Could Politicians Learn From The Demise Of Woolworths?

Woolworths, for decades a stalwart of the British high street, has gone into administration. The company’s 815 stores are to continue trading for the immediate future and administrators Deloitte report receiving ‘expressions of interest’ from potential buyers but the future looks bleak for one of Britain’s favourite retailers.

Few shops could have held a firmer place in the affections of British shoppers than Woolworths, which in its heyday sold everything from household goods to plastic toys; pick n mix to the latest hit singles, the credit crunch may have hastened its demise but the underlying causes are wearyingly familiar.

They include poor customer service, complacency on the part of the management and, most damagingly, a complete loss of touch with its customer base. Woolworths was also guilty of committing the cardinal sin of taking its customers for granted, the very idea that the faithful hordes who used to pour through the doors at opening time might find somewhere better and cheaper to spend their money doesn’t seem to have registered with anyone in a position of authority until much too late in the day.

It does not take too much of a wrenching of gears to reach the conclusion that both Labour and the Conservatives find themselves in a position worryingly similar to that faced by Woolworths.

Just like dear old Woollies they are guilty of poor and complacent management of their finances, both parties are desperately short of funds and have become ever more indebted to ‘dodgy’ donors over recent years, worse yet they have been guilty of criminally neglecting their bond of trust with the public, as evidenced by the complacent shambles MP’s made out of attempting to regulate their own expenses earlier in the year.

It goes without saying that in the mad rush to claim the centre ground of the past fifteen years both p[arties have lost sight of just who they are trying to represent and have become brands rather than bodies composed of people united by a common viewpoint.

Just as the economic boom of the past decade and a half hid the commercial deficiencies eating away at Woolworths so the stable political climate over that same period allowed both Labour and the Conservatives to ignore the atrophying of their grassroots membership and the collapse of their standing with the wider constituency of floating voters.

Things have changed dramatically during the past few months as banks have wobbled and the stock market has taken a nosedive, now both parties are in a desperate scramble to find a position to defend.

Gordon Brown may be risking a slipped disc as he bends over backwards to make it clear there will be no early election but this week’s Pre-Budget nevertheless drew the battle lines for the contest, whenever it might take place.

By imposing a 45% tax rise on high earners Labour is gambling on a return to the tax and spend policies of the 1970’s and attracting accusations of clipping the wings of enterprise in the name of socialist dogma.

The Tories have made only a muted response to date, David Cameron has invested much of his energy since becoming leader in trying to replicate Tony Blair’s New Labour revolution of the mid 1990’s, replacing the party’s ‘nasty’ tag in favour of a softer image. His recent comments about ‘broken Britain’, which played well before Gordon Brown resurrected his premiership with his skilful handing of the banking crisis and refusal to honour Labour’s spending pledges if elected to government suggest a speedy and rather sharp turn to the right.

In their separate ways both parties are seeking to fight last year’s war and although any attempt to replace bland middle of the road politics with something based on a conflicting view of how to return Britain to prosperity is to be welcomed but neither party has yet to grasp the true mood of the nation.

People want the state to spend less time prying into and interfering with every aspect of their lives and yet they fear being abandoned to the whims of the market, most of all they want their politicians to treat them like sentient adults rather than passive consumers.

The party which grasps that idea most firmly and can build a coherent and appealing political narrative around it will win the next election, failure to do so will mean following Woolworths along the road to bankruptcy and oblivion.