How Can Brown Win The Next Election?

As per usual, I have been made to think by another insightful comment from Daltervia, the challenge for this one reads like a Gov/Pol essay question:

Do you think that as parties stay longer in power they cling onto past realities and increasingly forget to live in the present?

I at this stage would like to point out that I am NOT taking Gov/Pol as an A-Level, but its older brother History. And it's all going to go pear-shaped with the Gladstone/Disraeli paper in a week's time (Did Gladstone have a mission to pacify Ireland, anyone?). Anyway, here we go.

A number of things happen when a party stays in power for a long time. The present situation with Labour in power is a good example of this, as is the Tory government that preceded it. By looking at these two governments, we can see the attitudes of parties that stay for a long time.

Labour have run out of ideas. This can be seen in that they are now starting to reform again the things that they reformed 1997-2000, particularly with education, where they are now implementing the "trust school" policy that is identical to a type of school that they abolished when they came to power in 1997. So we can see that the legislative wheel has turned full circle, and this obsession with change indicates that Labour have no set plan, rather they are implementing change for changes sake, which is clear from Gordon Brown's rhetoric.

By contrast, the last Tory government suffered from the opposite affliction. Partly due to a very small majority, it could not implement the "look busy" approach of Labour, and so had to fall back on the successes? of the past.

Over the last few years, Labour have emphasised their "track record," presumably so that people can know what a success they have been. But in this present time of national belt tightening, a reminder of the successes during the good times is not helpful. People want to know the solutions that will make a better tomorrow, rather than trust those who got themselves into the mess to get the nation out of it again. That is why Blair appealed to the electorate in 1997, and why Cameron is resonating with the public in this present time. These men offered hope for the future, rather than looking back at the past.

To conclude, Labour's reforming attitude is keeping it rooted firmly in the present, which was the problem with the last Tory government. Yet as a party maintains power, it starts emphasising its track record in government, which is the first step to oblivion, as when this happens, if there is a perceived economic downturn, then those who offer solutions for tomorrow, rather than those who offer a past record, will be the ones that appeal to the public the most. So overall, as a party maintains power, it becomes out of touch with the forces that got it into power, which then becomes dangerous when things start to go wrong. A party seeking to maintain power needs to stress what it has to offer tomorrow, and constantly needs to look to the future, so that it does not lose track of reality.

There we go, not really an answer to the question, but an interesting sideline.