It’s quite literally a ‘lightbulb moment’.
Thomas Eddison described his long work in the 1910’s to develop something the entire world would come to use in terms of learning from mistakes:
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10000 ways that won’t work.”
The Conservatives have been going through a period of having to address the mistakes that were made in the last ‘fourteen years’ whilst not throwing the baby out with the bath water. It’s a tricky thing to pull off, especially when there’s a vocal crowd insisting you haven’t even started. It still had to be done.
The key is not to be too bullish about it.
We can all learn from mistakes and whilst it is true that what some people insist needs an apology and contrition varies depending on what their pet ‘failure’ was, it’s always worth acknowledging the grievance if they are people you want to win back. Some you won’t accept as mistakes, some you should.
In terms of the last government there are some very fair grievances; losing a sense of what the party stands for, the ability to deliver on a promise, not being ‘Conservatives’, the habit even revelry in ‘blue on blue’ infighting – these are all things the Tories should keep firmly in mind, and even now accept – and demonstrate they have accepted.
It’s also true sorting out, and ignoring, those who have no intention of coming back to you but still want you on your knees, is also part of the tricky equation. However if there is a scintilla of scented opportunity to win them round, genuinely demonstrating that we understand Eddison’s ultimate triumph was built on learning from failures, is not the worst idea.
If the Conservatives truly want to ‘fix a broken system’ then learning from past mistakes has to be part of the recovery process. Launching policy you then have to clarify a day later, as befell Nigel Farage last week, speaks to the sensible rationale of making sure you do your policy thinking carefully and thoughtfully – testing it internally almost to breaking point – before giving it out to what will still be a sceptical public.
However one immediate lesson for the ‘new leadership’ we are under, is that the day to day business of opposition is not so focussed and methodical. It requires being nimble, ruthless and seeing the golden opportunity before your opponents can get their defences in.
Yesterday the Deputy Prime Minister’s titian coloured scalp was a gifted target after her tax admissions. Taking Angela Rayner down would have been a major boost to Kemi Badenoch. Before I spark annoyance in certain quarters it’s not so much my verdict but much of the parliamentary lobby and disappointed Tory MPs’ verdict that that did not happen in PMQs.
One MP messaged with a preferred opening question: “Does the Prime Minister believe working people should pay their fair share of tax?”
Another that “if you have six questions, today, every single one should have been a slam dunk against Rayner… the economic issues will still be there next week”
I said a fortnight ago the first ‘back to school’ moment for calming nerves, and invigorating the troops would be the first post summer PMQs. If you wanted a ‘banger’ this wasn’t it. Not failure, more a huge opportunity not seized. Think Kevin Klein discovering an empty safe, without diamonds, in “A Fish called Wanda”, and you have a backbench cry of “diasappointed!”
However it’s not just their own mistakes the Tories can learn from.
Reform’s habit of having to clarify what exactly a glitzy policy launch meant a day later, probably isn’t hurting them in the way it should given their polling, but it’s not a risk the Conservatives can afford. Have the answers day one. Badenoch did leap on that one.
Labour, having blamed fourteen Tory years for all their current woes have now given the country a fourteen month lesson in how not to run things, despite Starmer weakly trying to palm us all off with ‘it was just a phase we were going through’.
Their obvious mistakes are easy to avoid. Don’t run at the electorate with a ‘holier than thou’ ticket and then get caught up in hypocrisy after hypocrisy. Don’t think having a plan to win, is the same as secretly having no plan to govern. Do not assume the problems of governing are solely down to a bunch of people you don’t like. Don’t keep claiming you’ve done things, when the publicly available evidence is the complete opposite.
The Tories, still scrabbling to be heard, still with gaps of detailed policy, still bubbling in the polling zone that has scary warning klaxons around it must still come forward soon with new ideas, a clear sense of mission, and the blueprints to fix what Labour so far have shown neither the understanding of, nor – if we must – the ‘balls’ to tackle. Not looking at what Labour say but what they do, provides a welter of mistakes to learn from.
However, there’s one other lesson and that’s learning to spot the value in things your opponents might do right.
From Reform their showman ship. You don’t have to ape Farage to have a sense of theatre. Principles, values an conviction are vital, yes, but it doesn’t have to be minimalist in presentation. Not when you need people’s attention.
If it comes to that there is limited but nonetheless a lesson from the Lib Dem’s leader’s habit of falling off anything that floats, just to have a ‘now I have your attention’ moment. Don’t copy the performance but don’t discount the motivation.
And is there anything to learn from Labour?
Deputy Editor Henry Hill did a very neat analysis of Starmer’s two ‘people you’ve never heard of’ in, for ‘one person you’ve never heard of’ out’ reshuffle and I want to pick out one point.
Starmer may, or may not, have thrown his Chancellor under a bus in the process, but he’s taken her chief Treasury attack dog Darren Jones into the kennels of Number 10, and bolstered the economic team around him. It took a year for him to realise they needed this but the lesson is: long before they come close to power, and that could be a long time, the Conservatives need to crack this Treasury-Leader nexus before ever taking office.
The hegemony and orthodoxy of the Treasury, with it’s ultimate weapon of setting Departmental budgets, has consistently frustrated any centre that has a clear mission and vision. And those without, come to that.
The Telegraph’s Ben Riley-Smith, produced a handy litany of all the times this has happened but only in Government:
“(Starmer is) the latest in a long line of prime ministers trying to have more economic oversight over their chancellors, with varied successes.
Sir Tony Blair wanted more influence over Gordon Brown’s economic decision-making and even once considered moving him to foreign secretary, but ultimately did not act, as the pair’s relationship deteriorated.
Margaret Thatcher’s insistence that Alan Walters remain her economic adviser led Nigel Lawson, her chancellor, to resign in 1989, a move widely seen as hastening her departure from Downing Street.
Sir Sajid Javid resigned as Boris Johnson’s first chancellor over demands for a joint set of advisers between No 10 and No 11 pushed by Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s most influential aide at the time.”
I’m not sure the two Chancellor’s who became a Prime Minister fared better either.
The interplay of political team work needed to make the two power centres work well together should not be left to years of frustration in Government to sort. Given the relationship can have a huge effect on a government’s survival, the one-team approach is still worth fostering and growing, but it work if imposed after it’s broken.
Neither can this essential political dynamic be left to the vagaries of whether two politicians like each other or not. Getting this right is nothing less than integral to the success of a new political project. Do I think Starmer’s version will improve the economic outlook? I do not. Do I think getting the relationship right between the centre and the money people is a sound aspiration? Absolutely yes.
Learning from our own mistakes, others’ mistakes, and having the savvy to take on board some of their better ideas is not weakness it’s strategically essential, that is if you are to have the slightest chance of being ‘in with a shout’
Right now the Conservatives need some shouting – just to get heard.
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