Jon Cruddas is right: Labour must beware the dead hand

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/29/ed-balls-blocking-labour-bold-policies

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Some policies are so wretchedly gimmicky, so blatant in their cynical political positioning, so insulting to the intelligence of the average punter, that it is tempting to drive to the nearest field and howl at the sky in exasperation. To mark Armed Forces Day, Labour trumpeted its plans to make it a "specific criminal offence to assault a member of the armed forces". As most of you are probably aware, it is already against the law to assault a soldier, or indeed anyone. Existing sentencing guidelines take into account aggravating factors. Why assaulting a teacher, nurse or firefighter is not made a specific criminal offence is left unexplained. If politicians wish to treat our armed forces with more respect, they should stop sending soldiers to be killed or maimed (or to kill and maim) in unjust foreign wars.

A minor complaint, but a revealing insight into the mindset of some of Labour's top advisers. This cynical mindset was confirmed over the weekend by leaked comments from Jon Cruddas, head of Labour's policy review, who said: "Interesting ideas and remedies are not going to emerge through Labour's policy review." Cruddas is a thoughtful man – despite a fondness for using unnecessarily clever-sounding words – though I'm not sure why members of the Labour inner circle are stealing the job of columnists in publicly critiquing the party's leadership. His suggestion that Labour strategists are creating "cynical" policies whose only purpose is to "chime with focus groups" and act as a "profound dead hand at the centre" is harsh but fair.

Cruddas's ire was particularly directed at Labour's proposal to cut benefits for young people who don't have training – a "punitive" measure, as he described it. It was plucked from the IPPR's Condition of Britain report and spun by Labour's apparatchiks to show that they're tougher than the Tories on social security – a battle they will never win. For much of Britain's youth, politicians are people who exist to give you a kicking: treble your debt if you aspire to a university education; scrap educational maintenance allowance if you're poor and want to stay on in the sixth form; slash your youth services. Labour has a strong lead among young people, just as the Tories are significantly ahead among pensioners. The difference is pensioners tend to vote while young people don't, and come next May it's difficult to see many 19-year-olds enthusiastically rushing to the ballot box to vote for a party fuelling the sense they're feckless couch-dwelling vegetables who need a kick up the backside.

When Cruddas suggests that a "dead hand" blocks bold policies, two words form before my eyes: Ed Balls. The shadow chancellor has rubbished suggestions that Labour would renationalise the railways. The public don't want it, he said, which is nonsense because every poll shows that even most Tory and Ukip voters support it. Spuriously, he dismissed nationalisation as "ideological". What could be more "ideological" than spending huge public subsidies on a largely privately run, fragmented, inefficient railway system operated in the interests of profiteers. Yet it's apparently "ideological" to have a publicly run, accountable, integrated rail system.

As we approach the election, pressure will mount on left-of-centre commentators to keep stumm about criticising the Labour leadership lest it play into the hands of the Tories. A Tory victory would be calamitous – but responsibility would lie with Labour's failure to inspire people, not with those desperate for the party to do so. Labour has a far better hand than the media elite generally let on. It's still ahead in the opinion polls, despite Tory triumphalism about an economic recovery that means zilch to struggling Britons.

Cheerleaders of Britain's stifling, failed political consensus will portray those who want Labour to break from it as fringe elements. Moderates, you see, are those who support a system that has left a million people dependent on food banks in the sixth-richest country on earth, produced the longest fall in living standards since Queen Victoria and built a nation where most people in poverty are in work. But it will be a coherent and inspiring alternative, not gimmicks, that will deliver Labour electoral victory.

Twitter: @OwenJones84