Sorry, Vince, the centre needs big, radical ideas before it can rise again
So Vince Cable says he could be the next prime minister. The truth is, politics is in such flux that I sometimes think the same about myself. Or anyone really – though Cable has more than an edge in the improbability overdrive stakes.
‘I could be the next PM’: Vince Cable plots path back from wilderness
Read moreWe are being governed by the Ukip wing of the Conservative party, with no unifying ideology except a vague belief in trickle-down, which even the Treasury knows is dud. We have an official opposition that yearns for socialism circa 1970. It is highly unlikely that the centre of politics will stay out in the cold for long.
The question, on the eve of Cable’s first leader’s speech, is what it can do to come back in. There seem to be at least five possible strategies.
1 Generate another Liberal revivalThis might be the obvious solution, except that most of those who might prefer it find it hard to believe it is quite practical yet. They look behind Cable, at the Lib Dems, bursting with new members, but still struggling to articulate a fundamental purpose beyond reversing Brexit. They could do, but will they?
2 Start a new partyThere is at least one, and probably more, of these on the stocks, but the people behind such parties tend to suffer from a dislike of politicians and their skills. Yet without access to those skills, they are liable to be outmanoeuvred pretty quickly.
3 Start a movementPaddy Ashdown’s More United or Gina Miller’s initiative may prove to be effective, as long as they can articulate the big policies in a convincing enough way to keep the movement united once they go beyond warm words.
4 Build an electoral pactThis is the purpose of the progressive alliance. As it stands, it has two problems: it is obsessed with electoral arithmetic, which seems to prevent MPs working together to make things happen now. Also Jeremy Corbyn and friends are busy trying to torpedo it.
5 Build a platformThis is the other side of the coin to building a movement. It requires the thinkers to shape a narrative capable of underpinning a new political force – and only then seeking out the leaders needed to espouse it. This is the strategy of radical centrist thinktanks like Open Reason or Radix (full disclosure: I helped set this one up).
All of these will happen simultaneously, probably within the next few months – with the danger that they will simply cancel each other out. Still, Cable is beginning to try to co-ordinate opposition with Labour MPs, so their combined efforts could be mutually supportive.
But there is a major problem at the heart of the whole idea of reviving the political centre. If it is to have any chance of success, it needs a big idea. An economic underpinning. A driving intellectual purpose, and one that emerges from a deep understanding of the way society is changing. It is relatively easy to unite a movement, or party, around the defence of the status quo, or existing institutions – the BBC, the NHS, the professions, the European Union (and they do need defending). But it is impossible to sustain the momentum and energy of a political movement unless it defines itself by what it is for, not just by what it is against.
it is impossible to sustain a political movement unless it defines itself by what it is for, not just by what it is against
It needs to be dangerous, crusading and critical of the status quo. One of the reasons the centre-left has been so hopeless in recent decades is that it has preferred to defend the status quo rather than propose the new settlement we so badly needed. A new, re-energised centre will suffer the same fate unless it can articulate a future we can imagine – and one that challenges the defunct economic orthodoxy, to show how it may be possible to create and spread prosperity better than the conservatives of right and left do it.
Without that, it will be dull as ditchwater. There will be many people like me (assuming the improbability overdrive fails to make me prime minister) who long for it to be exciting, successful, and above all radical.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/18/vince-cable-centre-big-radical-ideas-liberal-democrat-conference
‘I could be the next PM’: Vince Cable plots path back from wilderness
Read moreWe are being governed by the Ukip wing of the Conservative party, with no unifying ideology except a vague belief in trickle-down, which even the Treasury knows is dud. We have an official opposition that yearns for socialism circa 1970. It is highly unlikely that the centre of politics will stay out in the cold for long.
The question, on the eve of Cable’s first leader’s speech, is what it can do to come back in. There seem to be at least five possible strategies.
1 Generate another Liberal revivalThis might be the obvious solution, except that most of those who might prefer it find it hard to believe it is quite practical yet. They look behind Cable, at the Lib Dems, bursting with new members, but still struggling to articulate a fundamental purpose beyond reversing Brexit. They could do, but will they?
2 Start a new partyThere is at least one, and probably more, of these on the stocks, but the people behind such parties tend to suffer from a dislike of politicians and their skills. Yet without access to those skills, they are liable to be outmanoeuvred pretty quickly.
3 Start a movementPaddy Ashdown’s More United or Gina Miller’s initiative may prove to be effective, as long as they can articulate the big policies in a convincing enough way to keep the movement united once they go beyond warm words.
4 Build an electoral pactThis is the purpose of the progressive alliance. As it stands, it has two problems: it is obsessed with electoral arithmetic, which seems to prevent MPs working together to make things happen now. Also Jeremy Corbyn and friends are busy trying to torpedo it.
5 Build a platformThis is the other side of the coin to building a movement. It requires the thinkers to shape a narrative capable of underpinning a new political force – and only then seeking out the leaders needed to espouse it. This is the strategy of radical centrist thinktanks like Open Reason or Radix (full disclosure: I helped set this one up).
All of these will happen simultaneously, probably within the next few months – with the danger that they will simply cancel each other out. Still, Cable is beginning to try to co-ordinate opposition with Labour MPs, so their combined efforts could be mutually supportive.
But there is a major problem at the heart of the whole idea of reviving the political centre. If it is to have any chance of success, it needs a big idea. An economic underpinning. A driving intellectual purpose, and one that emerges from a deep understanding of the way society is changing. It is relatively easy to unite a movement, or party, around the defence of the status quo, or existing institutions – the BBC, the NHS, the professions, the European Union (and they do need defending). But it is impossible to sustain the momentum and energy of a political movement unless it defines itself by what it is for, not just by what it is against.
it is impossible to sustain a political movement unless it defines itself by what it is for, not just by what it is against
It needs to be dangerous, crusading and critical of the status quo. One of the reasons the centre-left has been so hopeless in recent decades is that it has preferred to defend the status quo rather than propose the new settlement we so badly needed. A new, re-energised centre will suffer the same fate unless it can articulate a future we can imagine – and one that challenges the defunct economic orthodoxy, to show how it may be possible to create and spread prosperity better than the conservatives of right and left do it.
Without that, it will be dull as ditchwater. There will be many people like me (assuming the improbability overdrive fails to make me prime minister) who long for it to be exciting, successful, and above all radical.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/18/vince-cable-centre-big-radical-ideas-liberal-democrat-conference