Mark Steel: So this is New Labour's legacy...
They sacrificed all to get elected and now can't get elected to anything
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Independent Minds
What a pathetic "rebellion". The Labour Party is in its worst state for a century and all it took for their leader to save himself was a sentence about finding a vision, and a promise he would "learn to listen". So after 10 years as Chancellor and two asPM he's going to start seeing and hearing. Next time he's challenged he'll promise to learn to crawl and eat solids.
Similarly his speech last Friday, when it seemed he needed to deliver an inspired and courageous flourish to save his job, was a bumbling splutter of incoherence that would have embarrassed a regional manager announcing the quarterly figures for envelope sales. If Gordon Brown had been Braveheart, his speech to his troops as the English started to charge would have gone "Now then – we are in a, er, er, a crisis of being attacked by archers that is in as much as it is global in its nature, which requires a global strategy of yes lances which is to say shields, but the Scottish people expect us to deal with that global and that is what I intend to to to do, er, do to."
But that was enough, because then most of his ministers made statements such as, "Of course the Prime Minister is fully aware he's a useless tosspot, but the others are even worse, so let's stop this in-fighting as there is still much work for this government to bugger up."
Because none of them, in all the billions of hours of interviews and intrigue, either for or against Brown, have said a single thing they believe their party should be doing. Instead they make statements about "needing to reconnect with voters" but to do that they'd have to come on television going, "I'm a bloody disgrace, I am. And you should see the expenses I rake in, alright for some ain't it. I'm never voting for me again, I can tell you."
But there's no clue about what they want to do differently. Their last seven years looks like one long fiasco, from Iraq to reverence for a disastrous banking system, but there's no one prepared even tosuggest how they got in this mess and how it might be put right. So none of them can make a case for being any better, except for having a cheerier smile, so no one comes forward.
They might as well have a frog as their leader, and Ed Balls would be on Newsnight telling us the frog isn't the problem, and the way he responded to some sharp criticism by hopping off the table shows his determination, because they haven't got a clue. This is why they're in a much worse mess than the one in 1983. Back then, although the election was a disaster, the Labour Party had active branches in every area, with thousands of young members bursting with ideas of why they wanted to run local councils or the country. Now the branches barely exist, debate has been eliminated, and all that's left are careerists frightened of losing their careers.
For example, at four o'clock last Friday Caroline Flint was adamant she supported Brown, but two hours later she couldn't stand him. So either this was because she'd been snubbed for promotion, or she's genuine, and she honestly thinks he did a wonderful job for Labour for 15 years but then did one dreadful thing that negated all that, at around half past four.
This is New Labour's legacy. They sacrificed principles, debates, humanity, purpose and personality for the prize of getting elected. But now they can't get elected to anything so there is absolutely nothing left.
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Comments
New Labour doesn't know what to do because it doesn't know how to govern it just knows how to pass laws which hammer us all into the same shaped hole.
Just when is New Labour going to drop the 'labour' from its name and become simply the Nu Party? This will how it has replaced policy with gimmicks, morality with 'values'. This weeks Nu Party will be next weeks Old Party as new gimmicks are conjoured up.
''Tired of walking to the shops and back? Over 65? Only the Nu Party will put a comfy-sofa on every street corner for you to rest on. Their use will be presided over by Neighbourhood Chill Out Street Furniture Coordinators.''
I want a proper Labour Party and this one isn't it.
Hence, we need the daily dose of the word of the day to live and stay happy. There is nothing else I see in politics or economy for sometime.
rachmanism
PRONUNCIATION:
(RAK-muh-niz-uhm)
MEANING:
noun: The exploitation and intimidation of tenants by landlords.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Peter Rachman (1919-1962), a landlord in London who became notorious for unethical practices including driving out tenants to maximize revenue from his rental properties. Another fellow who got his name in the dictionary for harassing tenants is Charles Boycott (1832-1897), a British land agent in Ireland, whose mistreatment of tenants resulted in his getting ostracized, i.e. he was boycotted.
