Goodbye New Labour
Posted on May 24, 2010 at 01:06 PM
In the Observer newspaper yesterday Neil Kinnock is reported as throwing in his lot with Ed Milliband for Leader of Labour. He thinks he is "a modern democratic socialist" and distinguishes him from Tony Blair, who according to Kinnock was a method actor, whereas Ed is just Ed, he explains. It looks like all the candidates are distancing themselves from Tony Blair and the New Labour Project. Another candidate for leader Andy Burnham told a conference "We let a perception grow that we were in favour of wealth of any kind and with no limits on it whatsoever, that we were somehow in awe of wealth and of business and didn't have the ability to stand up and say what was right and what was wrong". Let's hope this move away from New Labour is more than just for the purposes of the leadership campaign and that the new leader works for a Labour Party that is just a Labour Party. And of course, despite all the pressures here to be what the media or business people want us to be, we should be just Labour too.
Comments
It shouldn't be forgotten that the resort to "New" Labour over a decade ago was a successful drive to make Labour electable. Getting the numbers in an election meant appealing to people who were unwilling to vote Labour. This of course meant the abandonment of Labour policy and values.
The position of Labour in Ireland is quite different or rather it should be quite different. There is no real prospect of a majority Labour government. Labour, therefore, once it accepts that coalition is the ambition, has no need to be populist and can hold to its values. Indeed it can afford to be very demading.
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