I hate the word “triangulation”. It reeks of political expediency, a party of, say, the left advocating right-wing proposals in the hope of retaining the base while peeling off voters from the other side. It is a term that hints at what has gone wrong with western politics, turning it into a branch of marketing rather than a quest for policies that serve the public.
But here’s the thing: Keir Starmer has an opportunity for a kind of principled triangulation that can transform British politics. The Tories, you see, are running scared of doing what all sensible people in their ranks know is imperative. The reason is that they dare not sound too right wing in the build-up to an election after a 13-year period that has included austerity, rising inequality and a hare-brained attempt by Liz Truss to turn Britain into Singapore-upon-Thames. It is why Starmer — following perhaps the worst string of administrations in postwar history — must be bold.
For who doesn’t now realise the dire state of the NHS? Rishi Sunak looked embarrassed when admitting he used private healthcare, a classic case of political correctness gone mad. Starmer can grasp the nettle of reform — and look principled in doing so. I would advise him to forget the hot air of “starting a debate” and be more explicit. Writing in The Times last week, Rohan Silva pointed to the Australian healthcare system as one that outperforms ours, combining private and social insurance — including free treatment for the less well off — but without the creaking bureaucracy of the NHS. It works particularly well for the poor.
And what about benefit fraud? It is one of the misconceptions of British politics that clamping down on deception is a right-wing concern. In fact it is the working classes who are most outraged by those who game the system. Only metropolitan lefties of the kind that voted for Jeremy Corbyn cry foul over such policies, fearing they “demonise the poor”. They do no such thing, of course; they demonise fraud. Running alongside an equally vigorous campaign to crack down on cheats at the upper end of the income scale — evaders, offshorers, Potemkin philanthropists — it will not only be a vote-winner but offer a boost to the economy.
Starmer should also seize the initiative in raising defence spending while cracking down on waste in procurement, and reform planning rules to build more houses. Another imperative is to seek closer trade relations with the EU, a policy that is impossible for Sunak to deliver, beholden, as he is, to the Little Englanders in his own party. Polling by the website UnHerd suggests that all but three of 632 constituencies surveyed now regret Brexit, making this an open goal for Labour.
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The same can be said of liberating free markets to work their magic. It shouldn’t have escaped the notice of the centre left that capitalism has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty but has been gummed up in recent years in the UK by endemic lobbying and regulatory capture. Giant corporations work hand in glove with compliant ministers to erect barriers to entry that protect them from competition — thus thwarting innovation and growth. This should be high on Starmer’s to-do list — and, again, requires only political will. Tories are not interested in such policies because the ideological right has always been more attracted to crony capitalism than the real thing.
But here’s perhaps the most important task of all: to reclaim the concept of patriotism from Tory hardliners. I guess I’m not alone in being disturbed by how this precious ideal has been hijacked by those who dehumanise asylum seekers with terms like “swarm” and “invasion” and castigate patriots like Marcus Rashford for daring to campaign against racism. That is not patriotism; it is nihilism. Starmer can shift this concept back to the centre ground by showing that national pride is the key ingredient in social justice. The creation of the welfare state, for example, required significant redistribution, but the rich willingly paid their share because they recognised the collective effort required to win the war and wanted to do their bit. It was a period when social mobility increased and growth averaged nearly 3 per cent, albeit in an era of cheap oil.
Nationalism is not dubious: it reflects the most basic feature of moral psychology — namely, the hierarchy of obligation. Starmer should be willing to say that we do not owe the same duty to people on the other side of the world as to our own poor. Likewise, we do not owe the same duty to asylum seekers — even as we seek to help genuine cases — as to those struggling at home. That is why open borders of the kind supported by the metropolitan left are inconsistent with social justice: they lead to indigenous wages being undercut (economists disagree on the precise extent) and the danger that immigration will outpace the cultural integration upon which national solidarity depends.
The left has long feared that overt patriotism is playing with fire, pointing to the jingoism that led to such dark places in the first half of the 20th century. But that, I think, is to misread history. A healthy national identity makes international co-operation easier, not harder, and restrains the dangerous impulses that demagogues seek to exploit. Right-wing populism is not an expression of national identity; it results from a crisis in national identity.
And this is the line of attack Starmer should ruthlessly exploit, questioning at every opportunity the loyalty of the Tories to the nation they serve. I mean, would you describe the Conservatives as a patriotic party, given the appeasement of Putin in the years leading up to the invasion of Ukraine (think of Crimea, Malaysia Airlines and more), even as they were snaffling Russia-linked cash? Would you describe them as a patriotic party, given that half of ministers travel through the revolving door in defiance of the public interest, and last week Philip Hammond, a shill for Saudi Arabia, gave a speech promoting the importance of trade with China?
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I don’t think so. A commitment to free markets, reform of public services and, oh yes, women’s rights may sound like a Conservative agenda, but it is one that only Labour can deliver. Over the past 13 years the Tories have destroyed Britain’s reputation for pragmatism and common sense in a bonfire of ideology, the embers of which you can still glimpse in the eyes of Jacob Rees-Mogg and his allies in the European Research Group. Starmer doesn’t have to break cover just yet, and could probably win the election by sitting back, but in the end he will be judged by what he does in government.
Does he have the balls to triangulate? I hope so.
@MatthewSyed
