James Purnell's third way
Peter Hoskin 4:59pm
Guess who's back. Yes, James Purnell, the man who tried his best to topple Gordon Brown last year, has emerged from the relative obscurity of the backbenches and Think-Tank World to set out a new prospectus for the Labour party in today's Guardian. David nodded towards it earlier, but it's worth looking at in a little more detail. Why? Well, because it's an indication of how things could go for the post-election Labour party.
The first thing that strikes you is how Purnell tries to defuse the controversy of his resignation last year. "What?" you might think, "resigning from Brown's government is controversial? Sane, more like." And, yes, I see what you mean. But the fact remains that, inside the Labour party, there are folk who think Purnell was motivated by nothing more than hatred of Brown the man – as far as they're concerned, it all seemed too personal. So here we've got an opening paragraph which says not only that "Gordon Brown will lead Labour into the next election," but also that "he's a remarkable man". What follows isn't uncritical, of course. Far from it. But he's certainly trying to make some sort of peace with his party.
There are more passages which read as though Purnell is building bridges to the wary Labour masses. Think he's too far to the right of the party? Then howabout: "[Gordon Brown] deserves credit for preventing this recession becoming a depression. David Cameron would have flunked that test." Think he's too much of a metropolitan, Blairite go-getter? Then: "We believe that Thatcherism was an often wicked period of our national history that celebrated greed, inflicted unnecessary pain and failed to govern for the whole country."
But most of these quotes fit into a wider attempt to reconcile a range of leftist ideas and ideals. When Purnell talks of markets, the state and society, it's in terms of both their limits and their potential. There are references to Labour heroes like Keir Hardie and R.H. Tawney. The New Labour project is charged with not being "confident enough where it was right, or sceptical enough where it was wrong". And he even borrows Cameron's post-bureaucratic language about society not being the same thing as the state – but rapidly adds that the Tories stole all this from Labour in the first place. This is real broad-spectrum stuff, and it makes for a pretty dense newspaper comment piece.
I don't think it quite gels together – and it's certainly not the kind of politics which most CoffeeHousers would vote for. But it's clear that Purnell is trying to rise above the Blairite-Brownite divide which has dominated Labour for the past 12 years or more, and create a wider coalition within the party. And while this may not be enough to make Purnell the next Labour leader – a role The Spectator once suggested he might occupy – it's this kind of approach which could prevent Labour from descending into a civil war between, say, Team Balls and Team Miliband in the event of an election drubbing. In which case, don't bet on it catching on.
Previous
Frank P
January 11th, 2010 5:46pm Report this commentHere we go - I bloody knew it! Purnell's been buying the drinks at the nearest boozer to OQS. First DB; now you Pete. Enough of a new t'ird way. There are three 'third ways' on the go already and none are the right way, let alone the Right way. Let 'em stew in the rancid juice of their own duplicitous machinations and ignore them. We had enough of Purnell's prattle last year. He blew it! He's not only Brown bread - he's toast! What's with the disinterment? I'm convinced you lot are all Guardian readers by inclination rather than in the course of reconnaissance duties. Give us a break FFS.
Lance Grundy
January 11th, 2010 6:05pm Report this comment"James Purnell’s third way"
It's time to throw this "Third Way" rubbish onto the crap heap of history where it belongs.
Vaclav Klaus saw it for what it was over ten years ago. In two speeches, Third Way, No Way and The Third Way and its Fatal Conceits, he pretty much got the measure of it. But, then again, he'd heard it all before. Czechoslovakia had already tried 'socialism with a human face' in the 1960s - and it hadn’t worked.
Pedant
January 11th, 2010 7:44pm Report this comment"Guess who's back?"
When the first sentence of a piece is wrongly punctuated, one's enthusiasm for reading what follows is not what it might be. Either write "Can you guess who's back?" (a question) or "Guess who's back!" (a command, not a question).
teledu
January 11th, 2010 9:20pm Report this commentPedant - it's a blog, probably typed up in a hurry, not an English exam paper. Get a grip of yourself.
