Just some quick points, now that the polls have closed and I sit here waiting for something to happen.
Why is it that the Labour Government appears, on the face of it, to be “tired” in the way the Conservatives seemed to be after twice as long in power?
I’m not sure I agree with that, and I probably don’t disagree in the way you’re expecting. The Conservatives did seem to be adept at reshuffling, something that was eased by the replacement of their leader, the ideological battles within the party, as well as the many scandals. My chief problem with the Tories from the mid-90s onwards was not that they showed the same old faces, but that the younger faces that appeared (Liam Fox comes to mind, though there are others) seemed to be more ideological, harder, and more right-wing. It wasn’t their tiredness that bothered me, it was their actions, and the possibility of more action.
It does seem that, in terms of Ministerial personnel, Labour is still overly dependent upon a team that dates from the mid-90s, and with no change of leader, and little ideological variation, the chances of the combination looking fresh and radical are greatly reduced.
I’m not saying that personnel is all-important. In fact you could make a case that as mere managers of complex departments comprising advisers and civil servants, Ministers are of very little relevance, individually. Nonetheless, there may be a brief period during which new Ministers do have some say over the direction of policy, it allows them to derive a fresh picture of how the department works, and – of course – it provides us with the hope that past failures can be avoided.
So much for quick points. OK, very briefly:
- Tony Blair has done some fine and noble things, and was a breath of fresh air. But however clear and unique his grasp of – particularly international – issues, loyalty to him stifles the progressive project, and allows his supporters to grow defensive and conservative, doubting that any successor can move his vision onwards. To those die-hard supporters, I suggest that the time to let go is nigh (if not now). Resigning in time for the Conference seems like the sensible thing to do.
- Charles Clarke needs to go (as is being predicted). How many reasons do you need? I may edit and update this section, but in the meantime I will defer to this.
- John Prescott also needs to be shuffled away from power. The argument that he could “keep the two wings of the party together” rings pretty hollow nowadays, and – engaging as he is in person, especially with activists (I attended one of his flying visits to Hove, last year) – the idea that he can keep the working class “on board” is also pretty hollow in the light of the reaction to his affair and – most importantly – the fact that the campaign against the BNP has, by any standards, been a complete failure. Sure, it is incumbent on all mainstream parties to challenge the extremists, but if the white working class are lost to mainstream politics, it’ll be Labour who lost them, and failed to take on racism head-on.
I don’t see these changes as earth-shattering, and I don’t see any inconsistency with supporting Labour overall. The important point is to do whatever is required to further Labour’s progressive agenda – social justice, economic justice, and extended democracy, both at home and abroad – whatever the personnel.
Sorry, this is a bit rough, but I wouldn’t finish it otherwise.
I don’t at all agree it is time for Blair to go. For one I do not see where a better leader is going to come from – you may say Brown, but we will have to see.
Roy Hattersley is right when he says it is essential for Blair to go out on a high at some point, not driven from power by apparent failure. I think that would be a disaster for progressive politics within the Labour Party and for the Labour Party in the electoral context because it will be perceived by many voters as the failure of Blair and thereby New Labour.
Good to see you wake up ans smell the coffee. Even better to see you come round to our viewpoint. Why not join us at Blairwatch?
James, I largely agree, my point was that Blair’s supporters shouldn’t be so attached to him personally that they try to keep him in place beyond his time, such that what I call the progressive agenda loses credibility, reform grounds to a halt, and conservatism creep in among supporters.
Also, I certainly don’t think TB should go now: the results, in themselves, do not make his position untenable. They’re pretty poor, but are not fatal, and Conference would be a better time for the handover process to begin.
quarsan, there are a number of points I could make, but one is that I’m not interested in investigative blogging: I’m interested in ideas, the theory and practice of politics, ideas for “improving things”, as well as providing a service for Labour people. The curtain will shortly fall on TB, and I certainly won’t take any satisfaction from that, but I will be confident about the future.
