The Rise of the Disaffected Citizen, Labour Party Conference

Our Marketing Manager, Chris Gibson writes about our Labour conference Fringe Event hosted with RSA and Ipsos MORI. 

Ben Page, Chief Executive of IpsosMORI, began the session by revealing that there was a general belief that future generations would earn less and that inequality would increase. His polling also highlighted a general sense that society was “broken” and even worse than that the country was “sick”. He showed a slide showing low levels of trust for politicians, which was one of many professions on a worryingly downward trend. Even in 1944, 25% of the country thought politicians were mostly motivated by their own interests and 22% thought they put their party first. He said that many people did not trust politicians to do what was best for them, but also did not trust themselves to take action either. People were completely divided over whether the problem was a lack of respect for authority or whether the failings of politicians caused these problems, although the majority of people appear to share one thing; a growing anxiety about the future.

Shadow Home 8Secretary Yvette Cooper MP followed, suggesting that one of the reasons why trust in politicians was currently so low was the expenses scandal. However, she also felt there was a wider problem with people failing to identify with political parties or politicians. She saw the sceptical tradition in British society as healthy, but felt that ever-escalating hostility to politics could be very negative. She hoped that people would think about the actions they could take, rather than simply fall into a “climate of angst”. Politicians needed to adapt to changes brought about by economic problems in the eurozone and the global economy, she said. It was “harder now than ever” to champion the progressive causes Labour believed in, she said, but was also a more important challenge than ever. 

Dr Hunt, Labour Member of Parliament for Stoke on Trent Central and a respected historian, said that the issues being discussed in this fringe were critical to the Labour Party. He wanted the party to be turned into a “movement for change” during its period in opposition.  He wanted a move from the Blairite approach of taking on “the old left” towards an emphasis on social enterprise on the ground. He saw Labour’s traditions as being “self help, mutualism and social action on the ground”. When discussing societies disengagement in politics, he added some perspective, saying that politics can “rise and fall”. He predicted that Labour would soon see the same increase in youth membership that the Conservatives enjoyed in opposition. He continued by emphasising his hope that the ‘The Big Society’ would succeed, “I’m very pro the Big Society”, he said. In his own constituency, he was organising an event for charities and social enterprises. 

Matthew Taylor, Direcotr of the RSA and co-sponsor of the event, argued that there was an “ever going gap” between the future people aspired to and the future Britain would get if it carried on the way it was going. He said that there was a general agreement about the kind of future the country wanted, but that current behaviour would not lead to this. He suggested this gap was the reason for the lack of respect for politics. Politicians had failed to confront the difficult choices, he said, and have instead “pandered to what we want to hear”.  

Speaking as Chair of The Social Investment Business and CEO of ACEVO, Sir Stephen Bubb begun by stating his believe that the voluntary sector had long been pushed to the margins. He saw this sector as “still an untapped resource”, and said that The Social Investment Business had been trying to support the growth of a third way of providing services. In Liverpool, there had been extensive investment in 47 local initiatives, he said. The growth of social finance would be essential in providing the capital needed for voluntary organisations to grow, he said. Furthermore, he said that the local council had not recognised the work of these community organisations. 

As the Q and A’s were drawing to a close, a question about the delivery of public services, led Matthew Taylor to say that public services needed to be re-socialised. He said that public services needed to be connected closely to their communities, and could not simply take problems away and try to solve them through democracy or the market. The Big Society agenda had not been connected with the Coalition’s public service reform agenda, he said. This was the “biggest intellectual failing” of the current Government. The Obama notion that Hope was the answer was a wrong trail and that action led to hope, and he believed that Labour needed to start working to improve society immediately, rather than simply hope it would win the next election.