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| Michael Heseltine's on the right road – so who's going to take it? | Michael Heseltine's on the right road – so who's going to take it? |
| (8 months later) | |
| Michael Heseltine's report on growth yesterday brought a bright shaft of old-time star quality back to the all-too-grey autumn political scene. There's a real temptation, especially for those of us who wrote about him in his prime, to get all nostalgic about Hezza. | Michael Heseltine's report on growth yesterday brought a bright shaft of old-time star quality back to the all-too-grey autumn political scene. There's a real temptation, especially for those of us who wrote about him in his prime, to get all nostalgic about Hezza. |
| But it is a temptation that should be resisted. So no Tarzan metaphors from me this time around. Nothing about the hair. Nothing about Westland. Nothing about Liverpool. Nothing about a great speech I once heard him make at the Chesterfield byelection nearly 30 years ago. What matters is whether Heseltine is right about today's problems and whether the coalition is willing or likely to listen to his many messages. | But it is a temptation that should be resisted. So no Tarzan metaphors from me this time around. Nothing about the hair. Nothing about Westland. Nothing about Liverpool. Nothing about a great speech I once heard him make at the Chesterfield byelection nearly 30 years ago. What matters is whether Heseltine is right about today's problems and whether the coalition is willing or likely to listen to his many messages. |
| Parts of what Heseltine says has been said by others, some of it by Labour. But it has not been said better. The way he makes his case is a tonic. Yes, there is always a recklessness about Heseltine. It is why he remains the greatest of the modern might-have-beens. But he is so clearly right about the big things. And that is what counts. | Parts of what Heseltine says has been said by others, some of it by Labour. But it has not been said better. The way he makes his case is a tonic. Yes, there is always a recklessness about Heseltine. It is why he remains the greatest of the modern might-have-beens. But he is so clearly right about the big things. And that is what counts. |
| Heseltine recognises that this economic crisis is different from the others that postwar Britain has experienced. He is right that we are living through the start of a large shift in global economic power that will shape our future options more than many have yet realised. And he defines the economic and political terrain of the next decade in ways that simply cannot be ignored by any politician or policy maker wishing to be taken seriously. | Heseltine recognises that this economic crisis is different from the others that postwar Britain has experienced. He is right that we are living through the start of a large shift in global economic power that will shape our future options more than many have yet realised. And he defines the economic and political terrain of the next decade in ways that simply cannot be ignored by any politician or policy maker wishing to be taken seriously. |
| He is also right to say that excessive borrowing constrains the ability of the public sector to carry the weight of a viable growth strategy. A growth strategy is also largely a private-sector strategy – another pill that is hard for some to swallow. But at the core of Heseltinism, today as in the past, is an active embrace of the role of government in stimulating and channelling that private-sector growth. The most famous thing that Heseltine ever said was that he would "intervene before breakfast, before lunch, before tea and before dinner". It was also where he was truest to himself – and where he was right. | He is also right to say that excessive borrowing constrains the ability of the public sector to carry the weight of a viable growth strategy. A growth strategy is also largely a private-sector strategy – another pill that is hard for some to swallow. But at the core of Heseltinism, today as in the past, is an active embrace of the role of government in stimulating and channelling that private-sector growth. The most famous thing that Heseltine ever said was that he would "intervene before breakfast, before lunch, before tea and before dinner". It was also where he was truest to himself – and where he was right. |
| Heseltine is too practised a political operator to allow himself to be manoeuvred into the role of opposition ringleader. Anyone listening to any of his many interviews and speeches in the past 24 hours will have seen the old ringcraft delightfully intact. | Heseltine is too practised a political operator to allow himself to be manoeuvred into the role of opposition ringleader. Anyone listening to any of his many interviews and speeches in the past 24 hours will have seen the old ringcraft delightfully intact. |
| But there is no getting away from the truth on which Labour seized yesterday. Heseltine believes – is right to believe – that the UK needs an industrial strategy. The government is equivocal. So when Heseltine says that continuing as we are is not an option, or when he says that the UK lacks a growth and wealth creation strategy, all the ringcraft in Christendom cannot disguise the fact that he is saying the government is on the wrong course. | But there is no getting away from the truth on which Labour seized yesterday. Heseltine believes – is right to believe – that the UK needs an industrial strategy. The government is equivocal. So when Heseltine says that continuing as we are is not an option, or when he says that the UK lacks a growth and wealth creation strategy, all the ringcraft in Christendom cannot disguise the fact that he is saying the government is on the wrong course. |
| If this is Heseltine's single most important criticism of government, it is far from being his only one. His report ranges wide, characteristically. It slices through the Whitehall turf war between the business department and the Home Office over immigration controls, making it clear that Heseltine believes that a country that declares itself open for business cannot at the same time be closed to people, especially if it takes its skills strategy seriously. Vince Cable will be quietly cheering that. Theresa May will seethe. | If this is Heseltine's single most important criticism of government, it is far from being his only one. His report ranges wide, characteristically. It slices through the Whitehall turf war between the business department and the Home Office over immigration controls, making it clear that Heseltine believes that a country that declares itself open for business cannot at the same time be closed to people, especially if it takes its skills strategy seriously. Vince Cable will be quietly cheering that. Theresa May will seethe. |
