“That is my faith. One nation: a country for all,
with everyone playing their part. A Britain we rebuild together.”
You would have to be begrudging in the extreme not to
acknowledge that Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour Party Conference on Tuesday
was not one of the most remarkable of modern times. He had to speak both to
party and nation to convince them both he has what it takes to be Prime
Minister. In an hour long speech, without notes or prompts, he delivered that message
without a hitch.
During his discourse Ed mentioned another speech made
140 years ago in Manchester close to where he was speaking. It was Conservative
Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli’s “One Nation” speech. “One Nation”
conservatives believe societies exist and develop organically, and that members
within them have obligations towards each other. In my formative years in the
1950s and 60s “One Nation” Tories were the norm.
Today that is not the case. When Conservative Prime
Minister David Cameron said “we are all in this together” he wasn’t talking to
the nation but his millionaire colleagues around the Cabinet table as he
promised them a forty thousand pound tax rebate to be paid for by the country’s
pensioners. In capturing the “One Nation” concept for Labour Ed has stolen the
Conservatives’ clothes they wrap themselves in when wanting to deceive the
voters in to believing they are not the “nasty party”.
However it is not the Disraeli speech I want to dwell
on here but one delivered towards the end of the 2010 General Election
campaign. I will quote from Rowenna Davis’ excellent book “Tangled Up in Blue”.
Here she writes about Maurice Glasman who has been trying to persuade the Prime
Minister Gordon Brown to address a London Citizens assembly shortly before
polling day.
“In a moment of frenzied passion, Glasman wrote all
the words he wished Brown would say. It was a speech grounded in the Citizens
UK tradition – it was about Brown’s personal life, his motivation and his
identity. It referenced his childhood and his upbringing. It went right through
Brown’s campaign as a student to get a decent wage for university cleaners to
the introduction of a minimum working wage during his time as chancellor. It talked
about his role in pressuring authorities to disinvest in apartheid South
Africa, and the power of the people. It was emotional, heartfelt and genuine.
And it was sent directly from Glasman to Ed Miliband’s inbox three days before
the assembly was due to take place.”
Well Glasman, with Ed Miliband’s help, did persuade
Brown to make the speech and although some changes were made in essence it
remained in the Citizens UK tradition. Such was the power of the speech that
although Brown’s back was against the wall his popularity shot up six percent.
Coincidently in the initial days after Miliband delivered his leader’s speech
on Tuesday six percent more British voters believed he was prime ministerial
than before.
At the time of writing Brown’s speech Glasman, who was
not close to the Prime Minister, was associated with the “Blue Labour”
movement. The title “Blue Labour” has now fallen by the way side but if the
adherents to that philosophy had to choose a new name “One Nation” would do
very nicely.
In contrast to Brown, Ed Miliband has remained close
to Glasman and made him a Lord in February 2011. Hence the university political
professor has become a professional politician but there are many voices crying
out to be heard by the Labour Party leader and it isn’t always Glasman who has
his ear.
However if there is one word in the Miliband speech de
force that convinces me Glasman had some input it is the word “Faith”. Glasman
was Director of London Metropolitan University’s “Faith and Citizenship
programme”. “Faith” is a word Miliband
highlighted time and again.
“Hold on a minute” you might say, “Miliband is a
confirmed atheist, as was his father, as is his brother. How can he have faith?”
I have long argued in print that atheists, as with
people of religion who truly believe in their God, are all people of faith. The
truth is until we die we do not know if God exists or not. The act of faith is
to say when there is no certainty “there is no God”. Hence Miliband is fully
entitled to speak of his faith and indeed he based his entire speech on it.
Here are just three examples: “But I do believe the
best way me for to give back to Britain, the best way to be true to my faith,
is through politics…..That is who I am. That is what I believe. That is my
faith……And I know who I need to serve in Britain with my faith. It’s the people
I’ve met on my journey as Leader of the Opposition.”
Rowenna Davis tells us that Glasman’s Brown speech was
about his personal life, his motivation and his identity. It referenced his
childhood and his upbringing. It was emotional, heartfelt and genuine.
Miliband in his speech said: “I
want to tell you my story. I want to tell you who I am. What I believe. And why
I have a deep conviction that together we can change this country. My
conviction is rooted in my family’s story, a story that starts 1,000 miles from
here, because the Miliband’s haven’t sat under the same oak tree for the last
five hundred years.” He closed with: “That is my faith. One nation: a
country for all, with everyone playing their part. A Britain we rebuild
together.”
I am sure Rowenna Davis would use the exactly same
words to describe Miliband’s speech as she did for Brown’s – and what’s more,
they would be true.
PS: Benjamin Disraeli was Britain’s only Jewish Prime
Minister. If Ed Miliband is elected to that high office he will be the second.
(The above article appeared in the London Progressive Journal on October 7
2012)
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