Skip to main content

The strange death of the Labour Party

So many things going on in the markets... and even as the North Korean regime tries to start a war, the Spanish banks fall to pieces, the Greek economy falls into smaller pieces, yet still the death throes of the Labour Party attract my attention.

Oooo... Please, please: choose a Miliband, no pur..lease!

I so want the Labour Party dead.

These are identikit professional politicians - bloodless, passionless and unprincipled, they represent why the Labour Party lost its soul the day they chose Tony Blair as its "leader". That discount Caudillo trampled any basic principle that the Socialist Party ever had (although as a fairly fierce anti-Socialist, I can't say he was exactly wrong). Now Labour want to choose either the clumsy Tweedledee of thoughtless me too-ism or the doltish Tweedledum of thoughtless opportunism. They think that the Coalition will eventually fold and that then they can sweep in triumph back to the power from which they have been temporarily excluded...

Err.. The Coalition has not simply put the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives into government, it has put the Liberal view of the constitution into power. This was something that only ever had to happen once. The accountability of greater freedom, the openness of a more powerful franchise: all of these are part of the programme that Her Majesty The Queen outlined today. The Labour Party has no answers. They think that the game is still the same.

But it is not.

Labour not only face the more than 60% of the population that voted for the coalition parties. They face a completely different political game.

Labour might retreat into populism: greater restrictions on immigration, more invasions against the free market, more anti-Europeanism, but the fact is that the balance that the coalition is striking is about right: Labour will either look extremist or, even worse, simply wrong. Even if they simply continue to plough the furrow of Blair-Brownism, the battle has moved to a different field.

So: the question emerges: How do they oppose?

Actually, the answer in those terms is simple: They should choose Diane Abbot. Only she has the popular touch. She has warmth and charm. She is bright and so clearly not a product of the political machine.

Such a total contrast to the bloodless Milibands.

But Labour won't touch her.

"Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad"
Labels:

Comments

Newmania said…
Well for good or ill you are certainly right that this feels like something quite new


I have been impressed with the Lib Dems in power thus far .David Laws in particular.
8:22 pm
Cicero said…
Quite an admission, given the way we crossed swords in the past, Newmania. I, in turn, must offer a generous admission, that I was wrong about David Cameron too. The point is that the coalition has turned out- as we in the Lib Dems certainly hoped- to be more than the sum of the parts... if the nutters amongst the excluded Tories can be kept under control, this could be the best government in nearly 100 years.

Heaven knows, our country needs it..
10:01 pm
G Eagle Esq said…
N'mania " .... I have been impressed by the Lb Dems ..."

Cicero ".... I was wrong about David Cameron too ..."

Salve, Magister Cicero

I flatter myself that I agree with you and the incisive Magistro Newmania on so many things

.... apart of course on whether Tenterden should be towed into the North Sea and sunk to form a Breakwater protecting the Norfolk Coast from the erosions of the Sea & Socialism

AND I hope that your (plural) optimisms prove to be vindicated

BUT the Night is Young .....

We have seen only a minimal gesture towards the massive reductions required in State-Over-Spending

AND INDEED we must not forget the wisdoms of our Roman Ancestors :

CARTHAGO EST DELENDA

Vale

Aquila non Candida
7:16 am
Newmania said…
I don`t see it quite that way , its an interesting subject , but I share your enthusiasm overall
7:35 am
Left Lib said…
Hang on. I thought THIS government was going to pass populist policies on immigration?
Indeed, isn't it David Cameron who is now in thrall to the previous New Labour Rupert Murdoch?
It is clear that the reason that you want Labour to die is that you don't like it. However that in itself is the not reason that will cause Labour to die, should it in fact do so.
It was the Liberal Democrats who supported the nationalisation of Northern Rock, before even Labour managed it. It is nice to have socialism as an option when all else fails.
2:06 pm
Ian R Thorpe said…
I too would have loved to see Diane Abbott in with a decent shout. But of course she never had a chance. I wonder if her candidacy was simply a ploy to prove to skeptics that a smooth succession for New Labour's aointed one was being orchestrated by the Prince Of Darkness Peter M.
8:21 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Concert and Blues

Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field The Weeknd and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn. It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t. Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe. We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year. Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hop...
Post a Comment
Read more

One Year On

  Head vabariigi iseseisvuspäeva! Happy Estonian Independence Day! It is one year since I stood outside the Estonian Parliament for the traditional raising of the national flag from Tall Hermann tower. Looking at the young fraternities gathered with their flags, I was very sure that Estonia too would soon be facing the aggression of the criminal Russian regime. A tragic and dark day. 5 eyes intelligence had been clear: an all out invasion was going to happen, and Putin´s goals included- and still include- "restoration" of Russian imperial power across Europe, even to the Atlantic. Yet there was one Western intelligence failure: we all underestimated the guts of the Ukrainian armed forces, the ZSU, and its President and people. One year on, Estonia, and indeed all the front line states against Russia, knows that Ukraine saved us. Estonia used that time to prepare itself, should that "delayed" onslaught ever be unleashed, but equally the determination of Kaja Kallas, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Hard Frost

  After a week of slush and damp, tonight there is a hard frost in Tallinn. The general election campaign has started with the parties submitting their lists of candidates and announcing their programs. The polls seem to show a polarization of views. Although the Liberal Reform party of PM Kaja Kallas is set to remain as the largest party in the 101 seat Riigikogu, the steady rise of the far right EKRE seems to place them firmly in second place, replacing the Social Liberal Centre Party, who seem set to lose several seats. In addition to the Conservative Isamaaliit and the Social Democrat SDE, there is a fair likelihood that a new party will join these in Parliament, namely the Business/Green minded Eesti 200. The Greens and the Libertarian "Right wingers" look like they will struggle to gain seats. A Moderate Reform/SDE/E200 coalition would be a good outcome, but the numbers will have to fall just so, otherwise there remains the chance of another Centre/Isamaa/EKRE coalition...
Post a Comment
Read more