Labour's listening exercise has told them that Britain's a conservative country

In the wake of its defeat at last years election Labour did what modern political parties do and launched a ‘listening exercise’. This week it made its first report and the comrades didn’t like what they heard.

Paul Richards, a self described “a part-time shadow cabinet factotum” whatever that is, reported on Labourlist that British opinion was:

“tough on crime (and to hell with the causes), a preference for money to be spent in the UK’s roads and schools before those of India or Nigeria, a crackdown on benefit cheats and lazy arses who don’t want to work, and a strong desire to see the NHS and school system work properly. Add in a little mild xenophobia towards the continental Europeans and a visceral loathing of MPs and bankers”.

True, Richards used the naughty old trick of saying ‘xenophobia’ when he meant ‘Euro scepticism’ but he was right to say that:

“The shadow cabinet didn’t need 20,000 submissions to find that out; they could have spent the evening in a pub in Hemel Hempstead, Crawley or Dartford chatting to the regulars”.

That these were, apparently, the views of the British electorate was bad news for some who commented on Richards’ article. One said “I’d rather lose than win on that sort of platform” presumably because he agreed with another respondent who said “unfortunately it looks like what they want are Tory policies :-( :-(”

Indeed, it appears Labour’s listening exercise has uncovered fertile ground for the Conservatives; the desire for a law and order policy that actually punishes criminals and protects the public, a scepticism towards the efficacy and morality of foreign aid, a welfare policy that does distinguish between the deserving and undeserving poor, a desire for good health and education, and a reluctance to see any more of Britain’s government handed over to the EU. I can add the pubs of my native Walthamstow to the list of places where this is common ground.

But on many of these fields the Conservatives risk alienating this potential reservoir of support. Law and order is a fiasco. On foreign aid, while we make cuts in the UK, we have a the Prime Minister making the case for increasing  aid to countries like Pakistan and India, one of which has a space program and both of which can afford nuclear weapons. On Europe we have seen even moderate Euro sceptics move to block efforts to prevent more British money being wasted propping up the Euro.  

There are positives. On welfare reform the government has moved in a popular Conservative direction and after some initial tumult Michael Gove’s education reforms look to be taking promising shape. Health is more problematic. If the British people are ‘c’onservative, as the AV referendum drubbing suggests, this could take the form of an attachment to exactly the NHS we have now. This may be where a Conservative government has to adopt an unpopular position, but it would be on much stronger ground if it cashed in the credits currently waiting to be claimed on law and order, foreign aid and Europe.

One thing you often hear in Walthamstow’s pubs, as I’m sure you hear in the pubs of Hemel Hempstead, Crawley and Dartford, is that people feel politics and politicians are disconnected from real life, that they don’t understand their concerns. The real damage from the ‘Bigotgate’ incident for Gordon Brown was that it confirmed the sneaking suspicion that Labour is run by people who don’t like Labour voters very much. Its metropolitan leadership, for whom mass immigration is such an obvious good, simply cannot comprehend someone like Gillian Duffy. Many of them do regard people like her with utter disdain. 

The trouble is that the Conservative party currently runs the grave danger of giving that impression too. Where the average Conservative party member is close to the common ground over Europe or law and order, the leadership risks treating them with the same disdain Brown showed for Duffy. Cameron’s “closet racists” remark about a party which speaks for the large majority of British people on Europe still hangs in the air. Its little wonder that a public which feels politicians sneer at it feels disconnected from them.

There is an opportunity here. For all the fuss about ‘Blue Labour’, there is only so far Labour can move towards this common ground without breaking apart. That is because, as those glum Labour members know, this common ground is Conservative. If the Tory party pursues Conservative policies, it will reap a rich electoral harvest. If the cost of not doing this is buying the Liberal Democrats, it isn’t a price worth paying.

John Phelan blogs at The Boy Phelan and has also written for ConservativeHome and The Cobden Centre