Concession speech expert
Dennis Glover is right — Labor does need some new public intellectuals. And they “should turn their guns on Howard and redirect their attention to making the values of the left fresh, relevant and appealing”. But on the question of how that is to be done? Well, let’s just say that Glover’s billing as “a former speechwriter to Kim Beazley, Simon Crean and Mark Latham” — that gang of winners! — doesn’t inspire confidence.
I think that Glover is a bit uncharitable to Jones. Barry made a very important point in his article:
to provide spiritual, ethical and intellectual nourishment to the Australian people, and promote a creative, generous nation.
But Glover makes a point that I agree with 100%
In university seminar rooms, back-street Fitzroy pubs and on Radio National chat shows, you can live by abstract philosophy and pure principle, but in the world of parliamentary democracy you have to live by your wits as well as your ideals.
The hard task for Labor is to create a link between these two realities.
Glover has a few decent points, though i’ve always found his thinking a bit muddled. His book “Orwells Australia” pusblished during the crean years was similar. (not to mention many of creans speeches)
Like most on the left having spent years trying to tear down anything that moves, Glover is unable to actually build anything up.
But one point he does make consistently in the book and in this article, is that Labor faces as much hostile public criticism from its left as on the right. (A point central to “Orwells australia”, which reads like a plead notice “Dear B. Brown : Stop hitting us” )
Theres a few coalition supporters who attack their own from the right, but its usually tucked away in journals for the converted, or in the case of the recent election where howard abandoned most of his previously stated economic principles to secure the win they just clam up. Some are out there though not as often or aggravating as large audiences as Labor faces from ideological bunkmates.
“Fresh, relevant and appealing”
People who have been to university are inherently unlikely to “get” the outer-suburban mortgage belt, because they apparently spend almost all their time in back-street Fitzroy pubs, instead of working for a living.