Weak, Weak, Weak

Dan Hodges resigned from the Labour Party, as I recall, over Ed Miliband's spineless and opportunist behaviour over a limited military strike against Syria which continues to this day to launch 'barrel bombs' out of helicopters in indiscriminate attacks against its own people.

But for me Dan Hodges has an acute, if sometimes irreverent, insight into Labour Party affairs and probably still wants the party to succeed, if only it had a relevant message and effective leadership.

"We hate the Tories", doesn't really cut it for me and I find Ed Miliband increasingly irritating as he tries to plot his way to a Labour 'victory' based on less than 40% of the popular vote, according to all the opinion polls.     


Ed Miliband hasn't shown strength over Europe. He's lost control of the narrative

By Dan Hodges

Original photo: Getty

When I used to work for the Labour Party much of our time was spent discussing our “narrative”. We became a bit obsessed about it, actually.

Everything we did had to fit “the narrative”. Everything we said had to “expand the narrative”. Every strategy had to “support the narrative”.

Initially, when I used to attend meetings, I didn’t have a clue what “narrative” actually meant. At least not in a political context. But I noticed that any time someone mentioned it, everyone else in the meeting would look at them with newfound respect, and nod approvingly.

So I took to throwing it into conversation myself. “Good point. But I’ve got a question. Isn’t there a risk it could cut across our narrative?” Sometimes what was proposed would scythe across the narrative like a scimitar. At others it would align with the narrative with the neat precision of a jigsaw puzzle.

It didn’t really matter. I’d got in my daily narrative quotient. And I could see people looking at me and saying “Hmmm, Dan understands about narrative. He gets it.”

Over time I finally came to understand what everyone else was talking about. Basically it meant “a story”. Every policy announcement, appointment or decision had to tell the same story. Back then it was usually something about how Labour was changing, or how Labour was now appealing to the middle-class voters who had turned their backs on the party throughout the 1980s, or how Tony Blair walked on water.

And by and large the narrative held. That’s partially because we were exceptionally disciplined at deploying it and sticking to it. But mostly it’s because it was broadly true. Labour was changing, it was reaching out to the middle classes and at that time Tony Blair could indeed traverse the Thames unaided.

Yesterday, watching Ed Miliband’s shambolic Euro referendum announcement, it finally occurred to me. Labour has no narrative. Or rather, it has no coherent narrative. And the elements of a narrative it does have bear absolutely no relation to reality.

I first noticed this when I saw one of Miliband’s spinners had briefed in advance of the speech that “Our priorities for the next Parliament are the NHS, tackling the cost of living crisis and jobs.” Which is fine. The narrative here is clear: “The Tories are the one’s obsessed with Europe. We’re going to concentrate on the serious issues that matter to the country.”

But if that’s the case, why – a week before the Budget, when the Tories are starting to turn people’s attention towards the important stuff like the economy, tax, etc – did Miliband choose to give a speech that filled the best part of three news cycles with the Labour Party getting itself into a right royal mess on Europe?

The second narrative that Labour tried to deploy was this: “This statement is evidence of Ed Miliband’s strength. He has come down firmly against a Euro referendum. And that shows he is confident of victory. He is starting to talk and act like a Prime Minister.”

And again, that would have been fine if Ed Miliband had indeed stood up and said unequivocally “I am ruling out a Euro referendum.” But he didn’t. And that’s because, as I wrote yesterday, the headlines accompanying the announcement weren’t supposed to be “Ed Miliband rules out a referendum”. They were supposed to be “Ed Miliband pledges a referendum”.

A member of the shadow cabinet explained the strategy to me yesterday. “It was supposed to give people something to use on the doorstep. 'Don’t worry. You can trust us on Europe. We’re not giving away any more power without a referendum.'”

But what was most surprising was the way the speech totally undermined what, to date, has been Miliband’s main – and arguably most compelling – strategic narrative.

“Ed Miliband is good at setting the agenda,” we are constantly told. Banker bonuses. Phone-hacking. The squeezed middle. The cost of living crisis. Syria. Though I notice he’s gone a bit quiet on Syria in the last couple of months.

And as with the best narratives, this one contains a large element of truth. So why, yesterday, did he start dancing to David Cameron’s tune?

His speech was a direct response to Cameron’s own referendum pledge last year. What’s more, it was the wrong response. The politically rational course – as a number of Miliband’s shadow cabinet colleagues had been advocating – was to match that pledge, shoot the Prime Minister’s fox and let loose Nigel Farage’s. Instead he’s unloaded the bullets and tossed the gun into the English Channel. Which is why Cameron was doing cartwheels down the aisle of his flight to Israel yesterday. He knows he will now enter the election as the only party leader able to promise and deliver a Euro referendum.

In fact, yesterday’s speech undermined just about every narrative Miliband has tried to construct since becoming Labour leader. The distancing from New Labour. The idea he was the agent of change. The pledge to deliver power back into the hands of the people.

And if further underlines something I noticed when I attended Labour’s special conference at the Excel centre. Labour has no clarity of vision. That’s why there’s no settled narrative. There’s nothing to build a narrative around.

“We’re still just casting about,” one Labour MP fold me yesterday. “Cost of Living’s been tried and dumped. The Squeezed Middle’s been tried and dumped. Watch. There’s going to be a bit on child care and a bit on housing and then he’s going to run back to health. And when the Labour leader circles the wagons around the NHS you know the game’s up.”

I eventually came to understand what narrative meant. I can’t for the life of me understand why Ed Miliband doesn’t.