It Could All Have Been So Different...

As Labour types continue with their asinine grumblings about the fact that they are no longer in power, they would do well to remember that it could all have been so different. There are two scenarios which, had they been pursued by the Labour party, could have had them still in power at the moment.

The first has been much commented on – the failure to call a General Election shortly after Brown became PM was a colossal tactical error. They would have won that election, and right now would still be in power as part of a five year term. Furthermore, Cameron – the first Tory leader since Major to be Prime Minister – would have been deposed, and the Tory modernisation programme would have been stopped in its tracks. That was the perfect time for the Labour party to win a fourth term, and they bottled it.

But there is another way in which they would have stayed in power. Had Brown been dropped and replaced by a more collegiate, affable leader such as Alan Johnson, then they would have lost fewer seats at the last election. They could never have won outright, but they would have been in a better position to claim that they were the ones that the Liberal Democrats should have negotiated with in the first instance. Furthermore, having a leader other than the egregious, arrogant Brown may have allowed for rather more successful negotiations between Labour and the Lib Dems. There would have been no guarantees about it, but a Lib/Lab Pact for the new millennium would have been far more likely with a Labour leader other than Gordon Brown. But again, the Labour party missed its opportunity.

So what to make of these costly errors? What can the Labour party learn from its mistakes? Mainly, I’d argue, that cowardice has a cost. Not going to the country in 2007 cost them the chance to win an election outright. Not replacing Brown cost them the chance of being credible coalition partners for the Liberal Democrats. Both were potentially difficult decisions fraught with risk – they would have been gambles, but they might have paid off with the prize the Labour party now seems desperate for – a continuation in power. But their cowardice stopped them, and ultimately led to them losing power. Which is perhaps the perfect epitaph for the Nu Labour years – they were ultimately kicked out of power because of the cowardice and aversion to risk that defined their time in power.