The Labour Party cruised to electoral success in the 2024 election with a campaign revolving around a single-word slogan: 'Change'. This replaced the slogan 'For the many, not the few' which Labour used for the previous two elections (and which on election night I likened to how when I was 16, our new headteacher changed my school's motto from 'Learn together, achieve together' to 'Achieving excellence' - my opinion of that pretty much mirrors my opinion of this).
Nevertheless, 'Change' is quite a clever slogan because it means different things to different people, which means that no one can exactly argue that change isn't needed. Almost everyone would like to see a change in something. Here's some ideas for things that 'Change' could mean, and my speculation on what Labour intends it to mean.
One way it could be interpreted is as change in our pockets. This could mean one of two things: everyone being wealthier, or a stand against a cashless society. I'd support either of these things. I'd love us all to have a bit more money, whereas the increasing digitisation of our currency and banking is something I've been campaigning against for a long time (I wrote in April about the campaign to save Halifax bank). Now that Labour is in Government, I will definitely pressure them to keep physical cash as a regular part of our lives. However, I doubt this is what 'Change' meant in the context of the Labour slogan, for no other reason that that my local Labour campaigners didn't seem to have thought of this when I suggested it to them!
It may mean a complete change in the system and the reversal of the absolute horrors of Conservative austerity. Again, this is something I'd welcome, as I'm sure most other people would. Conservative austerity has caused substantial damage to the quality of our lives, and it is this that has caused them to be so utterly wiped out across the UK, including to have lost every single MP in Wales which is where I live. Unfortunately, listening to the rhetoric from Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, such as Reeves' comment that it will be the private sector that takes charge of new housing, makes me doubt this. Still, they're very welcome to surprise me.
It could mean a change to our electoral system. This is the first change I'd wish for that I actually have hope that Labour might achieve. At the hustings, my now MP Catherine Fookes promised that Labour would extend General Elections to sixteen-year-olds, and even hinted at one point that we might replace First Past the Post with a more proportional system. Unfortunately I've learned to become extremely cynical - Keir Starmer has previously declined to make Proportional Representation an actual election pledge, whereas I've got a nasty feeling that this votes for 16-year-olds idea will go the same way as Keir Starmer's leadership pledges. Nevertheless, I am somewhat optimistic; especially given how many minority MPs managed to get into Westminster this time, I think it's possible for there to be enough pressure on the Government to properly change the system within the next Parliament.
It could mean a change to our climate. Naturally, I would NOT support increasing climate change, and I doubt the Labour Party would advertise themselves like that in the first place. Whether their policies will halt climate change or accelerate it remains to be seen - perhaps the Green Party can put the pressure on.
What I suspect 'Change' was meant to mean though, and what I repeatedly said on doorsteps, is a change to the people in Government. I do not believe that Labour had, or has, any intention of changing the status quo, merely of changing the people enacting it. It is a curious truth in politics that much of the time, slogans and titles promise the opposite of what they actually do. In the late 2010s, various MPs resigned from their parties in order to form the short-lived 'Change UK' party, and ironically its main aim seemed to be to keep the status quo exactly as it was. The politicians who made up Change UK generally had the same kinds of politics as the current senior Labour Party officials, and I think that the Labour Party's current understanding of the word 'Change' is probably quite similar.
But this does not mean that I think true change is out of reach. I believe that the outcome of that election, the number of Labour MPs whose vote majorities in their constituencies reduced significantly, and the amount of people now who will demand that their lives and futures improve, have created some great opportunities to hold the powerful to account. The powerful know this and don't want to be held to account so they will undoubtedly throw us a few more cake crumbs that they'd planned to - our job is to strategically determine when to accept them and when to stand up and say that we want more. Watch this space!
No comments:
Post a Comment