JohnAnt
January 11th, 2010 9:40pm Report this commentWhy is The Spectator paying so much attention to every singl;e Labour minister, ex-minister, spokesperson, or spoke-in-the-wheels-person who pops up and makes a half-baked press release?
We couldn't give a ....
Are there orders from Dave not to feature any Tory shadows or lumini? Have none of the grownups, such as Damian Green (exempli gratia) nothing at all to say? David Davis? John Redwood?
Are we going to have to suffer the little Cameron to come unto us until June?
Feels like a millstone already.
But please, pleas,e not the infantile Purnell! We've seen his bathroom, remember?
Ken
January 11th, 2010 10:12pm Report this commentPurnell, Milibanana and Mililite, are prime examples of Labour's squabbling children who need decades more potty training before ever being allowed near the levers of power.
Skilfully driven by the current demented buffoon, Labour are thankfully going down to the sort of loss that should destroy them for the same number of generations it will take to pay of their criminally accumulated national debt.
Thus with four months to freedom we will be spared ever hearing anymore about these insufferable, pimply youths and their Socialist wetdreams.
Wilhelm
January 11th, 2010 10:32pm Report this commentPedantic Twit.
Its the crime of the century, so it is.
andrew
January 11th, 2010 10:52pm Report this comment"[Gordon Brown] deserves credit for preventing this recession becoming a depression. David Cameron would have flunked that test."
nonsense, a depression lasts years, but takes years to develope. The crash of '29 was celebrated as a bullet dodged, but the teeth of the deprtession that followed were in 32-36, three years after the crash. In my opinion, Gordon Brown's socialising of the crash will make the enevitable depression longer and harder, and if history is a guide, the worst could hit as late as 2013. How short sited you all are. Gordon Brown has merely delayed the enevitable at TRUELY ENORMOUS cost.
Publius
January 12th, 2010 9:30am Report this comment@Lance Grundy
Thanks for posting those Klaus links.
I laughed at Klaus's comment, "The Third Way is the fastest way to the Third World."
Peter From Maidstone
January 12th, 2010 10:09am Report this commentWhy don't we seem to get decent and thoughtful articles by Conservative shadows in the Spectator. I really enjoyed the discussion between Gove and Woodhead. It illustrated both the strengths and weaknesses in Gove's plans, which is surely what a serious political publication should do.
Peter From Maidstone
January 12th, 2010 10:14am Report this commentI meant to say I enjoyed the discussion in Standpoint. I'd like to hear from other shadows in some depth if possible in the Spectator, especially in the context of a discussion with a critical friend.
Vulture
January 12th, 2010 10:31am Report this commentI echo the comments of other Coffee Housers: why are you so impressed by the 'thoughts' of third-rate little Liebour chimps like Purnell and the Millipedes, to the exclusion of some proper Tories when there won't be another Liebour Govt - hopefully for ever - but certainly for the rest of their political lives.
Get used to it: Liebour and socialism, social demnocray, call it what you will are finished. Over. Done for. Toast. And so are all that made up the 'project'.
Get it into your heads that no-one here votes Liebour, or cares a tuppenny toss what becomes of the post-election Liebour party. We all want them to implode and die.
I wouldn't be surprised, though, if an opportunist little creep like Purnell defects to Dave a la Shaun Deadwood & Quentin Davies in abt a year's time.
After all it wouldn't be much of an intellectual leap from Nu Liebour to Blue Liebour.
Yam Yam
January 12th, 2010 10:51am Report this comment"We believe that Thatcherism was an often wicked period of our national history that celebrated greed, inflicted unnecessary pain and failed to govern for the whole country."
Oh course, you could also be talking about Britain under New Labour, James.
Naomi Muse
January 12th, 2010 10:58am Report this commentWe should not be bothering with young Mr Purnell. He's just trying to get back into circulation having so badly misjudged the lie of the land when he set up his lofty ideals and left the government.
He's suffering from 'I'm out here and you're all in there' syndrome. Leave him there.
Dorothy Wilson
January 12th, 2010 11:33am Report this commentNaomi: He's suffering from a large dose of immaturity.
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