Blunkett: Labour is heading for 'civil war'
David Blunkett warns of 'self-inflicted' wounds amid rumours of Blairite plot
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Labour is lurching towards "civil war" following a succession of crises that have undermined discipline and reopened old divides within the party, a former Cabinet minister has warned feuding colleagues.
David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary and a key figure in the Blair government, called on his party to regroup urgently or face disaster in June's local and European elections.
He spoke out as rival Labour factions traded recriminations after a grim month for Mr Brown culminated in a retreat on his proposed overhaul of MPs' expenses and defeat for his plans to stop some Gurkhas settling in the UK.
Labour chiefs are braced for a dismal performance in the elections on 4 June, while some disillusioned Blairite MPs are threatening a final attempt to oust Mr Brown during the summer.
Mr Blunkett said the party urgently needed to offer a fresh vision to the electorate in order to get back on the front foot after the "smeargate" email scandal and damaging disclosures about MPs' expenses
"We cannot afford civil war," he told The Independent. "Both those on the old Left and some of my old colleagues who are described as Blairites, must not look backwards. Those are in the past and we must make our own way. After the last couple of weeks, we need to regroup and have a vision. We cannot afford to wait until after the summer elections. The public are still not convinced by the Tories."
In a speech today, the former Home Secretary will call for the party to "draw a line" under the last two weeks. He will hit out at "siren voices" within the party who he says are set on "turning back the clock".
Mr Blunkett also voices some disquiet over the Prime Minister's leadership, urging the party to "avoid self-inflicted wounds".
He will say: "The Damian McBride emails, the public horror at some of the exposure of MPs' expenses claims and an erosion of confidence in politics generally, requires a line to be drawn and the restoration of the antennae. The old battles are over and the need for visionary action is self-evident. So talk of going back to the past is dangerous."
The Prime Minister has faced criticism from key Blairite figures, including the former Transport Secretary Stephen Byers and another former Home Secretary, Charles Clarke.
A Brown loyalist last night accused them of plotting one last attempt to oust the Prime Minister before the general election expected next Spring.
He noted: "Byers was sitting there with a grin on his face when the [Gurkha] result was announced. Some people are going around saying things will get worse for Gordon. It's an organised operation."
But there are growing signs within Labour ranks that the mutiny is spreading to previously loyal figures. One senior minister protested that the "atmosphere is terrible" in Downing Street, while a veteran MP said the mood within the Parliamentary Labour Party was "very, very angry".
A backbencher with a marginal seat said: "The man has lost his authority – he's had a charisma bypass."
The turmoil in Labour ranks forced Mr Brown to order a fresh climbdown on expenses to avoid the risk of his second humiliating Commons defeat in 24 hours. Although he had already abandoned plans to replace the controversial second homes allowance with a daily "clocking in" payment to MPs, he had still wanted to win approval for the broad principle of linking allowances to attendance.
Labour MPs had formally been given a free vote on the subject, but were privately warned it amounted to a vote of confidence in the Prime Minister.
But with backbench MPs in mutinous mood and the Tories opposing the proposal, the Government decided not to press ahead with the perilous vote.
Instead the issue will be left to the independent Committee on Standards in Public Life chaired by Sir Christopher Kelly. Alan Duncan, the shadow Commons leader, accused the Government of "treading rapidly into realms of complete and utter lunacy".
No 10 drew some comfort from support in last night's votes to other expenses reforms proposed by the Prime Minister. They included banning outer London MPs from claiming for a second home, requiring MPs to publish full details of outside earnings and obliging them to produce receipts for all expenses claims.
The changes went through with massive majorities after Tory chiefs allowed their MPs to go home, prompting Labour accusations that David Cameron was less committed to reform than he maintained.
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Comments
In fact it is Napoleonic in nature.
In bygone times, an honourable Prime Minister and his party would resign and accept defeat rather than have it forced upon them through the Hustings.
And what Blunkett and every Labour person fails to see is that they have made themselves unelectable for possibly a generation unless the Tories drop the ball further into the gutter than nuLabour.
Brown should call an election now and spare us all the ghastly dance macabre of his doomed regime.
While the country sinks deeper into the status of failed banana republic, the snouts characteristically snarl at each other - as for former Iceland on the Thames panegyrist Brown, my enemiy's enemy... even if an easily misled fool
British politics must change from the debacle we have now. We need to do away with this two sided political system. We simply need a more wide ranging polictical base. What's the difference between NeoLab & The Conservatives?
It's not Labours' incompetence that has bothered me, it's not their greed or their milking of the public purse; it's not even the economic black hole that they've put us in although all these things matter. What will stop me voting for them ever again is the fact that they've deserted working people and declared war on all of us: Britain is no longer a fortress, it's a virtual prison and despite all the EU sentiment on here (much of which I can agree with) it's a disgrace that as a British citizen, I am a freer man in mainland Europe than I am in my home country.
Most people apart from of the scum of the earth are just treading water till next year,when they can be rid of the likes of you..the Clown Mc prince of downing street, and all his pantomime characters such as the repellent Harman.
When you eventually come to the end of your life i hope you,and your lick-spittle buddies are conscious enough to reflect on the fact that your only real legacy is one of being truly despised ,items of derision,and resented bitterly for ruining a nation.
