Education Quote by Patricia Hewitt

It sounds like a mild compliment, but it’s really a diplomatic power move: Patricia Hewitt is using gratitude as a way to claim competence without picking a fight. The line is carefully engineered to do several things at once. First, it frames the British party’s time in opposition not as failure but as apprenticeship. “We learnt a huge amount” turns political weakness into moral and strategic preparation, borrowing authority from someone else’s success.

The context matters. Hewitt is invoking the Australian Labor Party under Hawke and Keating as a model government: reformist, technocratic, electorally durable. For a British Labour figure, that period functions like a case study in how a center-left party can modernize the economy and still sell it as Labor. She’s also signaling to an audience that likely includes factional insiders and journalists: we were watching; we were serious; we were building a playbook.

The subtext is triangulation without saying the word. By praising the ALP’s “experience,” she sidesteps ideology and sells pragmatism. It’s not “we copied them,” which would invite accusations of importing policies or betraying tradition; it’s “we learnt,” which implies reflective, selective adaptation. The opening hedge - “Well I think all I would say on that is” - is classic politician’s throat-clearing: a way to acknowledge there’s more she could reveal (about strategy, influence, or internal debates) while keeping the message safe, collegial, and noncommittal.

In a single sentence, Hewitt aligns British Labour with winning Labor governance abroad, recasts opposition as preparation, and signals modernizing intent - all while sounding innocently respectful.