For Labour to regain power it must offer an alternative

Inside Politics: The Labour Party held power for a considerable period in each of the last three decades of the 20th century but, unless it gets into government after the election next year, the first decade of the 21st century will pass without the party having achieved office. It is a salutary thought for delegates attending Labour's national conference in Dublin today.

The party did not just hold office for lengthy periods in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, it had a decisive influence over government policy in each of those decades. By next year it will have been 10 years out of office and, if it is condemned to another full term in Opposition, fundamental questions about the party's future will inevitably arise.

One of Labour's problems is that it has never sold its achievements in office. A significant section of the party has usually opposed going into government at all, and the result is that it has always seemed a bit ashamed of being in power. The other side of the coin is that after leaving office there has never been an honest analysis of mistaken or outdated policies.

It is ironic that the politician who has probably done most to highlight Labour's influence on the course of modern Irish politics is Michael McDowell. Of course the Minister for Justice does it to point up what he regards as the negative impact of Labour's involvement, in terms of taxation policy and public spending, but his "meat in the sandwich" analogy has a great deal of validity.

In the 1960s the late Brendan Corish coined the phrase "the seventies will be socialist". That expression generated a lot of ridicule in later years but in fact Corish was entitled to claim a fair amount of credit for pushing the country in a broadly social democratic direction.

The party's record in office in the 1970s and the 1980s was blighted by economic recessions, the first one caused by international factors and the second by the profligacy which flowed from Fianna Fáil's infamous 1977 manifesto and Charles Haughey's disastrous first term in office.

In the 1990s the party entered government with Fianna Fáil for the first and only time before reverting to the more traditional Fine Gael alliance. Under Dick Spring Labour again had a considerable influence on government policy and was also able to demonstrate that it could handle the responsibility of running the Department of Finance. However, the 1997 election was a disaster from which the party has still not fully recovered.

Last night party figures who played a prominent role in the three periods of power, Brendan Halligan, Ruairi Quinn and Brendan Howlin, spoke to a joint meeting of the parliamentary party and the national executive about the achievements and the lessons of the past three decades. It was an important reminder of what the party can attain if it does things right.

Ultimately, it boils down to two basic issues: electoral strategy, and the presentation of a vision that can capture the imagination of the electorate.

Pat Rabbitte has acted in good time to get the electoral strategy he wants and he demonstrated last year that he has the support of the vast bulk of the membership for his approach.

It is worth recalling just how important electoral strategy was in enabling Labour to win power in 1973, after 16 years in Opposition. In the two previous elections of 1969 and 1965 Labour and Fine Gael comfortably outpolled Fianna Fáil between them but didn't win power because there was no joint strategy on policy or transfers. By contrast, in 1973 they managed to win, although their combined vote dropped and the Fianna Fáil vote rose.

Although times have obviously changed, there are some remarkable similarities with the political world of 1973. The basic ones are that Fianna Fáil has been in power for almost 20 years, with one small interruption, while the two main Opposition parties have combined to fight a joint campaign.

These factors will have a huge influence on the outcome but there is no guarantee that the result will be the same as in 1973.

On the other critical issue, a vision to match the voters' mood, Labour and Fine Gael still have not come up with the goods.

Labour is good at criticising the Government but much of the criticism is stale. Whingeing alone never won elections. The party has to demonstrate that it is capable of taking tough decisions to sort out the problems facing the country.

Mr Rabbitte has identified the creation of a fair society as a goal of the alternative government. The ambition is fine but he will have to spell out how it is to be achieved.

Many of the problems facing the country arise from the stranglehold that a range of vested interests have over every aspect of Irish life, from the health service to energy generation.

Labour has to show that it is willing to take on some of those vested interests that have crippled the modernisation of our public services. The joint policy document with Fine Gael on Government overspending and waste was a good start but it will need further elaboration by the time of the election.

What, for instance, does the party propose to do to change the driving test system which has failed young people so dreadfully? After more than a decade of rapid economic growth there could well be an appetite among the electorate for an alternative approach.

However, Labour needs to demonstrate that it will be part of the solution rather than part of the problem and that will involve taking on powerful vested interests in the public service. Blaming the Government for everything will not be enough.