Might we safely say that New Labour is over?
Peter Mandelson was arrested yesterday. Whatever happens now, he, his career, and anything that he thought might be his legacy have been discredited.
Meanwhile, Tony Blair is advocating the total destruction of Gaza as a Palestinian state.
Alistair Campbell makes a podcast that is increasingly irrelevant.
Morgan McSweeney has been sacked.
Keir Starmer is living on borrowed time.
And the New Labour operatives working in the Cabinet look to have not a single idea between them.
The shenanigans that brought them to power are being exposed, along with those who participated in them, such as Josh Simons MP.
To describe the remnants of this operation as a busted flush would be too kind. It is a movement past its sell-by date, because what has been apparent since the day that Starmer became Prime Minister is that it is an organisation without an idea. Apart from the desire for power so that it might wreak havoc wherever it might turn, New Labour has nothing left to offer. And, precisely because its leading lights were always set on destruction, of government, of democracy, of the relationship between power and working people, and of the desire to control the worst instincts of capitalism, their legacy looks, universally, to be one of failure, precisely because that is what they set out to achieve.
On Thursday, it is highly likely that people in Manchester will kick Labour out of a parliamentary seat they have held for as long as political memories exist. The artifice that was once Labour, and which was corrupted into New Labour, is now being seen for what it is, and that is a mechanism for the supply of power to a few at a cost to many.
The game is up for Labour. I cannot see it being revived, any more than I can see any real chance of a Conservative revival.
We need renewal. The only problem is that, as I have noted already this morning, the thinking that might provide the foundation for that renewal has not been done by many people. It is that which worries me.
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I started reading ‘Fraud’ by Paul Holden. It supports what you say. Worth a read.
Yes unfortunately it is very difficult for the Rest is Politics to comment on the current saga given Alistair Campbell’s declared friendship with Mandleson. I used to follow it, it between Rory’s views on the royal family and Alistair’s Mandleson links they can’t comment on either. Normally such an arrest would have resulted in an emergency podcast but none has been out out.
The whole house of cards is coming down. I don’t think my world of education were that enamoured with the long awaited SEND white paper. I don’t know enough to understand it,but it seems a bit like the long awaited initial budget, not very well thought through. There are numerous references to trusts and all schools being part of trusts but no explanation as to what or when. The cynic in me thinks this governments days are numbered and they will be totally unable to implement policy looking 3 years into the future.
Quite what is going to happen to Starmer and the current cabinet is unknown,but with so many getting drawn into this murky scandle there are you g to be further resignations and potential arrests for criminal behaviour. How many decent MPs will jump ship as it all implodes to a cleaner less corrupt party? Thursday/Friday is getting more important by the day.
As the Chinese saying goes ‘May you live in interesting times…’
As ever the challenge is what you replace it with
LINO since Blair has been about continued creeping reduction of the state and hand it over to the market. Think academy schools, PFI contracts, the NHS, gutting local government, the latest SEND cuts badged as progress.
It seems UK political parties, main stream media, and so on are wilfully determined not to permit challenge to the accepted norms. Why? There “is no other way and we can’t afford it”.
Utter rubbish. The UK state can afford it and can do it differently.
New labour, Another one bites the dust, Tories, Another one bites the dust, Thatcherism, Another one bites the dust. Well maybe not all yet, Reform pty ltd fascism still needs to go. But we will get you yet. it will happen along with the current anti human neo liberal ploys of elitism that ultimately stifle and enslave any joy of life for any living world over the current millennial. Ordinary folk who just want to exist in an equitable caring creative sustainable world are in ever increasing numbers, and they are waking up to it..
There is a LONG way to go yet, and it might not be the way we would prefer. The oligarchs have every instrument at their disposal and the UK has, in general, been seduced out of the tradition of collective action. The American fascists are pumping money into buying politicians, deluding the population, and doing their utmost to turn UK into the 51st state. That’s what Reform is, the ultimate (I hope) shock troops of American fascism, Labour and Tory the soft backbone of the same process. They may win. I hope traditional British cynicism, obstinacy and egalitarianism will prevail.
This is the perfect time to revoke the Palantir contracts. We will now see how much of a hold they have over our government.
Yes agree.
Related, I feel sorry for the LINO candidate in Manchester:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/24/neighbour-does-not-hate-neighbour-gorton-and-denton-byelection-labour-reform
She thinks that her main opponent is Deform – which might be true with respect to “who comes 2nd and 3rd”.
Wonder how she was selected? Last of the McSweeney clones? chosen for obedience.
Wonder what LINO MPs are thinking – now that control has evaporated?
That article is extraordinarily out of touch with reality
It is difficult to contest the view that the Labour Together’s illegally funded conspiracy to purge Labour of it s ‘antisemites’ and hundreds of thousands of members has destroyed the party for good.
Only a few years ago – it was the largest party by membership and was offering a mildly social democratic programme and almost won an election outright. Got far more votes than Starmer did last election. The powers that be must have been shocked – and the secret services probably had a hand in wrecking the social democratic party and reasserting the New Labour hegemony.
As the Starmer edifice collapses – they have so purged the party that there will be very little left – maybe only me and John McDonnel
Yesterday a Scottish Labour MP, Brian Leishmann, stood up in Parliament to declare (to Darren Jones, on the front bench) that Labour Together, responsible for propelling Keir Starmer into Downing Street, had been up to some “dark sh*t”.
Mr Speaker was outraged – not at the behaviour of Labour Together, not at the unprecedented muck-raking inquiries commissioned by Labour Together into the private lives of investigative journalists, not at the sham of an ethics inquiry set up by Starmer, concerning the behaviour of Josh Simons, over said muck-raking, but at the use of the word “sh*t” in Parliament.
I’m outraged that Mr Speaker demanded the withdrawal of the unparliamentary language but had nothing to say about the sh*t itself, the ongoing corruption and criminality which I am convinced, is integral to the whole Starmer/New Labour project.
The dangerous government game of Jenga continues. Starmer survives at the top of the pile, working out how to extract yet another Minister (Simons) from the increasingly precarious edifice of his administration, without himself tumbling to the ground.
I wonder if the reluctant and as yet undecided voters of Gorton & Denton realise how much power has been placed in their hands, to decide at least, how long Keir Starmer stays in Downing Street?
Much to agree with
Hi Richard,
Sorry to off-topic for a moment, but is there a section on your blog where I can send in a question? I know it is one you will be able to field, but look high and low I can’t find an actual questions / contact form. I think the question might be a good opportunity for a video / blog entry because it’s an issue I’ve not really seen discussed from a critical angle, about the role of the BoE, or, the deletion of a role it used to have and replacement with market fulfilment.
All best,
Carl
Mail me at richard.murphy [at] tacxresearch.org.uk