Looking at utterances from a minor member of the Labour Shadow Cabinet can give us a better insight into the attitudes of the party as a whole. Shadow Welsh Secretary Owen Smith was interviewed by Welsh Online for the Labour conference. Two themes underline his statements: a divisive and political arrogance reinforcing a belief that they represent a collective notion of the people (even if this is not what the people actually want). Add a reference to plebs (since toffs is becoming a tired trope and does not fit the 'One Nation' idea).
Owen Smith wants more devolution for Wales (though this seems a token effort) and one assumes that the primary model of decentralised assembly, Labour dominance is preferred here. His main message was about the unity of working people and that only Labour's values could represent the country. This echoes the similar presumptive arrogance of New Labour who packaged themselves as the political wing of the British people, a rhetoric converging upon national socialist and fascist regimes of the nineteen-thirties. It is also ill-at ease with the complex and fractured politics now at play in the country.
Unable to corral this landscape, Labour is infantilising itself with wooden messages of unity and arrogating moral lanscapes that reflect some halcyon past. Owen Smith calls for a real weekend and the repeal of Sunday trading laws. Yet, when the law was relaxed, most people aimed for the supermarkets and used the time as they saw fit. Such economic liberties, "markets crowding moral arguments out of politics", are anathema to those who wish to impose their values upon us. In fact, politicians have crowded out markets through their uncontrolled spending and have allowed many to experience the increased value of free time through rising unemployment and regulations that destroy jobs.
We will all certainly have more free time and less choice as One Nation under Ed.