"There is progress taking place, growth is better. We're only talking about two years there"
About this Quote
John Prescott sounds like a minister steadying the wheel, folding statistics and timeframes into a calm argument for patience. The line couples two moves common in political persuasion: assert visible improvement and narrow the period under review. By saying progress is taking place and growth is better, he invites the listener to accept a positive trajectory rather than fixate on unmet targets. By adding that we are only talking about two years, he recalibrates expectations, reminding critics that policy effects arrive on a lag and that early volatility should not be read as failure.
That blend of reassurance and temporal framing fits Prescott’s role in New Labour as a plainspoken defender of gradualism. Economic and social programs rarely deliver dramatic results quickly; infrastructure, regional development, and public service reforms ripen over multi-year cycles. Voters, journalists, and opposition parties, however, often demand immediate payoffs. The appeal to a short horizon implicitly challenges that impatience, asking for a fair interval before issuing verdicts.
The language also reveals a characteristic New Labour stance on measurement. Growth, likely a stand-in for output, jobs, or departmental throughput, becomes the headline indicator. Improvement in the rate, not just the level, is held up as proof of direction. That can be persuasive in a climate where incremental gains matter, yet it carries risks. Two-year snapshots can flatter or mislead, buffeted by broader cycles; better growth does not automatically translate into shared prosperity; and repeated appeals to patience can start to sound like excuses if lived experience does not change.
Still, the deeper claim is about governance: progress is a process, not an event. Politics rewards immediate narratives, but policymaking requires time, stability, and compounding effects. Prescott’s reassurance tries to bridge that gap, asking the public to judge by momentum and trajectory while the machinery of change gathers speed.
That blend of reassurance and temporal framing fits Prescott’s role in New Labour as a plainspoken defender of gradualism. Economic and social programs rarely deliver dramatic results quickly; infrastructure, regional development, and public service reforms ripen over multi-year cycles. Voters, journalists, and opposition parties, however, often demand immediate payoffs. The appeal to a short horizon implicitly challenges that impatience, asking for a fair interval before issuing verdicts.
The language also reveals a characteristic New Labour stance on measurement. Growth, likely a stand-in for output, jobs, or departmental throughput, becomes the headline indicator. Improvement in the rate, not just the level, is held up as proof of direction. That can be persuasive in a climate where incremental gains matter, yet it carries risks. Two-year snapshots can flatter or mislead, buffeted by broader cycles; better growth does not automatically translate into shared prosperity; and repeated appeals to patience can start to sound like excuses if lived experience does not change.
Still, the deeper claim is about governance: progress is a process, not an event. Politics rewards immediate narratives, but policymaking requires time, stability, and compounding effects. Prescott’s reassurance tries to bridge that gap, asking the public to judge by momentum and trajectory while the machinery of change gathers speed.
Quote Details
| Topic | Optimism |
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