Perhaps we are in for a 'night of the long knives for the brown sh*ts ' before too long
"You're always out trying to protect your babies, and when you've got these scary things like this stupid pandemic of swine flu, you kind of want to duct-tape your windows and shut your house off to the world."
- DIANE MCDONALD, of Cold Spring, Minn., after she and her two children grew
ill. It was not the swine flu.
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla
That will be the legacy of Blair's (and Kinnock's) 'making the party electable'.
The question is, what will come in its place?
Get used to the type of artificial, constructed, 'rainbow' parties we have seen in some other nations.
Why is nulabor seemingly deliberately doing everything it can to ensure the development of those conditions that give rise to disorder, social unrest, riots, insurrection and even revolution ?
If the populace should react as being driven, this gives nulabor its excuse to impose a dictatorship - which is, by and large, what we have had for the past several years, with increasing impositions upon the freedoms of citizens.
As for a civil war, it has already happened. An as yet unnamed elite, lawless organisation is actually running the country by stealth, in effect a silent insurrection from within. The control must be total, absolute, and lead top-down from the centre. What and who cannot be controlled must be destroyed by nulabor.
This nulabor cadre has declared war upon it citizens. Government has become the enemy of the state. Last time this happened, heads rolled, literally.
The blanket must believe his time is coming.
It doesn't matter if Labour is Blairite or Brownite,,,,,,just go !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
When will we finally have enough of ours?
This duplicitous, scheming, arrogant, self-serving incompetent had to resign twice from positions he held as a secretary of state!
Anyone, even party devotees, who are prepared to turn up and listen to Blunkett's hypocritocal rubbish, must be certifiable.
The rest of you Labour people had the chance to control Brown but you allowed him to do as he liked even when he wasn't PM. Then you let him become PM - you must have known what the result would be. You let it happen. A bit late now isn't it to be whingeing? Twelve years too late. Why didn't Blair sack Brown the moment Brown started refusing to do what Blair wanted?
Hoist with your own petard, I'm afraid.
It's going to be so joyous to welcome the Heir to Blair, and all the wonderful Tory crew back to High Office. I don't know why he just doesn't push Brown aside and set up office at No 10 now. He is practically running the country anyway.
I can't wait for William Hague, Michael Gove, Guido Fawkes to take over. I know this band of blameless, principled guardians of public morals didn't know what they were doing when they voted strongly for the Iraq War. I can see they won't privatise anything that moves. Public services and benefits will be there as a safety net for those who need them. Charities won't take over the growing needs of welfare in this country. Oxfam will not reign supreme in the third sector. There will be no homelessness or soup kitchens here.
There will undoubtedly be no making people pay twice for everything through taxationn and private schemes. They will be putting the GREAT into Great Britain again.- particularly in a recession. They will balance the books, and introduce what's needed for the country. The Conservatives, those band of gentlemanly shysters who will almost undeniably put the the CON back into the word Conservative.
They warned about the banking crisis repeatedly didn't they. I've always heard them say banking and the market economy should be checked. Regulation of this sector is entirely necessary. and there's just some things you shouldn't privatise. Bless Norman Tebbit for his wisdom. Bless them all for the prosperity and Good Fortune they will bring to all. Blow em up ......!!! and as a little reminder of just how joyous they can be - read this ........... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentis
The Tories and Lib Dems should combine electorally in exchange for a promise of PR (to reduce all of this giant pendulum politics that leads to such arrogance and abuse) and destroy Labour at the next general election.
Iraq, 10p etc etc
What antennae?
Their time is up,time to go.
Good Bye,Good riddence.
The power-crazed Golem was held in check by the knowledge that to attack Blair would bring destruction upon himself, so time after time he had Ed Balls summon forth the troops for rebellion only to back down with some half-baked compromise.
Now with Blair off the scene and the Golem running amok, it's still going to end in mutually assured destruction.
The Labour party in finished.
Since Blunkett is a founder member of the Organization to Convince the Public That Politicians are All Blood Sucking Leeches and Crooks he has got a nerve to start talking like this. Aside from Tony Blair and MR Mandelson he is the most eligible MP for a jail cell...
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla
1. He's a dirty wee weasel - Politics exclusively.
2. He loves a bit of action on the side.
3. He's blinded by not being able to see what's going on around him. See, hear, hear, see - Good
combination? The guy's a parasite. End.
nowadays it's about as much use as a used condom
Recycling is an insult to the human . See the movie This article is about the film. For the metal band, see Soilent Green. For the German punk band, see Soilent Grün.
Soylent Green is a 1973 dystopian science fiction movie depicting a future in which global warming and overpopulation lead to depleted resources on Earth. This in turn leads to widespread unemployment and poverty. Real fruit, vegetables, and meat are rare, commodities are expensive, and much of the population survives on processed food rations, including "soylent green" wafers.
The film overlays the science fiction and police procedural genres as it depicts the efforts of New York City police detective Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston) and elderly police researcher Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson) to investigate the brutal murder of a wealthy businessman named William R. Simonson (Joseph Cotten). Thorn and Roth uncover clues which suggest that it is more than simply a bungled burglary
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla