The British public are highly aspirational and we cherish our freedoms, including the freedom to earn a just reward for hard work and enterprise. But this is accompanied – in  a delicate balance – with a parallel sense of fairness, an instinctive belief that everyone (but especially those in senior positions) should conduct themselves appropriately, according to fair laws. A belief that behaviour (whether social, economic or political) should be responsible, unselfish and unexploitative. Today’s newspaper editors have a nose for fairness issues, and trade on capturing this public sentiment in succinct stories. Sometimes the news focuses on corporate excess: extortionate bank charges; punitive mortgage exit fees; unacceptable executive behaviour on Terminal 5 or Northern Rock. But we also expect fair play from the rest of society too. We expect sentences to be served in full by those found guilty, for immigration policy to be run according to the rules, and for politicians to act in fairly whether they’re designing the tax system or dealing with the postcode lottery in healthcare.

The British sense of fairness is strong and the vast majority of voters will confirm their support for those who fight for fair play and act against excess, irresponsibility, prejudice and greed. After a decade in power, Labour must reconnect with these values which motivate party activists and supporters as well as the rest of the electorate.

Being in Government is tough – the turbulence of political events now compounded by the apparently uncontrollable trends of global economics. Every day there are dozens of urgent issues requiring an administrative fix, but are we allowing these to crowd out the most important strategic goals that the Government ought to pursue? It may sound pompous to the Westminster village cynic, but I believe we need Government to raise its sights, to take inspiration from Labour’s distinctive mission and to act with greater idealism. We need more than sound technocratic management – our Ministers should be waking up each morning, stepping back from the swirl of the daily grind, and asking themselves “how can my actions today create a society in which power, wealth and opportunity are placed in the hands of the many, not the few?”.

In short, Labour needs a ‘clause four’ moment. Not a rewrite or adjustment, nor a fundamental rethink. Quite simply, the Government needs to pause and remind itself about the peerless force of Labour’s core values as expressed in the new Clause 4 adopted by the party thirteen years ago:

"The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few, where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe, and where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect."

Labour needs a succinct offer that is fresh and appealing, not harking back to achievements of old. The minimum wage and the New Deal for the unemployed were massive steps forward that tapped into the core values of fairness and social justice right at the heart of British society. Yet how, in the 21^st century, can Labour reassert its credentials as the party fighting for fairness and fair play?

I want to suggest three steps. The first requires a frank stock-take about where unfairness and injustice still remains. Our economy is relatively strong as a whole, but there are still glaring anomalies that persist way beyond any fair notions of just reward. Take the current anxieties over oil and energy. We are witnessing record profit taking, with BP and Shell netting a combined £7 billion first quarter surplus just this year, despite the North Sea oil levy introduced in 2002 and increased modestly in 2005. At a time when the vast majority of the public are feeling the pinch from increasing energy and fuel bills, why not follow Obama’s suggestion and introduce a new windfall levy on the oil companies’ excess profits to pay for the suspension of the 5 per cent VAT on fuel currently paid by ordinary households? Taking a fair share of this profit and hypothecating the money to reduce energy costs would resonate with the vast majority of the public, and remind everyone of the reasons for Labour’s existence. This would seem fair to me. But falling short of this, Labour should at least be publicly calling for restraint on profiteering. Fairness is necessary always, but especially when times are hard. Gordon Brown captured the public’s imagination with the windfall tax on the excessive profits of privatised utilities to fund the New Deal for employment a decade ago. How bold such a move would seem today!

Secondly, it isn’t just the oil companies whose behaviour is out of order at a time when responsibility and humility should be the order of the day. The banks have acted recklessly, causing a credit crunch for which ordinary hard-working people now have to pay the price. Despite this, HSBC’s top six executives will pocket £120million between them over the next three years, just one example of unfair profit-taking among the predicted £12 billion of city bonuses paid in the first three months of this year alone. If those at the top of society cannot exercise a measure of responsibility that shows some self-awareness and restraint, then why should others follow suit? Of course, the Government is right to act and shore up the financial system, reasserting stability in the market – but there should also be a policy response to this injustice. Why not consider a new 10p in the pound ‘community payback’ levy on incomes above £250,000 per annum, which could fund a £200 cut in council tax for every householder in the country? Asking the very richest few to give a break to the many seems an obvious Labour approach that even the Tories would have to support.

Finally, our politicians need to set an example and act fairly at a time when ordinary people have such low expectations of the behaviour of elected representatives. This needs to go beyond salary restraint. Members of Parliament should serve their constituents first and foremost, regarding the taxpayer as their paymaster above all others. If MPs have excessive outside earnings from consultancies and directorships, then people perceive that they are diverted from the public interest – or worse, that they are exploiting their public status. Labour could be bold and propose a ban on outside earnings for MPs, or at the very least should emulate the American cap on external income at 15% of a Member’s annual salary. Such is the crisis of confidence in politics that only radical steps such as this can hope to impress a sceptical public. There are some who argue that outside interests help enrich parliamentary debate and create a diverse mix of expertise and experience. I have no problem with MPs holding other positions or roles – but why do they have to be personally remunerated for these? By all means, continue to be involved in business and the wider community, just keep the money out of it. This would seem fair to me.

When Gordon Brown addressed the Fabian Society annual conference two years ago, his theme of ‘Britishness’ received more media coverage than the underlying argument at its core – that he saw society’s essential values to be “liberty for all, responsibility from all and fairness to all”. Now, at the first anniversary of Gordon’s premiership, it is more important than ever for these guiding principles to be brought to life, to be illustrated in the policy choices he makes as prime minister, to be urgently converted into tangible steps that persuade an ever sceptical electorate. There is no more need to set out grand expositions of vision or purpose – the Prime Minister has laid this ground, chapter and verse, over 25 years in Parliament. At a time when it is increasingly hard for the Government to be heard, or for nuanced departmental initiatives to set the news agenda, clear and decisive action on fairness would unequivocally remind people what Labour stands for today.