Although I do not support certain specific policies/practices of the government, I think the effective unity of the right and left critiques of Blair has had an extraordinarly powerful effect on many people’s perceptions of the government’s accomplishments. One of the astounding polls presented last night on the BBC election ’show’ showed voter’s greater confidence in the Tories to protect the NHS. I imagine the Tories are saying a very big ‘thank you’ to the Royal College of Nurses. The Tory slogan is that the money put in the NHS and Education is ‘wasted’ and not resulting in improvements; line up the left critics of New Labour to endorse this. The right wing press produces a long campaign that Labour is all about spin and lying; line up all the anti-war, anti- New Labour MPs and groups to use the same slogans.
I am not suggesting that the self-styled ‘left’ in the Labour Party and unions should shut up, rather that they should stop taking the lazy route of using the same language, the same arguments, and the same issues as the right in order to seize the tabloid headlines. Either they have a different discourse and serious policies to offer(beyond save our jobs) or they are playing the media game — and doing the Tories job for them.
Andrew, I really couldn’t agree more. out with the old, I say. The last thing we want is for New labour to become entrenched, inflexible, dominated by old faces, and afraid of renewal.
The progressive project needs a jumpstart.
More to the point, the doorsteps were so hostile to Clarke etc. They need to go. It didn’t help that a combination of him and our Margaret brought race back on to the agenda when it was approaching dead-issuedom.
Anonymous, I think it’s more a case of the right stealing the left’s policies here… how long did it take Michael Howard to come out as anti-war?
I think Blair has to really start to deal with the fact that he is no longer a boon to the Party, but is now a liability. If he lingers for too long, the government will become ossified, and a new leader (Brown?) will have a hard job changing direction.
The reshuffle may be thought of as ‘clearing house’, but outside Westminster village it looks like panic. If Clarke wasn’t good enough today, he wasn’t good enough last week.
essential for Blair to go out on a high at some point, not driven from power by apparent failure. I think that would be a disaster for progressive politics within the Labour Party
-Jamesz, isn’t it Blair that’s the disaster for progressive politics within the Labour party? Those of us who were elated when he was elected, and supported and even campaigned/voted for him in the early years are now completely dissilusioned. The promised progress on so many issues just isn’t there.
I think the sooner he goes the better, with some of the whispers about Gordon’s plans I’ve heard, he may even turn me back around. Very unlikely at this point, but y’never know.
I’m not interested in investigative blogging: I’m interested in ideas, the theory and practice of politics, ideas for “improving things”,
Seconded, really must try to get back to that with my blogging again, been too much ‘issues’ rather than ideas recently. Improvement to the system is needed.
as well as providing a service for Labour people.
On that, completely OT. Is there a decent group blog/”magazine” style Labour site out there? Tories have Once More, Home and Cameron Leadership, LibDems have Liberal Review, but the closest I’ve seen to something of that scale is this place.
Would be great to see one, the best of Labour bloggers writing stuff, etc.
On that, completely OT. Is there a decent group blog/”magazine” style Labour site out there? Tories have Once More, Home and Cameron Leadership, LibDems have Liberal Review, but the closest I’ve seen to something of that scale is this place.
Would be great to see one, the best of Labour bloggers writing stuff, etc
It would indeed. I had intended to bring this up at the February meet, but, in the end, it didn’t get mentioned. The original plan had been to bring on two more people to “share the load”, but it should be more open than that. If I can find a way to allow perhaps 20 people to contribute to a Blogger blog without overloading it, treading on each others’ toes, or my having to approve and manage everything, then I’ll make it happen. Would be interesting to know how CIF, Sharpener, etc. handle these issues, but I’ll have a think.
