Saturday 8 November 2008

Cameron doesn't get politics of hope - Lammy

"David Cameron says this society is broken; even Boris Johnson says this is piffle. Barack Obama has not argued that American society is broken because his is the politics of hope. He has re-engaged America not talked it down,"said David Lammy MP today at a Fabian conference in London.

"Most people remember what a broken society feels like: I was there in the 1980s," he said. In Britain today more and more children were going to better schools and the NHS had been reformed to get rid of those long waiting lists."

People had ambitions - but "those concerns and ambitions do not add up to a broken society; that's about hope not pessimism", he told the America Votes, Europe Responds conference.

3 comments:

Fabian-Blogger said...

One issue not mentioned in the discussion of how to sustain involved activism is the matter of US federalism.
In relation to keeping those mobilised for the campaign engaged with politics, and specifically with government, the USA has some advantages because of its federalised structure: ie very important powers exist at state and local levels- eg at state, women's choice, gay rights, environment, death penalty, etc. etc. Also at local level, significant change has been achieved on environmental issues. Hence efforts to 'change' policies and laws need not be only directed at the national level.
This means there are not only many forms of engagement, but many points for engagement to 'make change.' I think this can sustain positive engagement...

What are the opportunites that the UK poltical structure affords for moblisation and engagement?


Elaine C.

Unknown said...

Cameron's 'broken society' smacks rather of the 'be afraid' nature of McCain's campaign, mentioned later by Ben Brandzel. David Lammy is absolutely spot on to identify the Labour party with hope and progression, the challenge now is to perform a similar re-engagement with the population - sparked hopefully by the optimism of Glenrothes.

OllyDeed said...

Thank you, Mr Lammy for taking the attack to the Conservatives. Cameron needs to be exposed as the lightweight he is.