A poster suggests there may be a "purge" in the Labour Party. I think he (or she) means me. Which raises an interesting question. Exactly how would I feel if I were no longer in it?
Until fairly recently, it is no exaggeration to say I would have been distraught. Since 1976 I have been a Party member through thick and thin and since Iraq I have spent what most people would regard as a ridiculous amount of time tying to convince people to re-join and arguing the case for staying in and fighting.
I still subscribe to that view. Those who counsel Left MPs to leave and form a new Party are still wrong. Without the socialist MPs we have left in Parliament this Party is well and truly over.
But it is becoming increasingly hard to see how Labour can truly be "re-claimed" as we optimistaically thought just a couple of years ago.
I think the 10p tax rate cut is the tipping-point for many. As Frank Field (hardly a cheerleader for the Left) points out, punishing the poor is not what we joined this Party for.
Again outraged this morning to read a Government source in the Guardian arguing people should "get it in perspective." A well-paid Civil servant would obviously have difficulty understanding the concerns of ordinary folk who are battling with inflation, credit crunch, house prices, and all the rest of it. And so, it seems, do Ministers. Most of whom have never ventured outside the Westminster bubble and earned their spurs as Spads or apparatchiks to new Labour.
rather than as trade unionists or local councillors.Labour in Government has simply lost touch with the real world.If the PLP does not rally round, rebel and stop this terrible policy getting through, it will be the last straw for many.
We have a leader whose brilliance does not extend to empathising with the working-class or changing course away from neo-liberalism. A Leader who is a grave disappointment even to those who enthusiastically supported him. Purge those who disagree with Labour's current direction and there will be no Party left. Instead, it will be run by those like James Purnell who say that Labour is "ideologically neutral." A man , by the way, now being touted as a future Leader. I find that truly terrifying.
This autumn at Party Conference, we have one last chance via Calder Valley's resolution to ensure that a future Leadership contest will be drawn from all wings of the Party and that trade unions, affiliates and members might have a socialist candidate in a future election. I do not envy our delegate as he will be put under tremendous pressure to withdraw the motion, will have to get up on that daunting rostrum and argue the case, and cope with huge media interest. Last Sunday the resolution was already the subject of speculation. That puts us all under the spotlight. I make no apologies for that. Because, as Tribune points out this week,"
"This is not the ideology of a Labour administration but of one that has come to accept and champion that of a dominant ruling economic force which offers greater inequality, social divide, a wider wealth gap and a grim future for cohesion in society and humanity. It is time now, rather than after an election defeat, to break with the market-obsessed, neo-liberal agenda that has been the “new” Labour hallmark.
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