I was going to write something about the need to for Labour to avoid the politics of envy. But I see Polly Toynbee has done it for me here. A very well-put and well-timed piece.
Medina High – my school on the Isle of Wight
Just today Labour has fallen again into the trap of talking the right’s language. It has announced a policy to make private schools ‘earn their £700m subsidy’ by forcing them to run summer schools and sponsor academies – or lose their business rate exemption. They will not be allowed to remain as ‘finishing schools for the children of oligarchs.’
Whether you like private schools or not (on balance, I do) and whether you like Tristram Hunt or not (on balance, I really do) this attacking approach is wrong-headed. And not just because private schools save the state sector £5000 per pupil, per year. If the argument were about the mathematics of subsidy, the state should be on its knees with gratitude.
But it isn’t about the maths. It’s about them and us. And that’s why Labour’s making a mistake. Because the class divide is poisonous. It is poisonous to our nation. And it is poisonous, above all, to Labour.
Because when it comes to meanness of spirit, the Tories are masters. They thrive on it. They do not believe in collective provision, or shared responsibility, or, fundamentally, community. They believe in small state and small government. They believe in every man for himself (and really, who cares about the women, the children, the disabled, the disadvantaged, the foreign, the uninsured sick?).
The more they succeed in sowing fear and resentment – the more they suggest that the state cannot and should not and will not provide – the more inclined we are to look after ourselves, and not others. And with good reason; if we can’t rely on our community and our state to support us, we must make our own provision. We must put up barriers of protection. We must, in short, be mean.
Tristram Hunt, in his article here talks about “the Berlin Wall in our education system.” But a Berlin Wall is a function of politicians talking the right’s talk of selfishness, class resentment and division. Demonising the lives of others requires, creates and reinforces walls; it does not break them down.
And in an atmosphere where this divisive talk prevails, the Tories will always, always win. Because you can’t out-do the Tories on meanness of spirit. Please, Labour, do not try.