Keep Calm and Carry On
At Open Road Towers, a bright red, wartime poster adorns the wall.
Its motto – Keep Calm and Carry On – was devised by the Ministry of Information in 1939 as war with Germany became inevitable.
It is a slogan that Labour MPs would do very well to remember over the coming months, as the parties psyche themselves up for the long campaign until the general election.
The triple whammy of the disastrous local elections, the loss of the London Mayoralty and the Crewe and Nantwich by-election were always going to make backbenchers jittery. With so many seats under threat, it was inevitable that they would apportion much of the blame for the Government’s woes to the Prime Minister. And, by and large, that wouldn’t be an unfair analysis.
But since the beginning of May, the constant speculation about Gordon Brown’s future and the sniping at the Prime Minister from disaffected Blairites (emboldened by whopping advances from publishing houses) have escalated the scale of the challenge facing the Prime Minister. And have created the impression that the next election is already lost for the Labour Party – a prophecy that will prove self-fulfilling if Labourites don’t impose a little more discipline on themselves.
It is unsurprising that someone with a reputation as tarnished as Lord Levy should seize the chance to sling the mud at someone else for once. For John Prescott to vent (or should that be vomit) up a spleen embittered from being the token Old Labourite in Cabinet is, likewise, to be expected. These comments from the wilderness should be taken for what they are – crass, ill-considered, get-rich-quick schemes.
The sniping from the backbenchers, and the briefing from Ministerial aides, is more troubling. Much of this has, of course, been exaggerated by a media that smells blood. When Phil Collins, speechwriter to Pensions Secretary James Purnell, wrote in Prospect about the scale of the challenges facing the Government, his comments (which cited both strategic error and ‘Events!’ as equally culpable) were interpreted as a unilateral attack on the Prime Minister. However they were intended, they were mischievous and unhelpful.
All Labourites, no matter how disaffected by the Government’s recent poor performance, need to remember that their position is dependent, not on how big a splash they can make on one day’s front pages, but on the party remaining united, strong and bold in outlook. Woes can, by all means, be voiced in private. But as we saw from John Major’s time in office, a Government can get by with a less-than-inspiring Prime Minister. It cannot survive a divided party.
So, as a party member, my message to Labour MPs is as follows: get your heads down, keep calm, and carry on. Your country needs you.