I almost hesitate before typing, but I must openly confess to something that is increasingly becoming a hard thing to articulate, let alone admit: I am, and shall likely remain, a Labour Party supporter. There, I have said it. The reason for this sudden rush of dread and embarrassment is the recent morphing of this once respectable movement into the weak, cowardly one that stands before me today. Today's shower of inept politicians barely resembles the courageous institution set up in 1900 to fight for, and represent, the decent - forgotten and overlooked - working-class members of British society. Labour, nowadays, merely represents the same vested interests as its arch nemesis, the Conservative Party.
The late Christopher Hitchens, commenting in 1983, stated: "The Labour Party, in its present form and in any likely future one, offers an image of Britain's decline rather than an answer to it". What the great man was alluding to was the stark fact that Labour is no longer the radical movement it started out as. The working-class, having found a voice, have once again drifted towards the periphery of modern civilisation. Surely the defining feature of any movement or party should be its willingness to lose an election rather than give up on its ideals. Shamefully, Labour appears more concerned with winning popularity contests than with standing up for the principles that provide the solid foundations of its very existence.
When Ed Miliband was elected Leader of the Opposition in September 2010, he was championed as some kind of extreme-left Stalinist; someone who was going to drag the party leftwards and cure it of its obsession with New Labour. Following Miliband's leadership victory, former leader Neil Kinnock famously declared: "We've got our party back". He should have known better. Over the last 16 months, Miliband's Labour has presented itself as a somewhat unorganised, incoherent mess. A truly successful Labour movement should be boasting of flattering headlines in such publications as the Guardian, Tribune and New Statesman. Instead, the bigoted knuckle-draggers at the Daily Mail were gloating, "Now Ed Miliband gets tough with onslaught against 'evil' of benefit scroungers".
That nauseating headline came following Liam Byrne's declaration that Labour would clamp down on benefit fraud, as well as putting an end to the "something for nothing" culture that has apparently spread across the nation like wildfire. Byrne symbolises all that is wrong with this current rabble of underachieving Tory impersonators. Despite receiving a salary that places Byrne firmly in the top 5% of earners, he still felt the need to claim £400 a month off the state for his food bill. His £2,400 a month apartment overlooking the Thames is also paid for by you and I. Does this really sound like a man capable of highlighting the plight of your average working-class citizen? I think not. Furthermore, does a party filled to the brim with privileged middle-to-upper-class professionals accurately reflect the fundamental values of left-wing tenet?
What Labour - formerly a party of dissent - should be doing is providing an intelligent alternative narrative. Why was Byrne not taking to the podium with a sheet full of facts and figures capable of making a mockery of David Cameron's stance on welfare? Why not point out that benefit fraud, whilst obviously being an unacceptable crime, accounts for less than 1% of overall welfare spending? Better still, in order to weaken the Tories position further, let the public know of the £16bn in means-tested benefits and tax credits that currently goes unclaimed each and every year. Ask Cameron if he is as willing to chase down these individuals as he is the so-called "scroungers". Now there is a response I would love to witness.
Instead, what we are left with is a party so desperate for power that it is willing to break away from traditional left-wing values and tackle the Conservatives by pitching their tent in the same field; 'anything you can do, I can do better' appears to be the unspoken motto. When the Tories are tough on immigration, rather than defend the advantages of migration, modern Labour simply repeats the right-wing assertion that immigration is out of control and running amok. When the Tories want to bomb Libya, other than a few honourable exceptions (namely, Jeremy Corbyn), Labour supports the notion for fear of being deemed awkward or too liberal. This must end now.
Margaret Thatcher once remarked: "We have to move this country in a new direction, to change the way we look at things, to create a wholly new attitude of mind". This sentiment, whilst originating from an undesirable source, has never been more applicable than in 2012. The Labour Party needs to stop accepting the conventional wisdom and start challenging the common narrative. Thus far, Cameron has dictated the terrain and forced Miliband to abandon his natural stances; leaving him looking incompetent and exposed. A party with a broad history of radicalism must not allow itself to meander carelessly towards the safety of centre ground. Until its members realise this, it shall remain a pitiful shadow of its former glorious self.