Vince Cable: Man of the People?

The Business Secretary Mr Vince Cable made headlines last month when he took a stand against Tory attempts to press on with worker-unfriendly policies. In the struggle to stimulate economic growth, the Tories have supported proposals to roll back labour rights under the auspices of loosing businesses of administrative burdens. Mr Cable responded by saying (Telegraph, 2012):

"Some people think that if labour rights were stripped down to the most basic minimum, employers would start hiring and the economy would soar again... This is complete nonsense."

As if to emphasize the point, Mr Cable also succeeded in negotiating a deal, alongside trade unions, to keep a major car production facility in Ellesmere Port open, active and employing (BBC, 2012). The Liberal Democrats, taking the opportunity to build bridges and cooperate with unions, are a far cry from the Labour Party, who seem to be self-destructing as they try to reorganise political power within their party.

Labour leader, Mr Ed Miliband, announced last summer his intention to encourage more of the party's membership to join directly as members rather than indirectly as part of a union voting bloc (Helm, 2011). The move involves changing how voting takes place and who can vote in party leadership elections - in what is apparently an attempt to cut the unions out of their middle man role (Wintour & Mulholland, 2012).

This all seems a symptom of the Labour Party's decades long tack towards conservatism, all with gaining the support of the centre-right and major financial institutions as the aim. But in the attempt to take the electoral fight to Tory turf, their traditional base amongst the unions has been increasingly isolated.

So it comes as poor timing for Labour that, as the unions attempt measures to assert their strength within the Labour Party (Rath, 2012), those same unions are also fostering a useful cooperation with the Liberal Democrats.

And, in turn, the Lib Dems have also made strong overtures towards the unions in recent months. Particularly demonstrative of this was Chief Secretary to the Treasury Mr Danny Alexander's strong overture to the unions in his speech at the GMB Conference:

"It was of course a Liberal Prime Minister, William Gladstone, who legalised trade unions almost 150 years ago. And together, the Trades Union movement and the Liberal Party were at the very heart of some of the key economic, political and social reforms for this country. Regulating working hours. Improving working conditions. Extending national insurance. Laying the foundations of our welfare state with the Beveridge Report."

So, at a time when Labour's closest activist members and its longest term potential political ally are working so productively together; at a time when opinion polls are hugely favourable towards Labour; it is particularly astonishing that the Labour Party can seem to be in such utter disarray.

The party has started to take some steps to address the issues it faces. The appointment of MP Mr Jon Cruddas as policy chief is a beginning (Helm & Coman, 2012). But people need to see more positive action from Labour and less score settling. There is still a long way to go before it can challenge Mr Vince Cable, and return to its place as the worker's champion.

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References:
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+ The Telegraph's 'Plans to cut employment rights "complete nonsense", says Cable'; 21 May 2012.

+ BBC's 'Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant to build new Astra'; 17 May 2012.

+ Toby Helm's 'Ed Miliband set for collision course with unions over Labour block vote'; in The Guardian; 25 June 2011.

+ Kate Rath's 'New Labour group Progress rejects GMB union "outlaw" threat'; on the BBC; 15 June 2012.

+ Toby Helm & Julian Coman's 'Labour's new policy chief: we must be bold and radical'; in The Guardian; 16 June 2012.