Politics & Power Quote by Clare Short

There is a small, almost disarming pragmatism in Clare Short's line: it refuses the romance of politics and goes straight to the brutal arithmetic of power. "We need to keep this Labour government" isn’t a policy argument so much as a warning flare. The verb "keep" frames government as a fragile possession, something that can be lost through complacency, infighting, or ideological purity tests. It’s less campaign poetry than an internal memo, and that’s the point.

Short’s intent reads as coalition management by other means. She’s speaking to Labour’s own ecosystem - MPs, activists, union leaders, wavering voters - signaling that whatever grievances they have, the alternative is worse. The subtext is familiar to anyone who’s watched centre-left parties govern: criticism is inevitable, but public disunity is self-sabotage. By emphasizing "another term", she shifts attention from the immediate turbulence of governing to the long game: reforms take time, and conservative retrenchment can undo gains quickly.

Context matters because Short’s career sits inside Labour’s most volatile modern chapter, when the party’s identity was contested between idealism and electability, principle and discipline. The line carries the scent of that era’s hard lesson: a government can be judged on outcomes only if it survives long enough to deliver them. It’s not triumphalist; it’s defensive optimism. "Good chance" is careful phrasing - not certainty, not destiny, just a narrow opening that requires collective restraint to hold.