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Brown is not the problem

Wednesday, 7th May 2008

The Spectator on Labour's faltering fortunes

All of these issues, and others, should have been debated in full last year by Labour while it had the chance. In the event, the only issue that was seriously discussed was the precise date of Mr Blair’s departure. When he had gone, the argument rapidly shifted to whether or not there should be an early election. Mr Brown was most culpable in this respect, but he was not alone in this carnival of dithering. As Labour immersed itself in navel-gazing and speculation, Mr Cameron recovered from a disastrous summer, and set the Tory party on the path that led to this month’s spectacular electoral gains.

Under Tony Blair, the Labour party knew more or less what it was for: its purpose was to keep winning elections, often holding its nose to let the modernisers have their way, but essentially confident that the compromise was worth it to keep the Tories out after 18 years of Labour opposition. The economy continued to grow, and the public services enjoyed an unprecedented spending bonanza. Mr Blair bagged three general election victories, and saw off four Tory leaders.

This sense of purpose has drained from Labour. Its language has become hollow and robotic: when ministers talk endlessly about ‘renewal’, ‘long-term decisions’, the ‘progressive consensus’, ‘listening and learning’, ‘the new politics’, ‘aspiration’, ‘empowerment’, they merely render these words and phrases meaningless. The government looks and acts like an enfeebled and effete elite grown listless on the perks of office.

Those who imagine that the Brown government will be saved by a few soundbites or a shopping list of ‘eye-catching initiatives’ are sorely mistaken. What has been revealed in the local elections and Labour’s growing indiscipline is not the failure of an individual party leader, but the obsolescence of a governing party. Labour had the chance to thrash out its future last year and lost its nerve. Mr Brown’s plight is not the cause of his party’s demise, but the most obvious and wretched symptom.

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Ray

May 9th, 2008 9:18am

Spot on! McBean is not the real reason why the voters are angry; only the outward symbol. The truth is that the British people have at last seen through the Labour Party's naked socialism, clothed as it once was in nebulous semantics like 'the Third Way' and 'New Labour'.

john

May 12th, 2008 11:36am

The spectacle of a lame-duck government, ceremonially reclassifiying skunkweed every few years, is your answer. Blair changed his party, now the rump of a once brave vision. Brown can't. Brown is the problem.