under is the full textual content of Tom Watson's memorial lecture marking the 25th anniversary of John Smith's demise.
thank you. Dianne, thank you for that generous introduction. I wish to pay tribute to your long carrier to the Fabian Society, to the Labour birthday celebration, and to our work within the apartment of Lords. also – to your work as a historian of our movement.
I doubt there's anyone right here who hasn't examine Dianne's book 'Fightback' about how a group of grassroots Labour activists and change unionists organised to keep the Labour celebration in the Eighties. however even if you've got study it, examine it again! because it reminds of us two crucial things – one, that the route resulting in Labour's victory in 1997 was very long, and didn't beginning in 1994.
And 2nd, the style you win is through service provider in addition to concepts. Dianne, there's a ravishing quote on your e-book: 'with out enterprise, politics is gratifying however its handiest poetry'. I think I trust most of that – not bound in regards to the 'gratifying' half. Dianne – thank you.
before I birth I also need to pay tribute to Baroness Elizabeth Smith, John's spouse, who we are honoured to have here with us tonight. Elizabeth, we owe you a debt of gratitude for your provider to the Labour circulation and for all you've got carried out to keep John's legacy alive. And additionally for the general public service you have given over decades, both as a buyer of the humanities and because the drive in the back of the John Smith Memorial trust and Fellowship Programme, which now has a dazzling network over 500 alumni from 20 diverse countries, most from the former Soviet Union.
i know that as a fluent Russian speaker you have a lifelong pastime within the area and the programme is testament to that passion. i hope you be aware of that you just, Sarah, Catherine and Jane had been all in our ideas and prayers over this anniversary weekend.
it's a quarter of a century in view that we lost John Smith, taken on the age of fifty five, near to bringing Labour into office after nearly twenty years in the wasteland. we've come collectively this evening to have fun, to commemorate and to replicate; to peer historic pals and recollect first rate times. it's a real privilege and a genuine honour to be giving this lecture. i'm grateful to Andrew Harrop and the Fabian Society for hosting us.
i was a younger man when John Smith died. I knew him, in addition to a junior staffer on the birthday celebration headquarters might comprehend the leader. but ask any person who worked with him, many of whom are right here this night, and we will inform you the connection was more than one of dutiful subservience.
We adored him. We had faith in him. We believed in him. those qualities that the British individuals so warmed to, and grieved when he died, when strangers wept in the streets, and brought plants to the steps of one hundred fifty Walworth street, had been much more apparent up shut. His warmness, his mind, his humour, his decision and primarily his values.
i was there on the evening of the european Gala Dinner displaying visitors to their tables. The now councillor Claire Wilcox and that i walked him to his automobile at the end of the evening and he kindly autographed our programmes. The final line of his speech that night turned into ringing in our ears –'please supply us the chance to serve our country. it really is all we ask.' And that, as we know, changed into the final speech he made.
besides the fact that children I cannot claim the shut friendship enjoyed by some right here tonight, i'm going to name him 'John' for the relaxation of my remarks, out of loyalty, love and admire. I are looking to look at 4 areas of his lifestyles and works this night, and notice what the classes are for us, 25 years on.
First, I need to look at his moral compass – the issues John notion that mattered, the values he espoused, and the electricity he drew from them. 2nd, I are looking to examine his internationalism. Third, I want to examine his belief in constitutional reform and the devolution of vigor. Fourth, I are looking to examine his political components, and the style he conducted his politics.
John became a Christian. I believe it is on occasion challenging for individuals without religion to entirely realize how essential it is for people with it. religion is the beginning and the end of every little thing, transcending every day issues, and proposing a group of guiding concepts for life.
He talked about in a speech in 1992, 'the 2d commandment calls upon us to like our neighbours as ourselves. It doesn't expect human frailty to be in a position to loving our neighbours greater than ourselves – that would be a job of saintly dimension. however I don't accept as true with we will truly comply with that notable Commandment unless we have an idea of situation for our fellow residents which is reflected in the company of our society.'
That remaining line offers the bridge between the personal and the political. For John saw in Christ's teachings an quintessential to act, to do, to speak up, to arise, to serve. He joined the Labour birthday party in 1955, aged 17. He first stood for Labour within the 1961 through-election in East Fife, coming 2nd to Colonel Sir John Edward Gilmour, the 3rd Baronet, who changed into – unsurprisingly – the Conservative & Unionist candidate.
