Would you let him win?
Politics, says Oliver Letwin, has finally “grown up”. Being in charge of policy review in a party that looked to be on the brink of a nervous breakdown is not a task for a man with a weak stomach. And yet Letwin seems boundlessly infused with cheerfulness over this new phase of ‘consensus politics’. “People want to see a higher level of professionalism, rather than people sitting in castles shooting at one another.
I think that there is now much about which we agree • it’s no longer a Marxist versus the free market debate, and where we do disagree we can disagree in a civilised fashion.” Disarmingly affable and with a penchant for old-fashioned mannerisms, Letwin certainly seems to have left the Tory fortress and is conducting politics like a true gentleman.
There certainly are fewer grounds for jousting between the government and the party of opposition in 2006, but Letwin’s rhetorical skill sells his analysis of the merging of New Labour and Conservative party agendas. “What we ’ r e s a y - i n g is we agree about the goals, but we have fundamental differences about how you can achieve them. Labour have failed to improve public services, have failed to lift people out of poverty and multiple deprivation.
They have also failed to tackle the environment problems from which we suffer, and failed to keep the economy as competitive as it should be.” The environment? Poverty? Deprivation? The Tories quite clearly haven’t run away screaming. So how precisely do they ever intend to win an election by ideologically mirroring the government? Top-up fees provide a potent example of this dilemma. UCAS has reported that there has been a 3.4% drop in applications since the introduction of the legislation.
Rather than sticking to their pre-election guns and using this as ammunition with which to harangue the government, Letwin explains, “We’ve come to the conclusion that the universities are just not going to have the funding they need without the fees.” I ask him why he’s not worried about the drop in applications, and potential of the fees to work against those from underprivileged backgrounds.
“It is worrying, but it remains to be seen first of all whether that continues and secondly whether this is the cause of it. The system is arranged so that those who come from the families with the least money do get the most support. If there is an issue about the threshold at which people pay back the loans we’ll certainly look at that, and other details of the scheme, but in essence we can’t see another way realistically of funding the universities.
?? So what’s the appeal of voting Conservative rather than New Labour? “Labour have failed because they have been hoping that they can achieve good results from running everything from central government. If people believe that you’re more likely to get better public services, more people lifted out of poverty and dependency and a better approach to the environment by trusting people more, then people will think of voting Conservative.
?? What does he make of student apathy? “It’s the responsibility of those who are politicians to try and give people something to vote about.” Letwin mentions such issues as preventing ecological destruction and human injustice. “I think young people are more interested on average than older people are in questions of saving the planet, in questions of global polity, and in questions of social justice. I think those are things that can really motivate them.
?? Social justice and the Conservative Party reconciled? Really? I ask him about current cuts to the charity sector supporting chronic heavy drinkers and substance abusers by local governments and what his answer is to this. “That is precisely one of the topics that the social justice policy group is looking at.
Drug dependencies, family break down, poor housing, neighbourhoods that are decaying and how we can mobilise those communities themselves and the voluntary sector, social enterprise and local government to have a real turn-around effect for those areas or those communities.
?? Would it not be possible to train up people within local and central government who are skilled and equipped to deal directly with these problems? “I think it is intrinsically difficult to deal with intractable social problems on the basis solely of the bureaucratic effort.
?? Letwin realises of course that if a potential government • out of an inability to deal with human problems outside of the administrative sphere • wants to work in tandem with the voluntary sector, then that government simply has to ensure that there are greater funds available for these struggling bodies which are able to deal with the live issues. “Of course it’s the responsibility government to make sure that the funds are available.
There’s a huge amount of funding getting into these things at the moment. The question is how to use it most effectively.” So you don’t intend to raise the amount of funds available to these charities • only to redistribute it? “I think it may well be that the net result is an increase in the amount of funding available for the charitable sector that balances between the voluntary sector and the bureaucracy.
?? The man will jump through conversational hoops to avoid committing to a tax increase to raise the amount of money available to the current bodies that can deal with issues of social justice, outside of a bureaucratic reorganisation. It is striking that the Tories aren’t offering immediate tax cuts. Also, that they’ve split with the concept of selfinterested individualism, leaving it to gather dust, and instead talk about social awareness.
But does this social agenda promise a real 180 degree turn around change for those suffering in society? Despite his dismissal of the bureaucratic side of government as being under-qualified to deal with the frontline work, Letwin does have a genuine understanding of the sensitivity needed in this arena. when he addressed the Oxford Union, he spoke passionately about the man-handling of one child in a care home by the government administration, conveying a genuine sense of sympathy and care.
In spite of some media portrayal, Oliver Letwin is gregarious, likeable and extremely bright. His attitude towards the similarities of the two major parties is indeed sophisticated and ‘grown up’. Whether such a form of politics will turn the British public back to politics, though, remains to be seen.
2nd Mar 2006