David Lammy MP

24 September 2009

The last fifteen years have been a disorientating time to be on the Left.

After the post-war consensus was shattered by the emerging forces of social and economic liberalism, the Left had to come to terms how to reconcile its historic goals with a market economy and an increasingly individualistic society.

The result was New Labour. It represented the politics of compromise, in both the good and bad sense of the word. It argued for rights and responsibilities, economic efficiency and social justice; promised to tackle crime and the causes of crime, and that government should help people and that they should help themselves.

The question now is: where does this leave us? Did we strike the right balance and ask the right questions? Were we bold enough in the right areas?

One answer is that society is becoming more individualistic – so our politics should do too. Of course the Left must have a healthy respect for each of us as individuals: we are each unique and we want to be treated as if we matter.

But what is particular to the Left is the basic idea that we are all part of something bigger. That there is such a thing as society and that means something – from the decisions we make each day as citizens, to the kind of government and political economy that we need in the future.

This speaks to a belief in a fuller version of citizenship, in which we are clear about our responsibilities to those around us and equipped to deal with a world of freedom and choice. It demands a politics in which the market serves society, rather than the other way around. And it invokes an ethic of care which brings people together, both through government and through movements in civil society to support one another.

Fundamentally, to be on the Left is to recognise and understand the obligations we have to one another.

David Lammy is Labour MP for Tottenham and Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property

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