley Obeyesekere Listings 23 Felix Grenfell Bozek p16 p19 Katharina Klebba Noticeboard 24 Tommy Norton FABIAN WOMEN’S NETWORK Seema Malhotra [email protected] Mary Riddell interviews Alastair Campbell on page 11. Visit www.alastaircampbell.org to get a personally signed copy of The Blair Years, with half the money going to the Labour Party. Cover photo © Press Association Spring 2010 Fabian Review 3 PROGRESSIVE BENCHMARKS The progressive benchmarks How might voters substantively judge any government which says – as the major parties do – that their aims are progressive? This Fabian Review asks non-partisan experts to set fair tests which can be applied in good faith across the next Parliament, to whoever forms the next government – to assess whether they succeeded or failed on key progressive measures. Is society stronger? Despite the debate over whether Britain is ‘broken’, all political parties now agree that Britain’s recent high levels of inequality have had profound negative social consequences. But whilst the left retains a faith in the state’s ability to improve the lot of the poorest and the right places its faith Are health inequalities narrower? in the family, the need to repair the social fabric through constraints on runaway top salaries and the bonus culture All the main political parties have a commitment to reduce receives less attention. health inequalities. The experience of the last decade shows how hard this will be to achieve. Life expectancy has risen, THE TEST: but the gap between richest and poorest has not narrowed. Compared to many other developed countries, Britain has a Any government committed to reducing the health effects high level of income inequality, with the richest 20 per cent of social and economic inequalities will have to find a new having incomes at least 7 times higher than the poorest 20 per whole of government approach. cent, leading to our comparatively poor performance on levels of mental health, teenage births, imprisonment, drug abuse, THE TEST: social mobility and more.