In the blizzard of data around professional sport, the recording of unforced errors in tennis seems a little harsh.
Normal humans make mistakes, but we generally don’t have them counted and then talked about in front of millions of people. Instead, we are afforded a measure of privacy in which to think about what went wrong and then not make that mistake again. It does not always happen that way, especially in politics.
Many Labour delegates arrived in Liverpool in two minds. They are rightly proud to be the party of government after 14 years in opposition and only the most churlish of political observers would deny them the opportunity to celebrate and pay tribute to the hard work of party members and volunteers.
However, there was an unmistakable sense that any honeymoon period is over, ended carelessly not by circumstances or by the (invisible) opposition, but by a litany of unforced errors from the very people that lead and advise the new government.
Labour has known for some time that it would likely form a government and Keir Starmer deserves credit for the ruthless transformation of a party that only a few years ago was unelectable. It is regrettable they have given up so much political capital in such a short period of time.
Downing Street appears to be bereft of any strategic thinking around its communication. Who is looking across government to knit the whole story together and help lift the nation’s sights to the growth of which we heard so much during the election campaign? Who is imagining the consequences – intended or otherwise – of decisions such as the one to remove the winter fuel payment from pensioners? Or of ministers accepting gifts of clothes and spectacles?
By Tuesday of this week, with those high-profile missteps dominating the bar room chatter of delegates, media and visitors alike, Starmer’s speech had become much more important than it needed to be.
Following the 54-minute address, one veteran Labour politician told me it was “worthy but not inspiring” and it’s hard to argue with that. Despite the powerful rhetorical flourish towards the end, The Times’ sketch writer Tom Peck wrote that “for long periods the first Labour prime minister in 15 years sounded like a radio left on in a faraway room”.
Labour urgently needs to tell a clear and uplifting story, and provide more compelling, inspirational leadership.
Voters are not daft. They know more pain is coming but they’ve had that drummed into them for too long and the post-2010 Tory playbook – ‘the last lot spent all the money’ – is no longer working with an increasingly exhausted electorate.
What we all crave now is the belief that the discomfort will be worth it and that better times really do lie ahead. We might also be told how we get there, and when.
by Malcolm Robertson, Founding Partner