I have been at work for 43 years, law abiding taxpaying citizen and I have always voted Labour until now. I am a smoker and the Labour Party has turned its back on me and 15 million other smokers in this country they dont want us or our votes. My local publican wants to provide me with a service Labour says he cannot. Whilst the Labour Party want me and 15 million others to stand outside on the streets, socially exclude us and discriminate against us they can of course expect to lose 15 million votes. The last government that tried to ban smoking was Adolf Hitlers. Whilst foreign criminals roam our streets, the DMP romps in his office, NHS staff are losing jobs, forced ID cards are on the way all Labour MPs are bothered about is banning smoking which is a perfectly legal product taxed to the hilt and purchased by 15 million law abiding hardworking citizens. Sadly Labour is not the party that it used to be and its not Blair that is at fault but the current policies being pursued. When you send men to war to fight for democracy in another country and then tell those soldiers that you will fine them £50 if they light up in the British Legion then all sense and sanity has left this party and you are representatives only of ASH and not Joe Public that put you in power. The Public Consultation that was held showed that 80% of the British People did not want a total ban – Labour MPs totally ignored this result and voted for their own preferences. You can put forward all sorts of reasons for losing over 300 council seats but dont forget the 15 million smokers votes that you didnt want.
You are doing a great job of running this website. It is linked to from Labour’s own website. I’d like to suggest a change to the format. Because this is becoming such a high profile weblog, it may be an idea to create a separate page for views and comments, and to devote the main page simply to fairly factual Labour and Euston Manifesto issues, and to the streaming list of Labour bloggers’ new posts. I worry that the continual, and often childish personal ding dongs we are becoming accustomed to may undermine the credibility of this otherwise excellent weblog.
If I can find a way to allow perhaps 20 people to contribute to a Blogger blog without overloading it, treading on each others’ toes, or my having to approve and manage everything, then I’ll make it happen. Would be interesting to know how CIF, Sharpener, etc. handle these issues, but I’ll have a think.
CIF is I’m informed using high end Movable Type (the expensive bespoke version). The Sharpener is using Wordpress which I’m told can handle multiple contributors well.
I’m actually planning on keeping to Blogger when I make the switch I’m planning, but each “main columnist” will get their own directory and sub-blog, the frontpage will have a small team of editors doing link posts both internally and to good stuff elsewhere.
Definately be worth talking to Blears in her new role, I think Blair’s “new web initiative” needs to be harnessed and helped out by Bloggers generally, the mess Miliband is making with his blog needs to not be repeated. I suspect Paulie would be a good assist as well. If’n you want to compare notes/not reinvent the wheel, you’ve got my email address, planned launch date for my site was last month, ah well…
To the anonymous smoking victim:
The smoking ban is actually one of the few examples of Labour doing something that the Party wanted, rather than taking the ‘focus group’ approach. We are not banning smoking completely, and England is not the first place to impose a ban on smoking in pubs etc – The notable example is Ireland of course.
Why smokers do have to convert themselves into the victims of those of us who don’t want to inhale their second-hand toxins, when they are actually victims of their own addiction? Because accepting the truth would mean doing something about it themselves – something that the classic addict can’t do very easily.
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Danivon; like the man said, his publican wants to let him smoke. The Govt took the wrong approach, rather than ban it outright, they should’ve used tax incentives to encourage the majority of businesses to switch.
Most of us want a non-smoking environment, so that should be encouraged, but for the minority that don’t, the ban is a bad thing; allow people to choose, and we persuade our favourite pubs to ban smoking, etc.
You’d end up, if done correctly, with a majority non-smoking, but a small number that allow smoking. That’d be fine by me, just make sure they’re well ventilated, etc.
Best analogy is both unleaded and low-sulphur petrol. Remember when Brown cut the taxes on low-sulphur only? Immediate reaction from protesters was “you can’t get that anywhere, never heard of it”. Took a week for it to be on every forcourt. Would’ve taken longer for the smoking switchover, but a few pushes int eh right direction would’ve worked. Ah well.
Not a major issues for non-smoking me, but keeping the table for the lady when she goes outside for a fag is annoying.