Miliband to MPs: know which side your bread is buttered
Well, it was only a matter of time. Got a bunch of uppity backbenchers? Find their weak spot and squeeze. As usual, it’s an appeal to their baser instincts:
Foreign Secretary David Miliband has warned Labour that squabbling over the abolition of the 10p income tax rate raises the risk of electoral defeat.
Shut your mouths or it’s your jobs, in other words. It was a favourite trick under Blair when things were looking dodgy. If you’re not cop, you’re little people, as Harrison Ford’s boss in Blade Runner says when the former steps out of line.
And it’s not like New Labour aren’t averse to taking money off the poorest in society. Indeed, it was one of their first acts when coming to power in 1997, cutting the benefits of single parents. Sure, dissenters piped up (they were called ‘the usual suspects’ and ‘the arkward squad’ in those days) but the parliamentary party rolled over as it would do so many times in the future. And the New Labour message was sent:
In 1997, the Blairs spent new year in the Seychelles as a guest of billionaire Richard Branson.
In that year’s message Mr Blair fired a warning shot to left wing Labour MPs unhappy at plans to cut benefits for lone parents, emphasising the need for “hard, work, discipline and determination” in the year ahead.
Just swap single parent benefits for the 10p tax rate, the reflected glory of Richard Branson for Edward Kennedy’s, Blair’s grotesque appeals to a Protestant work ethic with Brown’s empty ecumenical inclusivity, and it could be 1997 again.
Who’s to say New Labour MPs won’t fold again now that the Foreign Secretary has reminded them what’s really at stake? You can’t effect change if you’re not in power. The fact that you might not like that change is a secondary consideration.
Posted on April 20th, 2008 at 7:41 am
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Milliband - no surprises there, given his illumined masters.
jameshighams last blog post..[pecking order] why it’s better to be the boss
It was one of their first acts when coming to power in 1997, cutting the benefits of single parents.
Indeed I still recall David Aaronovitch’s column on the subject, applauding its courage and saying that the Left should all support it.
ejhs last blog post..Miller’s tale
Really? I referred back to Nick Cohen’s Cruel Britannia where our ever-rightward shifting friend was merciless in his condemnation. He was quite the champion back in the day.
“Foreign Secretary David Miliband has warned Labour that squabbling over the abolition of the 10p income tax rate raises the risk of electoral defeat.”
I think there are a few other reasons why they might be facing an election defeat as well…
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com
Who’s to say New Labour MPs won’t fold again now that the Foreign Secretary has reminded them what’s really at stake? You can’t effect change if you’re not in power. The fact that you might not like that change is a secondary consideration.
Yep: Power, rather than office, has been one of the hallmarks of New Labour (i.e. they have all the resources of the state at their disposal to pursue social justice, and they come up with [insert list of dumb policy decisions here]).
That said, I think they’re screwed on this one. If they vote down the tax change, Brown and Darling’s authority (don’t laugh) gets torpedoed, and the latter has to find £7bn from somewhere to plug the gap. If they keep it, the affected voters will suffer until Darling cobbles something together in next year’s budget. And all the time they can’t answer the question: why is it that these poorer voters end up with a tax increase? The phrase ‘hoist with his own petard’ springs to mind.
That said, I think they’re screwed on this one.
I’m not so sure. Some of the so-called rebels are apparently already declaring victory just because Alistair Darling went on the telly yesterday and muttered a few non-specifics. The government will squeak the vote and because poor people don’t work in the media it’ll all be conveniently forgotten in time for the local elections.
…and because poor people don’t work in the media it’ll all be conveniently forgotten in time for the local elections.
Not by the poor it won’t, I reckon. And they’re armed with votes. Maybe New Labour are calculating that their urban heartlands are safe, while Middle England will be grateful for its tax cut at the poor’s expense.