Only an epic battle to shape its future can save Labour

As well they might, the Mail and Telegraph are getting rather excited about Yvette Cooper’s statements today, chiefly that Labour has to articulate a vision for the future, not end up “swallowing the Tory manifesto or looking back to our past.”

It’s believed the reference to the past was a swipe at Andy Burnham, whilst reference to the Tory manifesto is a dig at Liz Kendall, though Ms Cooper didn’t actually say this at all.
I can’t therefore agree that this is a sign of the gloves coming off, as these right-wing newspapers are suggesting, but rather an expression of common sense and self-evident truth.

Labour took an absolute thumping at the 2015 general election, against all predictions. The polls, far less wide of the mark than people are now trying to make out, showed they were roughly equal to the conservatives throughout.

That means that, in the cold light of day, at the last minute, those who were undecided just couldn’t stomach voting Labour in, and that’s a pretty damning verdict indeed.

It looks like this leadership contest, sparked by the prompt resignation of Ed Miliband, is going to drag on for some time. If truth be told, it hasn’t got nasty enough.

Labour has been attacked on all fronts. Its powerful base in Scotland has been obliterated, UKIP eroded their majorities in constituencies in the north of England, and overall they didn’t do enough to discredit David Cameron and the Conservative party, particularly in terms of regaining the people’s trust in their economic competence.

Discussing the vote in the days leading up to the election with a Labour-voting family member, I remarked that the best thing he could hope for was a Labour defeat. Had they won, they would have been forced to make a pact with the devil and working with the ghastly Scottish National Party and its bunch of yobbish MPs.

This would undoubtedly have severely undermined their legitimacy as a government, and possibly have ruined them almost, though not quite, to the extent the Lib Dems have been ruined.

If they lost this time, I argued, they had better prospects in the longer term. After the election, I still maintain that I was right in holding that view.

The other reason for my analysis is this: Labour had unwisely tried to put off a major battle for its heart and soul in electing Ed Miliband, who turned out to be the biggest disaster since Michael Foot.

Now out of the picture, it really can’t put that off anymore. It needs to make peace within its own ranks, somehow finding a way to reconcile itself to the Blair/Brown era, and finding a new, progressive, socially inclusive, aspiration-friendly alternative narrative for the future, whilst reconnecting with the people whose affinity it has lost, north and south of the border.

It can’t do this with the tribalistic class war politics of Ed Miliband. It can’t ignore the powerful force of Nationalism sweeping Britain in its various forms.

I don’t begin to know how it does this; the task is huge. Harriet Harman has been criticised this week for her change of position on an EU referendum, but actually I admire her responsiveness, pragmatism and honesty about this.

But that is only the start. All in all, I don’t see how Labour truly can exorcise its demons and emerge as a transformed political party (which it has to), without a blazing row, a bit of nastiness and a good deal of soul-searching.

A few right-wing newspapers revelling in something of nothing is one thing, but eventually, the battle for Labour’s future will really have to begin in earnest.