The disparity between the Labour Left grassroots and the Party in Government has never been greater. So much so I am at a bit of a loss what to say about it all.
One of my LRC comrades said something the other day about his "scissors hovering over the Party card" and as far as I'm concerned the rehabilitation of Mandelson has also left me appalled and horrified. But, with a weary sigh, I conclude yet again that tearing up one's Party card is not the thing to do.
In a parallel universe, the one many were expecting to inhabit in June 2007, Brown would have spurned New Labour, reinstated the "broad church" approach and brought some lefties back into the Government, brought the troops home , re-nationalised the railways. Yeah, yeah, and changed his name by deed poll to Harry Perkins..... sadly that is not where we are.
It is in fact , Groundhog Day. Mandelson and Brown ( with Blair lurking somewhere in the background) running things their way and the trade unions and the rest of the left-of-centre labour movement can go to hell in a handcart. In case you're wondering Compass supporters, that also includes you.
New Labour has returned from the dead. And it's time to come out fighting. The LRC National AGM on November 15 will give us an opportunity to discuss where we go next. At the moment, the path ahead is not exactly obvious.
Saturday, 4 October 2008
NEW LABOUR'S GROUNDHOG DAY
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5 comments:
"The disparity between the Labour Left grassroots and the Party in Government has never been greater" - good we still have a chance of keeping the Tories out for a fourth term then!
We should tell Mandy that we are not going anywhere. Tearing up the membership card is what they want you to do.
We must say, you move out the way, we are not going to do so.
well first you will need to win more of the Tory swing voters, perhaps Brown could have offered Thatcher a job, or did he, but Thatcher said not unless Dennis was given a job as well.
But Labour is now so close to the Tories they might well offer Cameron a post in the party telling him look let me win another term and Labour will combine with the Tories.
I think brown would sell his sole to the devil to get that term, because otherwise Blair is going to laugh his way to bed.
Its going to ge worse, apparently the Govt or the DWP part is funding a new TV series that will encourage people to get off benefits and into work. This it a time of recession and fast rising unemployment. Believe it or not, the show will be fronted by the daytime TV bully Jeremy Kyle and is provisionally titled Jeremy Kyle Gets Britain Working!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/07/labour.itv
sink lower and lower, won't you NL?
Day by day, the hopes that people had of a Brown Government being somehow better than TB are sinking into the mire. I think it's pointless to pretend otherwise. Ministers like Liam Byrne, responsible for some of the most right-wing rhetoric on immigration since Enoch Powell, are a disgrace - what do they get ? Promotion.
I will be honest. Years ago, I used to think Brown was somehow ideoilogically more "Labour" than Blair. Many choose to believe that fiction because the truth somtimes hurts.
I now actually think he will do anything to save his skin - except of course turn the Party in the direction it should be going in. And, anonymous, that fourth term is disappearing into the ether.
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