The historic misjudgment of modern progressive politics is to look down on the working class – to disdain the people it’s supposed to champion.
It’s been starkly evident in the US for years. Remember Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables”? Fully two-thirds of America’s actual voters, the ones who turn out, do not have a college or university degree. The Dems “acted like these people didn’t exist”, as Democratic commentator James Carville put it. Guess who they voted for in last year’s presidential election? It wasn’t Kamala Harris.
Albanese was hailed at British Labour’s conference because he represented a centre-left political party that didn’t indulge in identity politics and culture wars. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
And British Labour made the same grave error. As Starmer confessed in his speech to the party’s annual conference this week: “Whatever our intentions, we had become a party that patronised working people.”
He’s attempting to correct this. He announced that Labour was dumping its policy aiming to get 50 per cent of British school-leavers into universities. This was powerful symbolism. The policy had been imposed by Tony Blair, the father of Britain’s “New Labour”, who’d pronounced the class war dead. But Starmer has revived the rhetoric of working-class politics.
Albanese was hailed at British Labour’s conference because he represented a centre-left political party that had not lost itself in the dead-end delusions of identity politics and culture wars. Australia’s Labor Party left that field to the Liberals at the May election, and it was disastrous for them.
“When people here” among British Labour “talk about Albanese, there’s almost a reverence,” reports Cavanough. “In the view of people here, he is the person in the centre-left globally who’s figured out this moment. He didn’t win because of slick communications or because of his oratory. He’s respected as a progressive leader delivering progressive change for workers – on wages, on cost of living, on workers’ rights. He’s lifting the living standards of working people. He is the model for progressives because he’s unashamed of his connection to working-class people.”
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Albanese’s speech to Labour’s Liverpool conclave was striking for what he did not say. He did not utter any of the pet causes of identity politics. No mention of transgender rights, black sovereignty, minority causes, marijuana.
Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign could have been on another planet when she promised to help young black men get easier access to marijuana. Albanese consistently renounces identity politics by not saying its name or naming its favourites.
The British defence secretary, John Healey, explained the value of Albanese’s address: “He spoke of the historic duty that our parties have, which is not just to protest on behalf of working people but to get into power to change things for working people,” as my colleague David Crowe reported.
“That was a very powerful message, and it is a strong theme at this conference here for us in the UK. That’s why he went down so well,” Healey said.
The anti-immigrant Reform party of Nigel Farage has surged to the top of the polls in recent months.Credit: Getty Images
Starmer and his government are in deep trouble in the polls, America’s Democrats are lost, and centre-left parties in Europe broadly are in the minority and on the defensive. Among the G10 nations, there’s only one centre-left leader to keep Starmer company, Canada’s Mark Carney. But beyond that, there’s Albanese. In government, re-elected with an enlarged majority.
Albanese didn’t pose in Liverpool as a campaigner for social justice but a practical manager of the cost of living. He described his re-election victory this way: “We didn’t pretend that we had solved every problem in just three years. But we could point to an economy that was turning the corner: inflation down, wages up, unemployment low and interest rates starting to fall.”
And he didn’t try to present a visionary agenda for the new term: “A positive plan to cut taxes, boost wages, build homes and make it easier to see a doctor for free. That is the work we are focused on delivering now.”
Albanese was too polite to mention Starmer’s greatest vulnerability – migration, and illegal immigration in particular. The anti-immigrant Reform party of Nigel Farage has surged to the top of the polls in the UK in recent months. It’s a classic protest party, stoking discontent. Its advantage is that there’s a great deal to go around.
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Reform has a scant five seats out of the total 650 in the House of Commons. It has only surmounted the polls in recent months and it might be a passing phenomenon. But Starmer has so far failed to address Britain’s economic stagnation and is failing to control illegal boat arrivals. Unless he can start solving problems, British voters might draw the same conclusion as American ones – that they might as well vote for the vengeful demagogue because they have lost hope in the parties promising solutions.
Albanese is in a stronger position. Australia’s bipartisan consensus to strictly control illegal boat arrivals has given Australians more confidence that the border is in check.
That, in turn, supports confidence in the immigration program overall. There is still much frustration with the huge two-year surge in immigration, the post-COVID catch-up. But the government has two years to bring this in check before it must go to the polls.
Albanese did, however, seek to calm his British comrades. “All of you in the UK have the most valuable resource for any Labor government.” He was speaking of time.
“To give you some sense of that, in Australia, my colleagues and I were re-elected less than five months ago. And yet, our next election is due before yours.” The message – you have time to fix problems, make a difference. He urged them to make every day count.
Albanese acknowledged Julia Gillard (right), pictured here at the conference with Victoria Starmer (left) and Jodie Haydon (centre). Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
And he did Starmer a big favour. The Australian leader put a heavy emphasis on internal unity. Australian Labor’s years of frantic fratricide are well known in Britain. Indeed, the initiator of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd wars was in the room with the British delegates. Albanese acknowledged Julia Gillard.
He cited an old worker motto: “Unity of labor is the hope of the world.” And he repeated it in his sign-off, a plain appeal to a fractious British Labour to stay with Starmer.
Sussan Ley complained that the Australian prime minister “shouldn’t be swanning around on the taxpayer dollar at Labour political conferences hanging out with his left-wing mates,” she said.
She’s right; it is a partisan indulgence. But she’d be on firmer ground if Scott Morrison, as prime minister, hadn’t appeared on stage with Donald Trump at a political rally.
Albanese would have accepted the invitation to address British Labour in any case. As McKell’s Ed Cavanough sees it, the stakes are extremely high: “Mainstream centre-right parties are on the outer, they’re almost defunct. The contest now is going to be between right-wing populists” – like Trump and Farage – “and centre-left parties.” Australian Labor’s opportunity, he argues, is to model the way a centre-left government can solve problems.
But the problem of raising living standards in Australia is very much alive. And there’s only so much Albo ale to go around.
