I wrote a brief review of the dismal report 'Labour's Business' published in November 2011 here. I concluded it sat "uncomfortably with my view of Labour".
Now I note one of its principle editors has defected to the Tories.
Why doesn't that surprise me?
Maybe a few others would like to follow. They're welcome to them. And such defections always help clear the decks for reform, which Labour still needs. The presence of such carpet-baggers who seemed to be present in New Labour more for what was in it for them than from any sense of conviction about social democratic causes was always going to hinder that reform process so for once I agree with Louise Mensch; she really can have as many of them as she wants if it lets Labour be the party it really needs to be.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Thanks, Richard. A lot of my FaceBook friends have been asking ‘who he’?
He’s a boy of no great significance who made his name c/o Tony Blair’s patronage
Re your last paragraph, I pray for that daily lol
As one of the principal designers of New Labour – the thoroughly odious Peter Mandelson – stated that he was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich” and he and its first leader have gone on to become filthy rich themselves, by means that are (being as uncynical as possible) neither wholly transparent nor untainted by an unpleasant stench, the party has an awful lot of ground to make up to show that its policies and ethos for business are ethical.
A 27 year old entrepreneur! Someon who only joined Labour 5 years ago in the final days of Blair! A real “here today and gone tomorrow” carpet-bagger. Read his blog and you’ll see it’s clear that he’s another of those pushy adolescents who clustered around King Tony.
You’ll gather three other things from his blog entry: first, that he is acknowledging that Cameron has inherited Tony’s shysterdom, which he took over from the Thatcher. It was the awareness that Tony was going to change nothing of the poisonous Thatcher inheritance that made my wife lose faith in him by August 1997, and made me leave Labour in 2001.
Secondly, that he is someone clearly suffering from the Emperor’s New Clothes blindness, and so unable to see that since TINA became “holy writ”, the trajectory of Britain has been one of tragedy for the majority (the 99% ?). Not “REform”, as they always claimed, but “DEform” – destruction, all dolled up as meaningful and intellectually coherent change. Also, all the usual criticisms of Brown’s handling of the economy are trotted out, contrasted unfavourably with Cameron’s prudence (!!) in the same area, all of which has been comprehensively confronted and,discounted on this blog, IMHO.
From this springs the third conclusion – that he is unable to see that New Labour was already a toxic brand long before Tony stepped down, so that Tony would almost certainly have lost more heavily to Cameron than Brown did – certainly had he, Tony, and not Gordon, been at the helm in the 2008 crash (see previous paragraph)!
This Luke Bozier chap doesn’t seem to have noticed just how many people had moved away from Labour by 2005. FAR more votes were lost each year between 1997 and 2005 than were lost each year between 2005 and 2010. People were leaving in droves, because they didn’t like the gung-ho kow-towing to the USA, and because they sensed the increasing disparity and social polarisation under New Labour.
Frankly, Blair should have stepped down gracefully in 2004, when he had his heart trouble, and let Gordon Brown then take over – but Gordon should have had a proper leadership election, when I’m sure he would have won a 2005 General Election. Water under the bridge, of course, and, as Richard believes the two Ed’s are now doing, we must deal with things as they are. However, it must be significant that Christian Aid have come out in support of Ed’s attack on secrecy jurisdictions. I think that tells us a lot about where things are now, whereas Bozier is, to use Polly Toynbee’s phraise a “back to the future Blairite”.
Hear, hear
Utter, utter good riddance!!! A 27 year old generally has not much business experience, so he can take his economics degree (if he has one) and enjoy life with his new pals punishing the disabled, trashing the economy, holding out the begging bowl to the very people responsible for the crash…it’s not often a rat leaves a stabilising ship!
(to all commenters…this is a metaphor not name-calling…)
In my view the Labour PARTY has no ground to make up. The party has been let-down by the infiltration of less-than-honest people who now make-up the leading cabal of all the major parties.
Asking a just-barely-millionaire politician to care about anything other than him/her self is unrealistic.
After all, they spend all their time feathering their nests while working, and after they have finished with politics they get to be filthy rich by calling in the markers they spent years earning.
Or go to the EU.
Not too different.
The Blairites did what Militant was prevented from doing: they formed a party within a party and usurped Labour: it has been Tory ever since. Only tribal loyalty and sentiment has prevented the “entryism” from being identified for what it is. Funny how right wing entryism is not recognised. The result has been to destroy our democracy: for if there is no alternative there is no democracy worth the name.
That’s a great comment, Fiona (sadly). I posted it on my FaceBook wall.
“Ed Miliband has said Labour is on the “right path” in supporting a cap on public sector pay rises, amid criticism from two of the party’s union backers”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16588283
Giving the electorate a choice whether to vote Tory, or vote Faux-Tory.
Leaving the unions to consider if donating money to Labour is worth it.
I think if he continues on that route I’ll be getting a letter asking if I wish to continue contributing to the political levy.
Somehow I doubt that Goldman Sachs is going to donate over 6 million to Eds party.
Looks like 2015 is a loser then, after that Scotland may become independent and it’ll be goodbye forever to Labour.
That risk obviously exists