USAGE:
"It is a story of pure Rachmanism. She had been threatened, had her rent cheque refused, her electricity cut off, and seen her absent neighbours' flats cleared of all their possessions, while rubbish was dumped outside her door."
Peter Beaumont; Drowned City Cuts Its Poor Adrift; The Observer (London, UK); Dec 11, 2005.
NOTES:
The term Rachmanism is a Britishism, though unscrupulous landlords are found everywhere. The above usage example is from the UK, but even if not mentioned, it'd be easy to tell: in just one sentence it manages to include four examples that illustrate the spelling and vocabulary differences between British English and American English:
cheque/check, neighbour/neighbor, flat/apartment, and rubbish/trash.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I find it difficult to feel responsible for the suffering of others. That's why I find war so hard to bear. It's the same with animals: I feel the less harm I do, the lighter my heart. I love a light heart. And when I know I'm causing suffering, I feel the heaviness of it. It's a physical pain. So it's self-interest that I don't want to cause harm. -Alice Walker, author (b. 1944)
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla
NI contributions should go towards the upkeep, running and medications not for "free" medical treatment and operations.There should only be free services to the poorest amongst society.Anyone earning over basic wage should pay a proportionate % to see a GP or visit hospital.Might make time wasters and hypochondriacs think twice before wasting time best served on the really ill.Same goes for education.Poor only get it free.Rest pay proportionate % as school fees.Labour is all about a squiff eyed mindset of "entitlement" at someone else's expense.How or why people could bother to vote for such a system beats me.This current Brown and Co lot merely show this "entitlement" and incompetence of "socialism" goes right from bottom to top of barrel.No wonder only one third of voters bother to vote when we get stuck with this lot and their inability to get out of their own wet paper bag policies
Brilliant article sir, thank you.
Isn't that going to be a massive discouragement for the poor to stop being poor? I think the USA has a system similar to the one you describe, and it manages to be the only OECD country more inequal than ours.
"Why can't individuals take responsibility for own job and it upwards movement.? Like every other working individual has to do.?"
Always nice to see someone defending poor, little, defenceless corporations against the totalitarian might of... ordinary members of the public. No one, I repeat, *no one*, is stopping you from forming your own Union and bargaining for better pay, conditions, etc. Why is your response to unionised workers getting a better deal to demand that it be taken off them, rather than demanding the same improvements for yourself? I'd rather have socialists, for all their mistakes, than inhumane sociopaths whose idea of equality is bringing everyone down to the same sweatshop level as them.
that's it in a nutshell
i'm beginning to get the vibe that this country doesn't have a great deal of respect for it's "leaders"
Well now we know just how good those ideas were and how competently the party managed and delivered them. Moreover, it is difficult to shake the notion that all those souls whose energy you laud seem to have lost their independence of thought and action as soon as they climbed sufficiently high up the greasy pole to get a sniff of what real patronage can deliver.
Before you could say "Iraq", they were no more than a loyal a rmy of rubber stamps busy fiddling their expenses. They will not be missed.
I can understand the sense of personal loss and outrage that a loyalist such as yourself must feel, but good riddance to it, I say. There has been a better centre-left option than Labour in Britain for some time for those who can see past their tribe.
It was evident to me when I was still active in the Labour Party in London (1995-97) then Derby (1997-99).
The whole time, there was this atmosphere of "change", which was supposed to be loyalty to the new sense of unity and discipline. What it really was, was a universal conspiracy within the leading faction of the party to convince all of us that the only way to achieve change was to conform. Suddenly, even in traditional Labour wards, all around us there were men and women in slick suits, telling us to shut up instead of debate, and to concentrate on holding our tongues, and not waste our time getting into messy stuff like rights and justice.
Local workers, pensioners and disabled people still came to meetings, but the suits took over and sidelined us. We were told that we should grow up, and accept that in reality, the only things that mattered were looking civilised at party conference (in other words, not arguing), and putting on a show of professional squeaky-clean for the electorate so we could be taken seriously enough to gain power.
What's happened now is the natural conclusion. The party became as shallow and empty as Dr Faustus. What a pact. What a shame. What a waste.