Stick it in your family album
If you want to see New Labour in all its glory, not to mention the decline of the Labour movement, just take a look at this photograph.
On the right you have Baroness Jay, someone who, of course, owes nothing to her standing in public life to the fact that she is the daughter of former prime minister, James Callaghan. So steeped in Labour’s traditions is she, her children were privately educated despite her protestations that she is against private education. She never stood for election.
On the left you have Lord Falconer, someone who, of course, owes nothing to his public standing to the fact that he is the former flatmate of former prime minister Tony Blair. So steeped in Labour’s traditions is he, Falconer had to be given a seat in the Lords as he was refused a parliamentary candidacy because he insisted his children be privately educated. He never stood for election.
In the centre, of course, is Baron Mandelson, architect of New Labour, twice disgraced, and demonstrable liar. A less than brave figure, whispered briefings to journalists have been his way of conducting government and personal relations. He once tried to punch fellow New Labour liar Alastair Campbell over what Tony Blair should wear when meeting party activists. There are volumes filled with tales of this man’s arrogance, vanity and malevolence. As newly-appointed Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, he didn’t stand for election.
Is it the times we live in that give rise to this nepotism, back-scratching and blind-eyes turned? As Matthew Carr says in The First Post:
We may well wonder at the motives of Gordon Brown for bringing one of his former political enemies back into the government. But as we shake our heads at the cynicism and moral blankness of the “prince of darkness” we might pause to consider that these vices are not just his: they are part and parcel of the system that allows such men to flourish.
We voted for it as a country and we have an astronomical tolerance for it now it’s finally biting us rather than the victims of neo-Thatcherism in far-flung pan-African ghettoes. Our servility, this bovine acceptance and unquestioning acceptance of our lot, is fast becoming part of our genetic make-up. It really is too late to complain now.
Posted on October 14th, 2008 at 10:53 am
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While Mandelson is a complete fuckend, I still think he deserves a medal for punching Campbell!
Yeah, but it’s a measure of the man that the hissy fit that led him to attack Campbell wasn’t over, say, whether to order the deaths of countless Iraqis on the basis of a lie but over whether the Prime Minister should wear a tie or not.
It really is too late to complain now
No, it’s too late to do anything about it. It’s never too late to complain.
Fair point.
What do you mean finally biting us? It did it from the first day.
It really is too late to complain now
It may be too late for former Labour supporters, or apologists for them, to complain and in particular my fellow citizens who voted these idiots and cynical hypocrites into power (not these three obviously because no-one voted for them - even if Mandelson was once an elected politician), but I was never ever in any of those groups so have every right to complain. The sad thing is that in ten or fifteen years time the British electorate will probably elect these people’s successors in the Labour party into power again.
Granted the Conservatives, if they win the next election, will eventually become tired and stale too, but it’s a pity we couldn’t come up with an alternative government less likely to completely foul up the economy EVERY TIME THEY HAVE BEEN IN POWER (*) as Labour have done - I don’t think the LibDems are the solution. Maybe we just need a ‘Tory team 1′ and a ‘Tory team 2′ - lol.
(*) Aided and abetted this time around by the biggest ‘dozo’ the Americans have made President in my lifetime - I freely admit I got that one wrong, as I wasn’t a Gore fan and was fooled into believing Bush II would be a bipartisan deal-maker as his reputation said he was in Texas.
“Maybe we just need a ‘Tory team 1? and a ‘Tory team 2? ”
Erm, sorry to be the one to have to break this to you Bill but that’s exactly what we’ve got.
The only real point of debate is which of the two main parties are Teams 1 & 2.
While I completely agree with the basic sentiments, I’m not convinced that it’s currently any worse that it has been at any other time in history - we’re just more aware of it. It’s not “fast becoming part of our genetic make-up”, it’s been part of out genetic make-up since before we started walking upright. Somewhere, there’s a Golden Macaque wondering why the all low-status members of the troop show constant deference to a tiny minority of high-status individuals, who are all related to each other…
Welcome to the MonkeySphere.
Aw, now you’ve got me thinking that the New Labour high command are high-status macaques just when I’m completing my theory that they’re a complex hive-mind given birth and a permissive environment by the interconnecting and turn-of-the-century societal factors of shit-job-shit-telly-shit-newspapers and the circumvention of democratic processes that extend out of widespread disconnection with the political process and general apathy.
And I like macaques. You’ve spoiled them for me now.
Erm, sorry to be the one to have to break this to you Bill but that’s exactly what we’ve got.
LOL - but quite frankly that myth does not wash. The Lasbour Party may say it’s ‘New Labour’ and that it believes in the ‘free market’, but actions speak louder than words and it’s still the same old socialist outfit, better suited and dressed than formerly, but that is all.
“but actions speak louder than words and it’s still the same old socialist outfit”
Socialist? The who in the what now?
Seen this one before, plenty times - tell a Tory that you piss on New Labour because it’s too right wing and stand back while a thick torrent of exclamation and question marks explode from every ofifice in their body.
I suspect it’s because a lot of Tories and (wanky finger-parenthes) libertarians (wanky finger-parentheses) think that the lot of us have spent our lives fantasising about the day we’ll storm the Houses of Parliament and immediately institute wall-to-wall smoking bans and 42-day detention.
Indeed. Your average Tory’s loathing of New Labour genuinely mystifies me. I’ve said before that I’m at a loss as to why the Tories even want power when - since 1997 - they’ve had someone else doing all the heavy lifting of the post-Thatcher consensus and copping the resultant flak into the bargain.
It’s been a Vito Corleone/Luca Brasi style relationship. Why take on the responsibility for all the carnage themselves when they could be attending to more important things like their multiple directorships?
I think it’s because a lot of internet Tories are kids who erroneously think it clever to make the most exaggerated statements they possibly can and then refuse to see any flaws in them.
Perhaps they all think they’ll be Simon Heffer when they grow up. (Although in fact, that’s only likely to happen if they grow outwards.)
Well you voted for ‘em.
Who did?
I must have voted for them at some point in the past ten years, although I will be arsed if I can remember when - probably a council or European election, since I’d definitely remember voting for Tony, the swine.
I remember I voted for Kinnock in ‘92 - my first vote - but I sure as shit never put my cross in a New Labour box.
I remember I voted for Kinnock in ‘92
Probably not