Message to Byers and Milburn: People aren't Interested and aren't Listening Any More
The press have been briefed that New Labour outriders, Byers and Milburn, are to make major speeches over the next few weeks, to accompany major policy announcements and speeches from the Prime Minister to demonstrate that New Labour still exists.
They clearly just haven't got the message yet even though the rest of the country has. People aren't just not listening to them any more they are just not interested.
The only questions of any interest to most people are when is Blair going and what does the future hold.
Whilst Blair, Byers and Milburn desperately plot how long they can delay the innevitable, we continue to reap the harvest of the failed policies of their New Labour. Another British soldier dies in Afghanistan and the bumper drugs harvest from that country floods the streets of Britain. Iraq continues to degenerate into civil war and the US army is staging another new battle for Bagdad. Health workers are demonstrating against closures and job cuts in their local health services, and it is revealed that BP has been allowed to get away with manipulating the energy markets aginst the interests of consumers to maximise its profits.
The considered view amongst even some of the MPs who have been the most supportive of Blair and New Labour, is that Blair and his courtiers should now just go quietly.
But what are Gordon Brown and his supporters offering? Absolutely nothing. No change. Nothing new.
For Brown Ed Balls has taken on the mantle of Milburn and Byers as Brown's representative on earth, tactically manouevring to hasten Blair's demise but vacant wneh it comes to explaining what the difference would be under Brown as leader.
Next week in Manchester I start a national campaign tour explaining to rank and file party members across the country why there needs to be a challenge for the leadership of the Labour Party and the policy programme upon which we are campaigning.
Come along and get involved in this debate. Let Milburn, Byers, Balls and all the other New Labour outriders continue to engage themselves in a self interested, self serving discussion of their own futures, cut off from the realities facing our communities.
Let us get on with the real debate about how we secure a world free of poverty, war and the grotesque inequalities we witnesss today.
Come along if you can.
They clearly just haven't got the message yet even though the rest of the country has. People aren't just not listening to them any more they are just not interested.
The only questions of any interest to most people are when is Blair going and what does the future hold.
Whilst Blair, Byers and Milburn desperately plot how long they can delay the innevitable, we continue to reap the harvest of the failed policies of their New Labour. Another British soldier dies in Afghanistan and the bumper drugs harvest from that country floods the streets of Britain. Iraq continues to degenerate into civil war and the US army is staging another new battle for Bagdad. Health workers are demonstrating against closures and job cuts in their local health services, and it is revealed that BP has been allowed to get away with manipulating the energy markets aginst the interests of consumers to maximise its profits.
The considered view amongst even some of the MPs who have been the most supportive of Blair and New Labour, is that Blair and his courtiers should now just go quietly.
But what are Gordon Brown and his supporters offering? Absolutely nothing. No change. Nothing new.
For Brown Ed Balls has taken on the mantle of Milburn and Byers as Brown's representative on earth, tactically manouevring to hasten Blair's demise but vacant wneh it comes to explaining what the difference would be under Brown as leader.
Next week in Manchester I start a national campaign tour explaining to rank and file party members across the country why there needs to be a challenge for the leadership of the Labour Party and the policy programme upon which we are campaigning.
Come along and get involved in this debate. Let Milburn, Byers, Balls and all the other New Labour outriders continue to engage themselves in a self interested, self serving discussion of their own futures, cut off from the realities facing our communities.
Let us get on with the real debate about how we secure a world free of poverty, war and the grotesque inequalities we witnesss today.
Come along if you can.
posted by John at 10:55 AM
2 Comments:
I'm baffled...Tony is refusing to set a date. Is he intending to announce after the next general election?
Come on Tony if you won't tell us when at least tell us when you will tell us when :-)
I came to the conclusion when I studied communism in the USSR that ten year plans never work, there's always something that gets in the way and it is worrying that New Labour is trying to tie us into them as we have not voted for the things they are trying to do anyway.
I also noticed at last year's conference that Blair and Prescott were being praised on their "walkabout" amongst party memebrs for things New Labour helped improve in their constituencies eight years before when they were first elected yet the reality today and the current effects of these policies had completely passed them by, it was as if it was a gathering of nostalgic sports fans remembering previous victories and the star- struck were shaking hands and hoping for autographs etc. It struck me that they had no new ideas for the future but were still riding on the effect of the famous spin of the early New Labour years but I thought they were washed up then as in their speeches they seemed to blame everything on the media generally and the Daily Mail in particular (whom they had courted in the first place) as if they had no say in their own policies and were at the mercy of outside resources. They then praised Tesco who were sponsoring the reception extravagantly and let one of their representatives burble on for ten minutes! Yet Tesco is way down the list of supermarkets when you look at them in terms of ethical and animal welfare issues (though they have finally seen the way the wind is blowing just recently and jumped on the band wagon with their green points for re-use of carrier bags initiative) and they treat their staff poorly as with their attempt to intimidate people into not taking sick leave a few years ago. The more enlightened businesses have realised that being ethical and treating their staff as human beings actually increases their profits and retention rates etc yet these dinosaurs are still courting raw catapalists because they are still afraid of losing the focus group contingent of floating voters who have all either awitched back to the Tories over economics and domestic issues or if they are anti-war are voting Lib Dem or not at all. If the Tories ever did get elected under Cameron no-one would expect them to remain true to the current more liberal approach (he even wants flexible working now!) he has feted for more than a few years after the election. Whatever they promised at the time as the right wing just wouldn't stand for it, they're already unhappy with Cameron's ideas yet New Labour naievely keep imposing their will on us just so they can say they didn't break their own promises even though the evidence in front of their own eyes points to the fact that this is political suicide. If they want Labour to stay in office they cannot continue to ignore the left side if it as without them they would probably be in opposition already now that their original over-large majority is long gone. The swing at the last election to the left MPs was also bigger than for the others and they only lost one MP. The Blairites losses of supposedly up and coming ultra Blairites Twiglet and Oona King in London were significant: if London is politically ahead of the rest of the country that would point to the wind blowing leftwards generally and their were some very close shaves for the Blairites such as Laura Moffat who hung only hung on by the skin of her teeth in Crawley due to the NHS cuts probems there.
I've just heard the headlines again - Blair is still refusing to give any hint of his departure date, laying himself open to lots of political hassle at conference I would say as he will of course find it hard to talk about anything else once the media circus closes in. That will conveniently mean that Brown and his team won't have to explain the difference between his policies and Blairs' (ie none)! So we will have to challenge this by trying hard to get our views onto the media agenda through interviews etc. We'll probably find that the John4Leader badges are banned from the conference or something...!
One of the Ed Balls/Milburn etc contingent should be made to be a "single mum" for a documentary like Michael Portillo did that time and then see how they get on! They should try having to carry a squirming toddler upstairs to sign on (why they couldn't use the downstairs desks for signing was an insoluble mystery) leaving the pushchair to be watched by the security guard you've talked nicely to as there's no lift, keeping the said toddler from escaping and falling down the stairs while you stand for ten minutes waiting to sign on and then trying to talk to the adviser while being interrupted by the noisy toddler every two seconds...going on foot to the Housing office with a disabled friend who can only walk with a walking frame and having to spoon babyfood into the toddler so it will be quiet enough for you to actually talk to the adviser, when they could have sorted the problem out over the phone in the first place... just normal everyday life for many of us but it's not the world that New Labour ministers inhabit is it?
Let's campaign for a Leader who lives in the real world.
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