"Internal disagreements have been driven not just by personal rivalries, but by profound differences about how, and how much, to challenge Britain's deeply embedded arrangements of power and wealth. The party's current crisis, while most directly caused by Keir Starmer's political shortcomings and the chillingly selective morality of Peter Mandelson, is really the result of one Labour tradition demonstrably failing in government to meet the needs of today's world."
"In 1985, in his first act as a senior party figure, Mandelson commissioned a report by a fellow Labour minimalist, the political analyst Philip Gould. Positive perceptions of the Labour party tend to be outweighed by negative concerns, wrote Gould, particularly [about] unacceptable beyond the pale' figures. Provocative leftwing MPs, bold-sounding leftwing policies, fierce leftwing rhetoric: all should be pared back, marginalised or dropped altogether, the two men agreed, so that Labour could reposition itself advantageously on the centre ground."
Labour contains competing traditions and factions driven by deep differences over how much to challenge Britain’s entrenched power and wealth. A dominant Labour tradition over the past 40 years—Labour minimalism—assumes England is fundamentally conservative and insists on moderate, unthreatening presentation to win elections and govern. Philip Gould and Peter Mandelson advocated sidelining provocative leftwing MPs, bold policies and fierce rhetoric to occupy the centre ground. Minimalist practice prioritized discipline, self-denial, cautious candidate selection, spending restraint and depoliticizing areas like interest-rate setting. More radical figures such as Jeremy Corbyn have challenged that approach, exposing tensions within the party.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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