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In times such as these we are experiencing economically, political leadership becomes an extremely important commodity but unfortunately in Gordon Brown, it is non-existent. This is hardly surprising as by his very temperament and nature, he seems to lack leadership skills plus after 11 years in power and economic policies he is responsible for, his is a “Rescue Gordon’s Reputation mission” rather than policies dedicated to the good of the Country.

This is not a simple “Kick Brown Essay”, it is far more serious than that because Brown himself, is an illustration of just how things can go seriously wrong “socially” when the economic pooh hits the fan and your “main man” happens to be a political illiterate.

Labour’s Track Record

Is an increasingly divided society, at no time have Labour set out to ‘heal divisions’ or create a “we are all in this together” mood within the Country, if anything they have set out to and succeeded in, creating the very opposite by recreating “class differences”. Through complicated systems such as “Tax Credits” they have created a permanent State Dependent Underclass whilst at the other end of the spectrum we have seen numerous ill-conceived attempts to reform the House of Lords mainly because of its name and the ban on Fox Hunting with Hounds which is virtually unenforceable.

All Labour have managed to do in 11 years in Office is blindly try to recreate the “class system” as it existed before it imploded in the 1960s

Real Political Change

What politicians and the media need to understand is that real political and indeed economic change is driven upwards from the citizens, from the ‘Street’ if you like, it is not imposed from the top down like a “Gordon Brown 5 Year Tractor Plan”. The job of politicians is to facilitate change, guide and shape it by all means but strictly in step with the wishes of the people not their own political whimsy.

The changes in the 1960s were bought about by the “Retreat from Empire”, the Suez fiasco and a loss of certainty by the then ‘Ruling Classes’. Into this vacuum stepped the working class youth most of whom seemed to come from Art Schools, there was a burst of creative talent that covered Music, Fashion, Films, Graphic Design and Fine Art and was to be sustained over decades and extended through the Advertising and later Computer Games Industry. None of this was the product of politicians although perhaps the first to understand and grasp it intelligently was Harold Wilson.

A Personal View of the 1960s

From childhood I could always draw and my pictures were 2D representations of 3D space, no matchstick men. I can remember my Irish Grandmother watching me drawing before I was 10 and commenting that it was a great talent; “When you grow up you could be a Draughtsman and they earn £20 a week !” Bless her but she was expressing a limitation that Jean Shrimpton, David Bailey, Terence Donovan, Mary Quant , The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who and hundreds more right across the UK were to destroy with sheer talent.

As a working class child of the 1960s I saw the very first positive steps to change but ‘we then’ understood that ‘climbing up the greasy pole’ of personal progress rested wholly upon our personal abilities and talents not, the colour of our skin, race, religion or, sexual proclivity and the idea of “positive discrimination” to favour us was spat upon because “We were good enough.”

Politicians Need to Learn but so do the People

Without the horrors of the Winter of Discontent and before that the Miner’s Strike and 3 day Week, the ground/people would not have been ready for the major structural reforms that came under Thatcher. However as the Poll Tax showed, however fair in principle any policy is, if the public don’t like it, it will get overturned.

The real problem is that whilst it is natural for people to want to shift the blame, under Labour we have seen a vast expansion of a “Blame Culture” and the list of the “unworthy” is added to every day : Feral Youth, Single Mothers, Tax Scroungers, Illegal Immigrants, Benefits Cheats, Greedy Bankers and so on and so forth.

This is foolish because these people didn’t suddenly appear overnight, they are the product of a system or lack of and our society. Secondly, carry on with this emotional rant and where will it lead us ? A Final Solution as in Nazi Germany where Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, and so on are replaced with their equivalents of today ?

Real Political Leadership

It is time politicians got a proper grip and started being more open and the public more willing to accept the hard choices between services and taxes, the duties and obligations of both the Citizen and the State towards each other.

Just as “Hard Cases make bad Law”, inevitably when faced with a terrible crime, the public would demand equally terrible remedies against those considered ‘guilty’ and it is then that politicians must hold out and restrain us against our own worse emotions. However whilst that is correct, under these Labour Governments, such ‘restraint’ has transformed itself into a “Proscriptive Nanny State” that seeks to tell all what is “good for them” and will accept no opposition to its decisions.

Labour does not deserve to win a General Election for at least a generation, it is morally and politically bankrupt, through Brown, Harmon, Blears, Cruddas, Miliband et al, it shows only a face of total arrogance to the electorate.

Now is a time for a “One Nation” approach in order to recover the economic situation for the UK it needs Leadership designed to heal divisions, to include all rather than exclude some and project a mood of all being in this together. Making the necessary short term sacrifices together so that in the future, the proceeds of improvement are also shared.

Brown and Labour can’t do this but Cameron and the Conservatives can so whilst the Opinion Polls will vary wildly over the next year, here’s looking forward to a change in the fortunes of the UK through a change of Government and the punishment of Labour.