The Ming vase thing
The task for Labour in the election – to maintain their poll lead and deliver a majority government – has been compared to ‘carrying a priceless Ming vase across a highly polished floor’. The phrase was originally coined by Roy Jenkins in the run-up to Tony Blair’s victory back in 1997. Under Keir Starmer’s cautious leadership it has been repeated often enough to have become a cliché. It sums up a risk-averse strategy, aimed at reassuring voters.
The vase took a bit of battering this week in the row over Diane Abbott and wider candidate selection, which took up all the headlines until Starmer announced that she could indeed stand in Hackey North and Stoke Newington. Selection controversies are hardly new. However, they rarely involve people with the public recognition and symbolic importance of Abbott, the first Black woman to be elected to parliament. It was clear that anger extended beyond the left of the party, and was shared by many prominent Black figures in public life. An open letter to the Guardian, signed by luminaries including Adrian Lester, Afua Hirsch and Gary Younge, underlined the dismay felt in Black communities, among Labour’s staunchest supporters.
As the party leadership looks to re-focus on its election campaign, perhaps analogies should borrow from Japanese, as well as Chinese ceramics. The ancient art of kintsugu involves fixing broken pottery with golden lacquer, so that the mends remain visible. It is based on a philosophy of embracing imperfection and encouraging resilience. Voters often like a bit of openness. Labour’s strategy might even be improved by acknowledging more the repairs required to get that Ming vase across the floor. The party’s looking to govern over Broken Britain after all.