Roger Oldham’s delightful 1906 “Manchester Alphabet” consists of a comical collection of 26 drawings and rhymes woven around daily life in Manchester. His Alphabet starts with “A is for Ancoats” and ends with “Z is for Zoo” When he got to the letter G, Oldham had little hesitation. G is for Guardian, he decided, accompanied by a drawing of the Edwardian politicians Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Joseph Chamberlain studying the latest issue of this paper and a rhyme that begins “The Guardian is a candid friend.”
This paper has indeed always tried to be a candid friend, especially to the Labour party, which it has frequently supported editorially, most recently in the 2017 general election. The Guardian is independent of Labour, but an effective Labour party remains absolutely fundamental to the implementation and upholding of the paper’s values in international and domestic affairs. A vibrant Labour party has rarely been more essential in British political life than today, with Britain facing increasing turmoil because of the Brexit vote and polarised by widening social and economic inequalities. The need for a focused and hopeful alternative to Theresa May’s feeble, small-minded and Brexit-dominated government could hardly be more obvious.
For that reason, a candid friend must express anxiety and concern about some of Labour’s current preoccupations. It is too turned in on itself at a time when the British people need clearer leadership, above all on Brexit. To spend its time arguing within itself about definitions of antisemitism, an issue on which the party has a long and proud record and on which it has previously been united, is a self-inflicted wound at a time of such social and international crisis. To regard the deselection or disciplining of Labour MPs as a priority with only weeks to go before the Conservatives and the DUP attempt to drag Britain out of a European Union that has underpinned peace and prosperity in our part of the world for nearly 70 years will strike many Labour voters as a piece of terrible self-indulgence.
This country deserves better from its principal party of opposition than this. It deserves, most pressingly, a more decisive lead on Brexit, setting out a credible and consistent vision for the economy, for jobs, on preserving the soft Irish border and acknowledging the realities of this country’s place in Europe. It also deserves to hear far more about a party that is ready for government, with a programme of economic, social and political reform. Labour has helped to win the argument against austerity among the population at large. The country now needs to learn what can replace it. Labour should be offering radical alternatives, explaining how they fit together and how they can be financed. We do not doubt that the Conservatives deserve to lose the next general election. The anxiety is that, in its current mood and with its present priorities, Labour is not doing enough to deserve to win it.