Labour needs to stop being boring
This article was first published on Labour List on 1st November 2011, but notwithstanding the faltering attempts by Labour to make itself out as a 'One Nation' party, I think it is just as relevant now. “Don’t be boring in your Parliament, Dad.” Five-year old Sarah Mullin’s delightful advice to her father Chris on July 18 th 1994 (related from his diary entry for that day), is something that the whole of our political class would do well to bear in mind once in a while. The little girl’s point is even more pertinent for Labour in opposition – as indeed Mullin Snr and his colleagues were in 1994. Being boring should surely be the cardinal sin of mid-term Opposition, when it is difficult enough to get noticed even at the best of times. Yet the blunt, unvarnished truth is that Labour is actually extremely boring at the moment – even for a political geek like me. Polly Toynbee’s comment about the “ curiously bloodless Labour party ” hits the spot. We seem to be d...