So today’s lobbying scandal is profoundly depressing, coming as it does at a peak point during the election campaign. And on the same day that SamCam announces she’s pregnant too. To be horribly cynical for a moment, that announcement couldn’t have come at a better time for the Tory campaign (though of course congrats to the Camerons, and I wish you every luck with your fothcoming arrival).

Part of this is of course the job interview factor. Byers et al haven’t had to go for a job interview for a long time. They are leaving the security of their long term careers and heading off into unknown territory, and as such it’s not a huge surprise that they exaggerate their influence, access and ability in a meeting about their futures.

But I think this does go deeper than that. It goes to the odd relationship that a very small coterie of the core New Labour MPs have with business. They say a general is always fighting his last war, but for New labour, they are always, always fighting the 1992 general election.

We are largely seen to have lost this election over tax and an image of Labour as inimical to business. The reaction to this has been to make New Labour business friendly in a way the Labour Party hadn’t been in the past. That doesn’t mean that we have rolled over completely – the minimum wage and the Social Chapter were both brought in against fierce opposition from voices like the IOD and the CBI.

However, I think along the way, certain members of the New Labour team lost the balance. Labour shouldn’t be friendly to business for it’s own sake, but for the betterment of the UK. The New Labour voices see the private sector as an ideal model to emulate (trust me I’ve worked private sector and seen just as many inefficiencies and useless practices as in any public sector organisation) and take the view that business must be kept onside, even when the public, our politics and even our morality should be telling them not to.

I think this culture of cosying up to business has had benefits, and all government’s need to hear the voice of business as well as all other voices. Labour must not return to an anti-business stance which would allow policy purity and political annihilation. But we should be able to be nuanced enough to listen to business without bowing. I think Byers et al have forgotten that business interests are not always the same as the interests of  the country, and I think that may be as a result of being too focused for too long on the needs of the business community.

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