| Nor is Heseltine any great respecter of Eric Pickles's localism agenda, which routinely seems to take back with one hand what it gives with the other. Heseltine waxes lyrical about Victorian cities. His report has a portrait of Joseph Chamberlain on its opening page, and Hezza pointedly launched his plan in Chamberlain's Birmingham yesterday. His localist vision is nothing if not bold. He wants to reverse the drift of power and money to "London and its bureaucracies" and he wants to transform local authorities from service providers into promoters of economic development. | Nor is Heseltine any great respecter of Eric Pickles's localism agenda, which routinely seems to take back with one hand what it gives with the other. Heseltine waxes lyrical about Victorian cities. His report has a portrait of Joseph Chamberlain on its opening page, and Hezza pointedly launched his plan in Chamberlain's Birmingham yesterday. His localist vision is nothing if not bold. He wants to reverse the drift of power and money to "London and its bureaucracies" and he wants to transform local authorities from service providers into promoters of economic development. |
| Not even Heseltine in all his enthusiasm thinks this is going to happen any time soon, or maybe any time at all, but the determination is exhilarating. And so is the cultural radicalism. Heseltine isn't just in favour of localism because it feels more connected and democratic. He's in favour of it because he has a job for it to do. | Not even Heseltine in all his enthusiasm thinks this is going to happen any time soon, or maybe any time at all, but the determination is exhilarating. And so is the cultural radicalism. Heseltine isn't just in favour of localism because it feels more connected and democratic. He's in favour of it because he has a job for it to do. |
| Anyone who pines for a reinvigoration of civic England as part of the rethinking of the UK in the new British political landscape created by devolution to Scotland and Wales has an important ally in Heseltine. | Anyone who pines for a reinvigoration of civic England as part of the rethinking of the UK in the new British political landscape created by devolution to Scotland and Wales has an important ally in Heseltine. |
| Chamberlain, though, was a lot more than a municipal innovator. He saw himself as a big political strategist too. And there is an echo of his later political career in Heseltine's politically charged proposal for government to police foreign takeovers of British companies so that they benefit the industrial strategy. | Chamberlain, though, was a lot more than a municipal innovator. He saw himself as a big political strategist too. And there is an echo of his later political career in Heseltine's politically charged proposal for government to police foreign takeovers of British companies so that they benefit the industrial strategy. |
| It's a reminder that, just as Chamberlain turned to imperial preference to protect UK industry, so Heseltine's lifelong support for the European Union has had a similar industrial logic too. | It's a reminder that, just as Chamberlain turned to imperial preference to protect UK industry, so Heseltine's lifelong support for the European Union has had a similar industrial logic too. |
| But will any of it happen? David Cameron sounded enthusiastic but unspecific yesterday. The Treasury will hate the report. But that doesn't mean that the whole thing is heading for the long grass. The Heseltine report will not suddenly become the coalition's book of the year. But there's a lot in it that a coalition in search of a more substantial growth strategy can run with. | But will any of it happen? David Cameron sounded enthusiastic but unspecific yesterday. The Treasury will hate the report. But that doesn't mean that the whole thing is heading for the long grass. The Heseltine report will not suddenly become the coalition's book of the year. But there's a lot in it that a coalition in search of a more substantial growth strategy can run with. |
| They would certainly be smart to do so. Heseltine is not promoting wacky new ideas in this report. He is promoting ideas with deep Tory roots — not just in Chamberlain but in RA Butler's important but now largely forgotten industrial charter of the postwar era, and beyond that in the Tory tradition of Bolingbroke and Disraeli, with their belief that the state must act in the interests of the many. But he is also promoting mainstream ideas about the role of government in industry which are commonplace in other advanced industrial nations, not just in Europe but also in the US. | They would certainly be smart to do so. Heseltine is not promoting wacky new ideas in this report. He is promoting ideas with deep Tory roots — not just in Chamberlain but in RA Butler's important but now largely forgotten industrial charter of the postwar era, and beyond that in the Tory tradition of Bolingbroke and Disraeli, with their belief that the state must act in the interests of the many. But he is also promoting mainstream ideas about the role of government in industry which are commonplace in other advanced industrial nations, not just in Europe but also in the US. |
| It is impossible to read Heseltine's report and not be struck by the autobiographical quality of his writing. At times it is as though he is telling the story of a road not travelled by postwar Britain, a road along which a Heseltine premiership might have led us. The country would have been a better place if that had happened. But the road is still there if we want it and, as Heseltine puts it with potent clarity, we are still the ones out of step in not taking it. | It is impossible to read Heseltine's report and not be struck by the autobiographical quality of his writing. At times it is as though he is telling the story of a road not travelled by postwar Britain, a road along which a Heseltine premiership might have led us. The country would have been a better place if that had happened. But the road is still there if we want it and, as Heseltine puts it with potent clarity, we are still the ones out of step in not taking it. |
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