The Benn decade - 6 comments

Surely one of the silliest articles ever posted at Comment Is Free, Neil Clark - or, most likely, a child making their first, tentative foray into political writing - fantasises about the possibility of a three-term Labour government headed by, of all people, Tony Benn.

Tom H says what needs to be said, but the piece is so inane I hope he didn't spend too long on the critique.

In a similar vein, here's an interesting site that tries to judge the Labour government's adherence - in 2007 - to the "statements and conference decisions of 1992-4". Interesting it may be, but if the plan is to show how Labour has "sold out" (how else do people's minds change?) since the last "democratic/legitimate" setting-out of aims, then it's a ridiculous one. We're not talking about fundamental moral principles, but about - often - specific economic policies. I know economic understanding isn't evenly distributed, but surely 15 years is a long time in that business?

The appropriate baseline for future policy is today, not 1997, and not 1992. We should be asking the peddlers of policies past to justify their contemporary relevance - which is not necessarily difficult - rather than resorting to absent-minded dreams of Utopia.