John's Christianity propelled him to Christian Socialism, and as such positioned him firmly in the Labour birthday celebration's traditions. Our founder Keir Hardie pointed out many times that his socialism 'derived greater from the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth than from all different sources mixed'. and as the unbelievable history of Christian Socialism via my colleague Chris Bryant reminds us, Christian Socialism has always been part of Labour's DNA.
Our socialism, as Harold Wilson famously advised the 1962 Labour celebration conference, owes greater to Methodism than to Marx. Of direction, the Labour celebration has been domestic to people of no religion and every religion, and all are welcome regardless. but the position of Christians in Labour has been to create a British version of socialism, rooted in values and ethics, no longer ideology and dogma. we now have dodged the mirage of Marxism, however additionally the false prospectus of ideology-lite centrism.
John's issue for the bad and susceptible, his hatred of oppression and injustice, his imaginative and prescient of fairness and equality, these flames burnt no less fiercely in his breast than the self-styled revolutionaries and purists. The change turned into his notion became functional now not educational, socialism as a lived journey not a theoretical assemble.
He believed, in his outstanding phrase, in the wonderful knowledge of general americans. His values drove him, and he saw elected workplace as the potential to put values into action. That's why the John Smith Centre install in his reminiscence, which promotes have faith in politics and public provider, is this kind of fitting tribute to him.
The research and advocacy work the centre does encourages the next generation of representatives and champions the maximum requirements in public life. although based on the institution of Glasgow, the centre goals to be UK extensive, just as John was a very UK broad baby-kisser. i was delighted to listen to Kezia Dugdale, former Scottish Labour chief – who's here tonight – should be taking the helm as Director later this yr. i do know she will be spectacular guardian of the centre and of John's legacy.
In December 1992, John centered the Social Justice commission below the chair Sir Gordon Borrie to map out a socialist policy for the country. It said after his demise, and fashioned the bedrock for the radicalism of the first Labour term after 1997.
The report cited 'the uk need not be tired, resentful, divided and failing nation it's nowadays' and set out social and financial guidelines to spread opportunities and life options, to end poverty and disadvantage, and to create an economy working for each citizen in every group in every a part of the country.The cornerstone changed into the country wide minimal wage, the fairest, easiest and most equitable option to carry millions out of poverty.
As with most innovative reforms, it's complicated, searching returned, to think about the controversy surrounding the national minimal wage. now not simply the economically-illiterate Conservative frontbench claiming it could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, however also from massive sections of the trade unions who felt it might undermine collective bargaining, and drag wages downwards, aside from the a great deal-overlooked Rodney Bickerstaffe and NUPE.
John noticed that the country wide minimal wage would be reasonable and productive, and that a Low Pay fee would take the daily politics out of it, and naturally historical past has proved him correct. John all the time believed that financial electricity and social justice had been not enemies but go hand in hand. He set this out within the John mackintosh Memorial lecture he gave on may also Day 1987, announcing:
"Prosperity, generally defined as a continuously extended commonplace of residing in an efficient and productive economic climate, is not most effective in keeping with a socially simply and caring society, however that in an intelligently organised group, prosperity and social justice jointly support every other."
after we seem greater greatly on the achievements of the Labour governments elected in 1997, we are able to see greater continuity with the politics of John Smith than might be idea at the start look. Let me take the concern of newborn poverty – anything near John's heart and shut to all our hearts. New research published a few months in the past with the aid of the decision basis, suggests that the Labour government was much greater redistributional and had a miles greater have an impact on on baby poverty than most individuals understand.
Taking account of previous under-reporting of improvement expenditure and monetary transfers to the poorest families, the decision foundation now estimates that the Labour executive's target of reducing newborn poverty through a quarter via 2004 turned into met and not missed, as changed into assumed at the time. They also estimate that the target of halving child poverty by way of 2010 changed into essentially reached, despite the monetary disaster, and never overlooked by using a large margin as has been assumed up before.
These findings display that the achievements of the Labour executive had been superior than we first notion and that they're rooted within the Labour culture that went earlier than, epitomised by the words, deeds and values of John. I'd go extra – and say that Labour's proud record on redistribution is an instantaneous outcome of John's resolution to establish the commission on Social Justice in 1992.
This changed into John's socialism – purposeful, rational, radical however true. And extra – socialist values don't seem to be the keep of some select neighborhood of actual believers, they belong in the hearts of every person throughout our vast church. No-one has the monopoly on social justice.
