Blunkett urges Labour reality check

The Sheffield Labour MP says a “reality check” is needed so that voters are aware that politicians, even Cabinet members, only have limited power.

In a paper released today, he calls for “radical thinking” and an end to politicians making promises they cannot keep.

“We must acknowledge the important, but partial role of parliament in changing the world,” he says.

He wants a Labour government to use its power and funding to help grass roots campaigns battling powerful interests such as banks and energy companies.

The MP adds: “We must renew our radical community roots.”

Politicians, he says, must urgently re-focus their time and energy on issues affecting day-to-day life, “away from the preoccupations of the political class”.

He warns that failure to do so will lead to the election of increased numbers of “maverick” MPs, such as Bradford West’s Respect MP George Galloway, as well as greater disillusionment among voters.

In a pamphlet endorsed by Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, who has written the foreword, Mr Blunkett has sought to intervene in the ongoing debate within the Labour Party as part of the Policy Review, and in the build up to this year’s Labour Party Conference.

The pamphlet, In Defence of Politics Revisited, offers suggestions as to how people could be engaged in organising to take on vested interests and to campaign against “unacceptable global forces”.

Mr Blunkett said: “The last five years of political and economic turmoil has resulted in politics and politicians losing still further trust and confidence by the people on whose behalf action is taken.

“In the case of sovereign nations such as Greece and Italy, governments have been removed through external forces. The financial markets have, in effect, reasserted themselves following the banking crisis – at a time when elected politicians should have been demonstrating an effective counterweight to the failures of those very markets.”

He says faith in democratic institutions, the media and broader political processes has fallen to dangerously low levels.

“In order to defend politics and therefore political democracy, we need to change the way in which we ‘do’ our politics.

“By placing the power of government behind innovative and mutual self-help and successful political campaigning, it would be possible to foster a new spirit of engagement with the political process.”

The pamphlet commemorates the 50th anniversary of the publication of Bernard Crick’s In Defence of Politics. Mr Miliband said: “David Blunkett’s reconsideration of Bernard Crick’s In Defence of Politics is timely.

“Sadly, politics needs defending in this country. Few people believe it can really change the world around them. Few believe that politicians are much different from each other, and few vote. When politics becomes an increasingly minority activity, no politician or party can gain a good mandate to make the radical changes this country needs.”

Mr Blunkett says politicians are “still not confronting the stark realities of where power lies and how it might be confronted”.

His recommendations include Government funding for “community leadership programmes”, new low-interest loans to help job creation and an emphasis on “lifelong learning”.