I had a long conversation with Neal Lawson from Compass this morning following on from this blog yesterday.
Neal assures me Compass remains committed to fighting cuts. And Compass is fighting those in Labour (and they exist) who say Labour must stick to Tory spending plans if it wins the next election.
What he did confirm was that he is a friend of John Harris - who is close to Compass - but he is not answerable for what he writes. Neal agreed he had told Harris Compass was planning a report that will be about investing to grow, dealing with the debt over ten years - and cutting waste where possible , such as Trident, PFI etc. So the message, he said, is that good borrowing and good spending is the mantra.
In that case my concerns that Harris' article, with which I still have major issues, was linked to Compass look misplaced even though he referred to them in the article.
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Have you read Harris’s piece, ‘What if Ukip’s rise is more than a blip?’, in yesterdays Guardian, Richard? I found it interesting contrasting what he says there – which is that, maybe, it’s time for the birth of some new political parties – with what he said in the article you blogged about. Perhaps by suggesting neo-Blairite, Blue Labour were in the ascent, he was trying to stimulate such new beginnings 🙂
I don’t think so. He was defending the cruddas inspired article in the comments section.
So I will live in hope Compass want to argue something different and read their next piece with interest.
I wish I was as optimistic as you
I guess I am trying to cling onto something. It’s all so depressing. I’d like to think the People’s Assembly could have a positive impact but that’s probably being over optimistic too.
Perhaps he was trying to pay his mortgage by writing, (his job), on issues he knows little, if anything, about.
Richard
Glad you spoke to Neal, but Harris’s piece is still v worrying. Talk of Labour wanting very tight fiscal controls, deficit elimination and even debt/GDP = 0 is utter madness, even in the medium term. Crudass appears to be losing the battle to the Blairites and Brownites. If such policies were to be adopted, Labour would follow Francois Hollande into oblivion.
I totally agree
Perhaps the ‘Labourites’ we’re discussing are actually a Fifth Column, there for the specific purpose of leading Labour into that oblivion.
The opposite of the last entryists from the 80s?