Secondly, I are looking to analyze John's internationalism. on account of his values, John believed in unity and cooperation no longer simplest within the nation, however between international locations. And like so lots of his era, introduced up within the aftermath of the warfare, he placed superb save within the mighty associations that Labour helped to create from the ashes of World conflict Two, above all NATO and the United nations.
John supported Britain's independent nuclear deterrent, and changed into always organized to argue, politely but with first rate conviction, towards those arguing for unilateralism. He begun his 1993 convention speech as chief with a condemnation of apartheid and a message of assist to Nelson Mandela, joining the hundreds of thousands throughout the political spectrum who adverse apartheid and helped to convey it down.
however on Europe, he become at his most passionate and committed. He saw our future as part of a ecu task, and famously changed into prepared to insurrection towards the party management to display his commitment, alongside 68 others in October 1971. it's value reflecting that John had been a Member of Parliament for a matter of months, but turned into unafraid to blot his replica booklet with the Labour whips so quickly into his profession.
In a speech in July 1971, he advised the condominium 'as a democratic socialist I consider … that financial forces need to come what may be introduced under familiar control and be common in opposition t social and political ends which the americans investigate. If we do not enter Europe we shall now not be equipped to handle them…'
His seasoned-Europeanism shone like a beacon for the relaxation of his existence, even until the european gala dinner when he looked for the remaining time along with the visitor of Honour Michel Rocard, former French top Minister and chief of the French Socialist celebration. He changed into proudly European, and led a celebration thoroughly dedicated to the social chapter of people' rights, and the one market for items and services.
As Shadow Chancellor, and as leader, John noticed the Tories' disarray over the trade rate Mechanism and the Maastricht Treaty, and their transforming into Eurosceptic riot, as the opportunity to head onto the attack – highlighting divisions within govt, dislocating the Tories from their recognition for financial competence, and on the equal time shoring up Labour's pro-European position, arguing for the modern advantages of the Social Chapter.
have been he leader today, I don't have any doubt he would have forensically deconstructed the government's position, even as conceding no floor to the nationalist 'go away' argument. He saw anti-european sentiment, no matter if of the correct-wing independent trading nation variety, or the left-wing 'socialism in a single nation' diversity, as equally wrong-headed.
And had John still been with us he would have provided a powerful counter narrative to the anti-ecu sentiment that set in and festered for the two a long time main up to the 2016 referendum. and that i consider that were he here now, to witness the great harm this process is wreaking on our nation and our public debate, he would have taken a stand very corresponding to that of his Deputy, Margaret Beckett, and backed a individuals's Vote as a means out of this harmful mess.
What do we be trained from John's internationalism? I suppose the value of strong overseas alliances, trading blocs, and international associations as a counterweight to rapacious globalisation. And in an international with turning out to be numbers and powerful-armed populist leaders he would have restated the case for international diplomacy in its classic feel.
John exemplified the change between patriotism and nationalism. He turned into proud to be Scottish, but not ever fell into divisive, slender nationalism. He desired devolution however in no way separation. That slender nationalism he abhorred is decided to dominate these upcoming european elections.
Farage and his a ways right contemporary, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, are attempting to communicate for Britain and define our nation. John would have considered this plastic patriotism for what it became and uncovered them for what they are – base nationalists of the nastiest type, the most fulfilling cynics, taking part in on fears and lies.
We must no longer let this corrosive some distance appropriate sentiment, posing as patriotism, win. i do know many Labour supporters are not happy with the place we have taken on Brexit. but i urge those wavering to consider about what's at stake right here. There are most effective two forces that may triumph – that nasty nationalism of the Farage Brexit birthday party, or the tolerant, compassionate, internationalist, outward searching patriotism of the Labour party.
That's who we as a celebration had been beneath John Smith and it's who we are now. So I ask all Labour supporters, please: don't reside at domestic. Don't put that pass in different places. Don't let them win. We've got per week and a half to defeat the intolerance and concern of the a long way correct in the immediate fight facing us. but we also should feel about a way to do it within the long run.
So thirdly, I wish to discuss John's belief in constitutional reform that lead the way for big adjustments under New Labour that redistributed power faraway from Westminster. In his noted 1993 charter 88 lecture he promised a "new constitutional settlement, a new deal between the americans and the state that puts the citizen centre stage". It became that speech that set Labour on a direction to create the Human Rights Act, the liberty of tips Act and Devolution.
