Hazel Takes the Reins

Sunday, 3rd May 2009

Hazel Blears knows exactly what she's doing by intervening in print during the Labour Party's darkest spring.

Think of it the other way around. Ministers know that when the Prime Minister pledges 100 per cent support then it's curtains. It's a sign of the declining authority of Number 10 that this rule has now been inverted. Cabinet loyalty is assumed. It should not have to be asserted.

Hazel Blears is stating the obvious, which is very dangerous indeed. Of course the government was on the wrong side of the gurkha debate, of course it is failing to communicate with the voters, of course the YouTube performance was a disaster. But Cabinet ministers are not supposed to say these things.

But senior Labour figures are now beginning to talk openly again about whether the present situation is sustainable (just as they did over last summer). The difference is that the Brown machine will not be able to stamp out dissent at conference as they did last year.

I found myself agreeing with Jessica Asato of the Blairite cheerleading organisation Progress on Radio Five Live this morning when she said that Hazel Blears had been brave to do what she did. But I couldn't agree that it wasn't an attack on the Prime Minister It will be interesting to see how Brown and those around him react to such an open and wounding broadside.

Filed under: Gordon Brown (430 more articles) , Hazel Blears (6 more articles) , Number 10 (4 more articles) , Observer (1 more articles)

Previous Back to Martin Bright Next

Blogs: Susan Hill | Alex Massie | Melanie Phillips | Coffee House | Faith Based

Actions: Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (5)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

paracelsus

May 3rd, 2009 2:08pm Report this comment

Brown will react in the same manner as before, lashing out irrationally and further wounding the Labour party. Isn't life grand!

Meanwhile, the country continues to sink further whilst media hacks debate the situation. It is time for action, time we disposed of this government once and for all.

I shall be watching tomorrow's broadcast of the 1979 election with wistful nostalgia, eagerly awaiting this government's day of reckoning. Oh why couldn't it be this year!

bb

May 3rd, 2009 3:52pm Report this comment

Didn't some poet once say, in part:

"Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

And ..

"Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,Do not go gentle into that good night."

Blairites, where the Welsh eff are you?

Steve.W

May 3rd, 2009 5:21pm Report this comment

I've just followed the link to the Guardian article (and read it) so I'd say 'Hazel takes the piss' rather than Hazel takes the reins would be about right. All the way through the article is the idea that things have gone wrong recently. Not so. Like so many in Nulabour Blears is part of the problem, not the solution.