CLARKE IS PART OF THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION

You have to laugh, albeit hollowly, when Charles Clarke comes on the radio and says what great mates he and Gordon are. Of course they are. Why else would he lambast him in the most recent edition of the Blairite publication Progress.

Brown, you see, has upset the ultras by not doing ENOUGH to fulfil the New Labour agenda. Which is a recipe we are told for 10 more years of Conservative rule. In that respect at least, Clarke is right about Brown. But for the wrong reasons. Unless he changes course, the Tories will win the next election.

We have wasted nearly three years of Government agonising over when Blair was going, then not having an open and honest contest for the leadership, and now going down blind Brownite alleys of neo-Conservative policies and trying to out-Cameronise Cameron.

So anxious is this Govt to please the right's agenda that the checks and balances surrounding police searches are likely to be taken away. Another recipe for disaster. Today, the Govt blocked attempts by the left to bring about a more equitable National Insurance system - ensuting the rich paid the same percentage of their earnings in NI contributions as we do. These things should not be happening.

The PLP has got to find a proper voice and start mobilising and campaigning for decent Labour policies. And if that means rebellions then for God's sake rebel.

The other option is a slow and painful sleepwalk to the much greater disaster of Conservative Government. Even if these days, sometimes, I wonder would anyone actually notice the difference........

TOUGH AT THE TOP ?

From Guardian City pages today.......
Boardroom pay at the UK's top companies soared 37% last year as full-time directors were rewarded with inflation-busting increases in basic salaries, big cash bonuses and substantial payouts from share schemes.
The surge in pay, which takes the average total pay for a chief executive to £2,875,000, is more than 11 times the increase in average earnings and nearly 20 times the rate of inflation as measured by the consumer price index. The ratio between bosses' rewards and employees' pay has risen to 98:1, up from 93:1 a year ago - meaning that the work of a chief executive is valued almost 100 times more highly than that of their employees.