Livingstone carries the standard for the Labour left
Matthew d'Ancona 11:17am
That it should come to this: one can barely turn on the television without seeing Ken Livingstone vociferously defending Gordon Brown against what he describes, wrongly, as an “uber-Blairite plot.” Ken – of all people – says that this disunity really will not do, and that Labour has a duty to rally behind the Prime Minister and his high-spending, interventionist policies.
The two men once nursed one of the great hatreds in British politics. In 1998, for example, Livingstone wrote that "Gordon is not up to his job… The end result… is that Britain is now heading towards a recession entirely of Gordon's making." Two years later, Brown wrote a ferocious attack in the Evening Standard on Ken’s candidacy to be London Mayor, arguing that "every Labour Party member knows the last thing London or Labour needs is a return to the barren divisive fights over economic policy of the Eighties”. The two men fought a furious battle over the future of London Underground.
Prime Minister Brown and Mayor Livingstone buried their differences last year out of necessity in a desperate bid to halt the march of Boris (they failed). But this is different. Livingstone and his wing of the party are delighted by this opportunity to be indispensable to Brown and to caricature all those engaged in the mutiny against the PM as wicked Blairites. For so long the bad guys, the Left and the unions are reasserting their grip on the movement after what they see as the long New Labour nightmare in which the party they themselves almost destroyed in the Eighties became – shock, horror - electable.
This is a taste of what is to come after Labour loses the general election. To adapt the line used by Tony Blair in 1996, Old Labour’s coming home…
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Janny
June 5th, 2009 11:29am Report this commentThe standard of the Left is a Cafe Nero?
dearieme
June 5th, 2009 11:30am Report this commentLord Livingstone for PM!
Nicholasa
June 5th, 2009 11:32am Report this commentMy analysis, Nick Robinson, is this. Brown had promised the treasury to Balls, but boxed into a corner by Cameron's probing questions and Darling's declaration of intent to stay, he had to negotiate that expectation down with Balls. As a result Yvette Cooper is proposed for DWP - Purnell gets wind of it and resigns in pique.
Beau Nash
June 5th, 2009 11:42am Report this commentBrown's mistake was following the policies of the pseudo Thatcherite Blair.
If Brown had allowed the Tories to do what they do best, exploit the sick, elderly and poor instead of trying to take the Tory ground, he would not be in the mess he is now.
His last chance is to take radical action - stop the gross criminal corruption in civil service bureaucray in both national and local government; change the voting system; abolish the House of Lords and all hereditary peers, replacing it with elected elders (perhaps aged 50+) whose role would be advisory; nationalise ALL essential services; tax the wealthy and stop excess profiteering - he might just survive.
Vulture
June 5th, 2009 11:44am Report this commentI saw Livingslime on Newsnight (Please leave out the matey 'Ken' and 'Gordon' when referring to this pondlife Mr D'Ancona) - denouncing poor old Barry Sheerman in viciously vitriolic tones that one might expect among the 'comrades'. All the nastiness of 1980s Town Hall Labourism was nakedly on display. Its going to be wonderful watching the savage factional infighting as the doomed Liebour Leviathan sinks beneath the waves over the next few days/weeks/months until merciful oblivion swallows the lot of them. They are a truly horrible bunch.
An Accountant
June 5th, 2009 11:50am Report this commentThis is the man who once said in public that Brown was economically illiterate.
Maggie
June 5th, 2009 11:51am Report this commentLivingstone's support must be worth at least a peerage and a cabinet post.
Tiberius
June 5th, 2009 11:56am Report this commentBlair did indeed wqarn the Party in his final Conference speech as leader, that to return to the old ways would be disastrous.
The fools didn't listen, and the Tories and the country will benefit as a result.
Silent Hunter
June 5th, 2009 12:18pm Report this commentPerhaps he's seeing his 'enoblement' going out the window if Gordon goes. LOL
It's SO GOOD to see Labour imploding.
The venally corrupt Bar Stewards.
CS
June 5th, 2009 1:16pm Report this commentI saw that Newsnight bit too, Vulture. Quite funny when, after a whole interview of Livingstone being pious about expenses, Sheerman got in the last word:
It's a bit rich for Ken to lecture us on expenses when his own sleaze lost him the London Mayoralty.
john jones
June 5th, 2009 1:29pm Report this commentno 'Ken' is a standard bearer for himself and his brand of opportunistic, 'Howard Kirk' lite, esocialism.
What you missed in the article was his comments a few weeks ago slagging off Brown and saying he was rubbish and his loyalty to the Labour party in 2000 when he ran as an independent was he couldnt get the official nomination.
Dirty Euro
June 5th, 2009 2:01pm Report this commentLivingstone is a man of real guts. He says what he means. I hope he is put in the cabinet he ran london well so why not some department.
David Ossitt
June 5th, 2009 3:56pm Report this commentBeau Nash.
If Brown had allowed the Tories to do what they do best, exploit the sick, elderly and poor.
What planet are you from and where have you been for the past twelve years.
Labour is the party of exploitation; corruption and lies, not the Tories.
David Ossitt
June 5th, 2009 4:06pm Report this commentDirty Euro.
"Livingstone is a man of real guts"
So; he doesn't wear a colostomy bag then.
"He says what he means"
As apposed to what?
Mellie
June 6th, 2009 3:47pm Report this commentBlair and Brown were too right-wing and he's alienated Labour supporters.
Let's hope Labour get it together to save us from the nastiness of the Tories.
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