John was correct that Scottish devolution became unfinished business, and the advent of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh meeting turned into his legacy. He additionally noted English devolution turned into unfinished business – it nevertheless is. completing that work is a component of defeating the forces of Farage and Tommy Robinson.
The long run struggle to win again the hearts and minds of individuals in England, who believe left in the back of and not noted, can most effective be done through an intensive shift in vigor and returning handle over their own lives. It's not first rate satisfactory for Theresa can also to speak of taking again the vigour from unelected bureaucrats in Brussels most effective to return it to unelected Bureaucrats in Whitehall.
it is my strong view that John would have understood that for the English Midlands, and the English North, regional devolution will be the handiest method that the people in these areas can manage their destinies.
The fourth aspect I need to discuss this night is John's political method, how we performed himself, how he did his politics. He left in the back of scores of pals and admirers and even the group "the radical ramblers", who used to walk with John up the Scottish Munros, and who have met for a John Smith memorial walk each and every year considering his death.
in case you study the Benn Diaries, or some other memoir of the period, you'll ought to look very hard to locate a contemporary willing to denigrate John. John worked carefully with Tony Benn after they were each ministers, and that they obtained on well regardless of political adjustments.
and not just Benn. John Smith sought out standard ground, believed in speak, listening and researching from others. sometimes, as John predominant recalled, these meetings were carried out over tea – once in a while not tea. however he become revered by means of all, and his decency in his political dealings shone via.
That isn't to say he changed into a gentle contact, nor did he let up on his assaults on the Tories. He deployed that cheeky grin, the waspish, witty, forensic capabilities developed on the Glasgow tuition debating society, and on the Bar, to magnificent effect in the Chamber.
many people here tonight will be aware his brutal rendition of the Neighbours theme tune in attacking Nigel Lawson who become being undermined by Alan Walters, Thatcher's chief economist. Or when he reduce down John important's premiership saying "as the man with the non-Midas contact is in cost. It is no ask yourself that we live in a rustic where the Grand country wide doesn't birth and motels fall into the ocean…".
John believed in Parliament as the vicinity to impact change. He turned into relaxed on the Despatch box, preferring it to the cleaning soap container. When his time came to stand for leader of the Labour party in 1992, the size of his triumph mirrored the warmth and esteem during which he turned into held.
John became elected chief of the Labour party with the greatest mandate of any Labour chief – seventy seven% of Labour MPs, 96% of the affiliated unions, and 98% of party participants, making an basic total of ninety one%. (the 2nd greatest, of course, changed into Neil Kinnock's victory over Tony Benn in 1988, when Neil secured 88.6% normal.)
As chief, with Margaret Beckett as his ready deputy, John begun the process of policy-making and reform. He become fortunate to have an elected shadow cabinet, chosen by using probably the most refined citizens in the world, the Parliamentary Labour birthday celebration. in the 1992 shadow cabinet elections, the correct ten protected Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, Robin cook, Mo Mowlam, and Chris Smith.
in the Eighties, the narrative had taken dangle that Labour turned into compassionate however incompetent, and the Tories have been bloodless-hearted, however efficient, and John's triumph turned into to dismantle the Tories' declare to competence, and at the identical time re-establish Labour's credibility on the economic system – that's what the 'prawn cocktail offensive' changed into all about, and the iron law that spending pledges should still no longer be showered round like confetti, with out the demonstrable capacity to fund them.
This financial credibility, painstakingly constructed, turned into the groundwork of Labour's landslide in 1997, and John changed into the imperative figure in building these foundations. In his 1993 conference speech, John framed the political argument as a 'choice between Labour's high skill, excessive tech, high wage economic system, and John most important's lifeless-beat, sweatshop, cut price basement Britain.' actual then, still true nowadays.
I've mentioned the Social Justice fee as the bedrock of new Labour. John's other landmark as leader was the introduction of OMOV, empowering tens of lots of birthday celebration participants to opt for their candidates for the first time.
John Prescott's speech gets probably the most attention in histories of this momentous convention decision. but of direction, speeches don't win convention. It comes right down to mathematics. at the back of the scenes, John's supporters similar to Hilary Armstrong were powerful-arming the union delegations, in the end persuading 9 unions from the AEEU to the RMT to again the Labour leader.
