Brown losing friends. Rapidly
Peter Hoskin 8:59am
You can add another entry to the list of those who don't like Gordon Brown: the unions. Over the past few days we've been tracking growning union disgruntlement -and the possibility of a Summer of Strikes - over on Trading Floor. And now that mood's been encapsulated in a speech delivered by Brendan Barber, the TUC's general secretary, last night. He certainly didn't pull his punches - the Government needs to "reconfigure its DNA", as it "has not been clear about what it wants to be – and where it now wants to go".
It's becoming increasingly difficult to see who Brown's allies are. The unions don't like him; business doesn't like him; huge swathes of his party don't like him; and it seems voters aren't too keen either. In such a poisonous atmosphere, Brown hanging to his position would be some feat of endurance. Or stubborness.
Anyway, there'll be many hoping that the people of Crewe and Nantwich also register their antipathy. They go to the polls today, and we'll have a result at around 0230 tomorrow morning. Stay wired to Coffee House for updates and analysis.
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Comments
oldtimer
May 22nd, 2008 9:45amLabour is bankrupt, both financially and intellectually - it is out of isdeas and of cash. Its only realistic source of cash is the TU movement. Expect the piper to call the tune.
Nicholas
May 22nd, 2008 10:06amBlair managed to keep a lid on the Left and for many years run with the pretence that New Labour was something it wasn't. Brown hasn't and the Old Labour bogeymen are emerging again.
Now it's all running more to pattern for a Labour government. Tax and spend without embedding value. Economic incompetence. Stifling bureaucracy. Union unrest and disorder. Weak cabinet decisions. Ideological distractions from good government. Assorted barminess stalking the land.
Seen it all before. Knew it would happen. Just a question of time. My late father always said "Never trust Labour". He was right.
Fred Bloggs
May 22nd, 2008 11:40amIf the unions come to the fore and Labour revert to type then many will ask: just what was the point of Tony Blair?
Someone from the Blairite wing needs to save Labour from itself, otherwise they will be out of office for another 18 years. Not that i'm complaining.
However, it does perhaps emphasise the challenge for Cameron, and perhaps backs up his view that he should show tortoise-like leadership on issues - leading not just the country (hopefully) but also the party along a centre-Right path.
John
May 22nd, 2008 12:09pmoldtimer, you forgot 'morally'. This is the most dishonest, crooked, fraudulent, thuggish government by far during my lifetime.
BrianSJ
May 22nd, 2008 1:35pmOldtimer has it in a nutshell. The Labour party is in the hands of its creditors, and the unions will exact a high price to bail it out. John is right about 'morally'. The Third Way meant that there is no such thing as morality.
Tina
May 22nd, 2008 1:42pmThought it wouldn't be long before the Unions started becoming militant again. However they are in quite a strong position considering the Labour party in nigh on bankruptcy and are havily reliant on the Union funds.
J H Holloway
May 22nd, 2008 3:07pmI have argued about this very subject with my co-workers (some of whom vote Labour). My spin for the six months has been that NuLab came in, re-configured the country and the people have looked around and judged it to have been mostly unsuccessful.
They've spent the money and what? Schooling still not great, NHS better but at a huge cost, CCTV mentality, no-quarter against so-called middle class 'anti-social behaviour' (eg dodgy speed cameras and bin taxes), taxes are high and rising and potentially with no end in sight because 'Gordon didn't save for a rainy day'.
It's a crowded and increasingly uncivilised country, something that strikes every voter when they arrive back from an overseas trip.
The NuLab experiment has reached its natural end - there are virtually no levers left to pull - and the people have judged it to have been a failure.
Perry of England. Also British in the sense of formerly Great, and proud of what it once meant.
May 22nd, 2008 5:56pmHey Old-Timer, - for what it’s worth – the next source of dosh for Noo-Lie-Bore, once t’unions have given up in disgust, are the Supreme Leader’s luvvie friends and accomplices in Brussels pate. I don’t know under what guise, or how it will work, - just a feeling that the EUroCRATS will work hard to keep a malleable, mute, and mutant financial milch cow. Paranoid, aren’t I?