Britain's Labor Party recovers
Only a few years ago, Britain's Labor Party seemed locked into a decline as inexorable as that of the coal mines and smokestack factories whose workers built its ranks. Now it has rebounded to a healthy lead in the polls based on a modernized, middle-class platform far removed from the old Socialist themes of nationalization, union power and unilateral nuclear disarmament.
Having lost four consecutive national elections since 1979, Labor is determined to win the next one, due no later than next spring. Tony Blair, a telegenic, media-savvy 43-year-old who became the party's leader two years ago, has modeled himself on Bill Clinton and tried to capture the broad center ground on social, economic and defense issues.
Labor's recovery is welcome. Strong competition is invigorating to democracy, just as it is in the marketplace. Labor's updated positions calling for a flexible mix of public and private ownership and more democratic decision-making serve Britain better than those they replaced. Other Labor views are vague but appealing campaign slogans whose real meaning will only become clear if the party takes power.
British politics was transformed in the 1980s by Margaret Thatcher. Breaking sharply from the aristocratic traditions of the Conservative Party, she won over much of the upwardly mobile urban middle class with an emphasis on markets, deregulation and self-reliance. But under her chosen successor, John Major, the Tories have stumbled and been riven by internal conflicts over Britain's proper role in the developing European Union.
Americans would find Labor's campaign platform, which has been on display at this week's party conference, familiar ground. In place of the old Socialist slogans are calls for combating crime, cutting taxes and assuring business profits. Blair urged his union allies to "forget the past. No more bosses versus workers. You are on the same side".
He made a direct bid for the middle-class voters Mrs. Thatcher wooed away from Labor, reaching out to small business and the self-employed with promises of tax relief, reduced bureaucracy and tight fiscal discipline. He identified Labor as "the party of law and order" and pledged to sustain a strong national defense.
Labor's clearest difference with the Conservatives is its more positive approach to the European Union. But even here the party is cautious, stressing Labor's commitment to national independence and opposition to joining a "European superstate".
Throughout the developed world, the center-left parties that regularly elected governments in the 1960s and 1970s saw voters defect in large numbers during the 1980s and early 1990s. Most have tried to rebuild their strength by modernizing their appeal, and it makes sense for British Labor to seek lessons from Bill Clinton's campaign successes.
Blair's success in broadening Labor's appeal seems real. The test now is whether he can hold this new base together in an election, and if Labor wins, in a new British government.
-- The New York Times