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Insanity has always been integral to New Labour

10 June 2009

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Martin Bright says that the party labels its enemies as ‘mad’ for Freudian reasons: ‘projecting’ its own collective and individual mental disorders upon foes and rebels alike

For more than a decade the spectre of psychological collapse has hovered over the Labour party. Usually this has been attached to individuals: Ron Davies’s ‘moment of madness’ on Clapham Common, Gordon Brown’s ‘psychological flaws’, Peter Mandelson’s unhinged ‘I’m a fighter not a quitter’ speech after retaining his Hartlepool seat in 2001.

But as we enter the summer, this has taken on a far more serious aspect. There are many ways of describing the collapse of the human mind, and the New Labour high command has used most of them against its internal and external opponents. Bipolar, delusional, paranoid: all could be used of the present regime. For once the hyperbole is warranted. The Labour party has entered a period where all its worst fears have been realised. From the Cabinet through its backbenchers and on to the constituency activists, the movement is undergoing a collective nervous breakdown. It is, as Alastair Campbell might say, ‘bonkers’.

Martin Bright writes a blog for the Spectator (www.spectator.co.uk/martinbright).

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Christopher Chantrill

June 11th, 2009 2:53pm Report this comment

Well, this is the "therapeutic turn," isn't it? You understand human action in terms of "healthy" and "unhealthy" instead of "good" and "evil."

Very modern, I'd say. Very "joined up."

Steve Wonder

June 11th, 2009 5:07pm Report this comment

I think Peter Mandelson was simply slightly the worse for drink at the Harlepool count. There is often, understandably enough, drink taken as nerves wear thin at the count. I grant that it was a somewhat hysterical delivery though.

SuperiorLibraryAssistant

June 13th, 2009 9:19am Report this comment

"Gordon Brown is no dictator, but he is not a natural democrat"

Hahahaha...no belief in democracy, but not a dictator?

Let us not forget, the only election he has ever won was in a Labour fiefdom...

Richard

June 13th, 2009 11:36am Report this comment

Denial. It's not just a river in Egypt.

Stronghold Barricades

June 13th, 2009 12:28pm Report this comment

So when will they admit to the flaws in Tony Bliar's character?

Or do we already know that he was just Compulsive?

Battle 2807

June 13th, 2009 2:26pm Report this comment

Martin, as someone whose mother is suffering from depression, I find it very insulting that you class depression as insanity.

Jim

June 13th, 2009 7:37pm Report this comment

Does this mean that you, too, are guilty of projection? I think this article risks sounding very sanctimonious. I agree with the person who said that you shouldn't equate depression and mental illness with insanity.

Simon Stephenson

June 14th, 2009 10:13pm Report this comment

"Gordon Brown is no dictator, but he is not a natural democrat. He and his allies simply cannot understand how anyone could not think the way they do."

Martin, do you think it's OK that a group of people who feel thus should have been able to become the political leadership of this country? Do you think that we would be better off if we had a system that caused more rounded people to rise to the top? Or is it the case that the job actually requires people who are certain about the correctness of their own beliefs?

Jeremy Poynton

September 6th, 2009 5:21am Report this comment

"Authoritarian governments will always describe opponents as insane, and totalitarian regimes go so far as to lock dissidents away in lunatic asylums. "

You think they don't do this as well? Just google FTAC

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-457934/Revealed-Blairs-secret-stalker-squad.html

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