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Posts Tagged ‘Labour’

The other day Ed Balls admitted that if Labour came to power they would not promise to reverse the cuts in public expenditure currently being made by the Coalition Government. Frankly, the only comment one can make to that is “About time !” The reality is if and when Labour next comes to power, the political weather and economic climate will have changed, inevitably.

Although right now both this and the World generally face some difficult financial issues, these are perhaps just symptoms of other problems rather than the core disease. For a country like the UK, we are probably looking at a long term decline that started during the First world War which coincides with the rise of the Labour Party. One could speculate that solving this decline could also coincide with its (Labour’s), decline just as Communism collapsed with the Berlin Wall.

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The often repeated “common wisdom” concerning the Tories getting booted out of Office in 1997 was that following the ERM débâcle, they had lost their one trump card in the mind of the public even if those people normally voted Labour that the “Tories were good on the economy…”

Personally I never bought into this, Major had a tiny majority and a group of troublesome anti-EU MPs, I suspect that this disunity which made this Country look stupid plus they had been in power for a long time led to people wanting a complete change and a fresh start. A house divided will always fall and myopic politicians constantly riding their hobby horses are never an attractive sight…

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Yesterday on a reader’s comments section of one of the papers, a chap who claimed that he was a Tory wrote that in his opinion, Labour were “odds on” to win the next Election and it made me stop and ponder the possibility, my conclusion was that whilst all results are possible, Labour “odds on ?” I really can’t imagine that under pretty much any circumstances.

The economic situation will get considerably worse and it will lead to the greatest fall in real living standards for the vast majority of the UK population within living memory with the poorest taking the biggest ‘hit’ but that will just reflect what happens globally. In theory this should lead to lots of waving and singing of the “Red Flag” but it still won’t lead to the current Labour Party getting elected, the British public is far too sophisticated for that…

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In a sense, the Labour Party Annual Conference that runs through this week, is likely the most pointless exercise that anyone could imagine this year. Just how does any Party Leader following 13 years in power that resulted in abject failure, “Rally His or Her Troops” ? The answer of course is that you can’t except lead them off into some cloud cuckoo land where they feel ‘comfortable’.

Ed Miliband was voted in by the Unions quite cynically, they knew that any “next leader” would be a political space filler, rather like the Tories electing IDS as their leader so, why waste any effort on them, “make ‘em nice, human and we will dump them as soon as favourable opportunities arise…” It is called ‘politics’. The funniest thing that will be on view this week is Ed Miliband knowing the score, trying to make headway and upset all expectations…

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This week sees the publication of Alistair Darling’s memoirs covering the period that he was Chancellor when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister. Along with previously published tomes of the like from those who were intimately involved with the “New Labour” Government, it does not make for good reading.

That Gordon Brown was/is a dysfunctional creature with a far greater opinion of his own abilities than the facts demonstrate is by now a “given” and from that arises perhaps the most interesting question of the lot, the one raised by John Rentoul writing in The Independent on Sunday: “Why wasn’t he stopped ? http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-why-did-nobody-stop-gordon-brown-2348855.html

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The latest bit of scandal that has fallen into the hands of the Daily Telegraph concerns leaked papers from the “Desk of Ed Balls” that chronicle his involvement in the coup/negotiations to remove Blair and replace him with Brown after the 2005 Election. These papers include hand written notes by Brown commentating on Blair’s written proposals in a highly derogatory manner.

When approached by the media, Balls was his usual simpering, denying self, a pose we have seen before. Of course there was no plot, these were just part of the normal political negotiations between two people who disliked each other, I was just helping… Yes Pinocchio and what is this really about ?

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A rather ‘luke warm’ editorial in the Independent in the post Barnsley aftermath, according to them at least, was as follows: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-bad-but-not-terminal-in-barnsley-2232973.html

My response was simple: The result was foreknown, a racing certainty for Labour even on a very low turnout. What happened to the Coalition Parties is not very relevant and I suspect that if there were a General Election today, the national outcome would be pretty much the same as last year. The reality is that people are “waiting” on events, if things go well, the Coalition’s popularity will increase by the next General Election if not…

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It is interesting just how many on the Tory Right have muttered complaints that “…If only Cameron had been more right wing, we would have won a majority…” Oddly, it is matched on the Labour Party side by those that feel that their ‘salvation’ lies in being ever more “Leftie” but of these two extremes, the Labour one is more threatening to it than the right wing Tories are to Cameron.

In the end and as Blair that ultimate “Champagne Socialist” showed, success at the ballot box and jobs for Labour boys and girls, trumps supposed “party principles” every time !

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Although and to be fair, they are not the only ones, the BBC yesterday made much heavy weather of what is a provisional figure for GDP at – 0.5% for the last quarter of 2010, today’s Independent in an Editorial really took the biscuit: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-economic-contraction-will-have-political-consequences-2194338.html

If the “Media” is in dire straights and therefore needs to dramatise every little thing, I suggest they concentrate on their favourite market “Celebrities” – “Celebrity X from Reality Show Y, passes wind as she leaves China Whites…”, rather than serious stuff like the economy which is way outside their comprehension even if a broadsheet it seems…

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This I mean on both accounts, Alan Johnson having to resign as Shadow Chancellor and Ed Balls taking over his post as Shadow Chancellor. Although I have never been a fan of Johnson or, “Postman Pat”, he always looked to me as if he should have a bell on his hat and a fishing rod, the manner of his going is in personal terms, very sad and I am sorry for him on that and wish him well.

As to Ed Balls returning in the No.2 role to Ed Miliband as Shadow Chancellor, that is truly sad for the Labour Party and absolutely, hilarious for the Coalition Government. As they will become increasingly unpopular in the polls because of the economic medicine they have to administer and the public regardless of political persuasion ‘acknowledge’ it has to be done, George Osborne will face an unrepentant Brown ‘clone’ so for them, it must amount to a “Bring it On !” One wonders whether Balls is bright enough to see that before he falls in it..

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