The important determination changed into by using the MSF delegation to abstain – via 19 votes to 17 – just a few hours earlier than the vote. and i wielded my own block vote at that conference, casting 8,000 votes for OMOV because the Chair of the national company of Labour students.
After John's success, the chief of the T&G bill Morris mentioned 'we won the argument'. but John had won the votes. As LBJ famously spoke of, the first rule of politics is being in a position to count number.
OMOV triumphed as a result of John changed into depended on as a supporter of the unions and dealing individuals. When so a lot of his pals defected in 1980 to the SDP, John stayed, like Roy Hattersley, one of the most best possible of my predecessors as Deputy chief, and different individuals of the social democratic and democratic socialist wing of the birthday celebration. John mentioned at the time it became as a result of he was comfy with the unions, and Owen and the rest were no longer.
It reminds us that the revival in Labour's electoral fortunes, leading to the 1997 landslide, didn't begin with introduction of new Labour. Labour's landslide didn't come out of a clear sky, the foundations were laid within the 1980s and the Nineteen Nineties, and John Smith should still rightly be credited for his central half, and the formative function he performed within the careers and political building of the leaders that got here after him.
And once Labour became elected, instead of being a smash with the Labour way of life as perhaps some of its greater zealous advocates claimed, and its critics were simplest to desperate to declare, the various achievements of the govt from 1997 to 2010 vicinity it firmly in the Labour tradition and had been based on coverage commitments made during John's leadership.
John's formulation, then, changed into conciliatory and respectful, however unwavering on points of principle, and brave in the face of apparently insurmountable odds. especially, it changed into good, and his decency shone through in all his dealings. John belonged to a Labour culture, rooted within the alternate unions and the church buildings, in moral values, rooted in communities.
When former colleagues left the Labour birthday party in 1980 to kind the Social Democratic party, he didn't waver for a moment. These were the americans closest to his views on Europe, on NATO, on the economy, and yet his loyalty to the Labour celebration and its people transcended the entice of the SDP and its glitzy image. John later pointed out in a newspaper interview 'i was scandalised by way of their behaviour – dreadful and disloyal.'
In his biography, Andy McSmith makes an additional crucial factor – the SDP, like the Bennite Left, changed into an English phenomenon. The politics of Scottish Labour, of Airdrie and Coatbridge, were extraordinarily diverse from Hampstead, Holland Park or Limehouse. John become unbothered with scrapping Clause IV when some recommended it since the theology of the words didn't subject him. What mattered was the deeds that are vital to radically change society.
regardless of OMOV some criticised John for no longer going far ample with modernising the Labour celebration. at any place you stand on that modernisation debate of the time, few americans do not believe that a John Smith-led Labour birthday party would have gained the 1997 widespread election with the rest other than an excellent working majority. The path to victory would have looked and sounded different, but the end vacation spot – number Ten – would were the identical.
So plenty has happened in 25 years. Three terms of Labour govt have come and long past. Labour has elected 4 Leaders for the reason that John's dying. We've viewed great changes to our economic climate and society, with a technological transformation changing all around us. We're battling the crisis over Brexit.
some of our more moderen members might also find it convenient to overlook John Smith, in spite of everything he changed into chief for under two years. but to accomplish that can be an immense mistake. as a result of if we neglect our previous, and the heroes who shaped it, we lose our own ability to shape our own destinies. If we fail to gain knowledge of from past lives – the values, the words and the deeds – of those who came before us – we're doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
My plea these days is that the values John Smith embodied may still no longer be remembered without difficulty with nostalgia, but as a lodestar for how everybody now in public life should conduct ourselves and approach the brand new challenges we face.
These values stand as an affront to the intolerance, sectarianism and prejudice poisoning so a lot of our contemporary politics. it is the job of anybody – primarily those of us granted custody of the Labour celebration these days – to be sure this ugliness doesn't be triumphant.
So it is appropriate that we should have a good time the lifetime of John Smith on the twenty fifth anniversary of his death. but greater – we should bear in mind his decency and braveness, his warmness and his wit, his conviction and his values – at other times too; when we are proven, when we are drained, once we doubt ourselves, when we lack proposal.
John is with us, speaks to us, guides us, conjures up us, and reminds us that the optimum and most noble ambition is to serve the people. The chance to serve – it really is all we ask.
Tom WatsonTom Watson is MP for West Bromwich East and deputy leader of the Labour birthday party.
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