The Slow Death of the Labour Party

The Labour Party – thats ane end of ane auld sang.

This could be a sociological story – the slow death of democratic socialism, tribute band politics (the Twatlees?) proposing to storm the commanding heights of the 1945 economy, rail, steel, coal, dwarfed as they are by new industries. But it isn’t.

This could be a British nationalist story – Iraq (Brexit avant la letter): overconfidence, lack of preparation, experts sidelined, trampled, sneered at, disaster unfolding. But it isn’t.

This could be a story of hubris and nemesis – New Labour (the members voted 4-1 agin Clause 4) destroyed by an imported American Party model that said members don’t matter – members so desperate to vote for someone, anyone, Corbyn. But it isn’t.

This could be a story of the collapse of historic and ancient institutions – of a constitution glutted and gutted, once great and now ruins, a grim vista of ash and pinched men roasting rats on College Green. But it isn’t.

This story, this very jeremiad, is about a car crash unfolded.

Who could have guessed that a man who appointed not one, but two people that opposed the Berlin Wall coming down (and rue it still 30 years later) would have a tin ear for politics?

Who could have guessed that a politician who had nothing to show for his 30 years in parliament would have nothing to show for his leadership?

And who would have, who could have, predicted that a life long supporter of industrial-revolutionary politics would see his end heralded by a strike – a strike of Labour members no less? Not canvassing, not discreetly lending their votes to other parties (not the Tiggers tho), but flaunting it. Resignations by expulsion.

The tragedy is for the ordinary Labour members. Defence of the weak, political union, solidarity across national borders: these are not ignoble aims. SNP members subscribe to them in the main: different unions, different solidarities, different institutions – but both sides of the political house in Scotland are close relatives.

Labour has, and had, many decent and hard working people in it – betrayed all. Even the Corbynist wave had engaged and committed, good people. But at the top, at the heart, at his request, stood a claque of Stalinists, gruesome SWPers, the fermented detritus of a hard-left demi-monde.

When unexpectedly raised to the throne, Corbyn blossomed from being merely shite to the slow-motion anti-Midas of shite, everything he touched slowly but inevitably turning.

It took Scottish Labour until 2014 to full realise it has lost the 2007 election – it is not a mistake that is being made again.

“The people’s card is deepest red, lock Magic Grandpa in his shed” – that’s ane start to ane new sang.

I feel so, so sorry for my friends in Labour.

Comments (37)

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  1. Welsh Sion says:

    I first wrote this in October 2014.

    The slow-mo death of Labour, continues …

    14. (of 20.)

    “Our Way”

    And now, the end is here.
    And so Labour faces the final curtain.
    My friend, I’ll say it clear:
    I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain.

    They’ve lived their life, now it must end;
    They troughed on each and ev’ry highway
    And more, much more than this.
    They did it their way.

    Regrets? No – they have none, that’s very true.
    Nor a conscience, not worthy of mention
    They served themselves
    And saw it through, without exemption.

    They planned each charted course,
    Each careful step along the byway,
    And more, much more than this,
    They did it their way.

    Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew
    When they bit off more than they could chew
    But through it all, when there was doubt,
    They gorged themselves – kept nothing out.
    They were in it all, stood for themselves
    And they did it their way.

    They’ve troughed, they’ve laughed and lied.
    We’ve had our fill, our share of losing.
    And now, as tears subside,
    We find it all so amusing.

    To see Labour falling apart.
    And may I say – not in a shy way,
    “Oh, no, no, no longer them –
    We’ll do it our way!”

    For what is a man, what has he got?
    If not himself, then he has naught.
    To say the things he truly feels
    And not the words of one who kneels:
    The record shows we took the blows
    And we’ll do it our way!

    Yes, it will be our way!
    _________

    [With acknowledgements]

    Songs for the New Politics
    2013-2019

  2. Charles L. Gallagher says:

    I know many decent Labour people who have now, not just lent the SNP their vote but are now members and hard-working activists for the SNP. I well recall the last time that the Labour Party took a huge lurch to the left it ended in tears with the ‘longest suicide note in history’ and 17 years in the wilderness. As it stands at the moment Corbyn is just a puppet with McCluskey’s fist firmly up his arse.

  3. John says:

    Not a convincing, informative or well written article. ..

    1. Alasdair Macdonald says:

      I agree with this comment. Probably, it applies to Scottish Labour, but Gerry Hassan explained that about 10 years ago.

      With regard to UK Labour, or, more precisely, English Labour, it is the party with the largest membership in the UK and, indeed, in much of Europe. It also has a spread of membership across the generations, with a very substantial cohort below 35.

      With the advent of Jeremy Corbyn as leader, there has been a substantial rethinking of major issues, which had become hegemonic under the Kinnock, Blair, Brown period. It is not just ‘new’ Labourites who are concerned. The Labour ‘tribalists’ and many in the leadership of trade unions are concerned, too, about losing their ‘entitlements’.

      The former group with their friends in the media use mendacious and/or misleading stories about, bullying, entryism, antisemitism, while the latter use their mastery of procedural standing orders to strangle debate and to retain a hold on senior positions in branches and in the party as a whole.

      The arguments of Momentum and those of similar mindset do not get much media exposure other than adverse ones. Much of the debate, particularly on redistribution of power, constitutional matters, the electoral system is not much developed and, such is the BRITISH mindset, that even they are reluctant to look at it. They have many good ideas about housing, redistribution of wealth, and rights. They have begun to deal seriously with ‘green’ issues.

      Although we, in Scotland have viable alternatives in Greens, SNP, and in the grouping that was called RISE, in England, other than the Greens, there is little which has the organisational ability of Labour, albeit dysfunctional in many ways, that can mount a serious challenge to the Tories and other manifestations of the Thatcherite social and economic paradigm.

      I have family and friends in England who are good people, who are aware of the complexities of the situation, who in practice and for the immediate future have little alternative to Labour.

      Labour and it’s Leader and those around him have made an arse of Brexit policy and suffered in the Euro elections. Current opinion polls indicate a bad position for Labour, although the Tories are polling as badly. As we know, polling results are notoriously susceptible to extreme sensitivity to (very) current issues and, in longer trends, Tories and Labour, tend to be ahead significantly of other parties, although it is less pronounced. In Scotland, things have been markedly different since 1979.

      This was a poor article and not up to the high standards Bella has established and sustained since its launch.

      1. Daniel Raphael says:

        Well said. It’s crucial to note that Labour is not a Scotland-specific party, and whatever the legitimate complaints about its policies towards and within Scotland may be, the larger issue remains that of capitalism–which, last I checked, was destroying the planet. My guess is that far more than a Labour government will prove necessary to save our battered earth, but pushing in a strongly leftward direction is crucial.

        Scotland socialist, nuke-free, and ecologically progressive, is a vision I support. What I do not support is blanket approval to the SNP or equally dubious blanket dismissal of Labour.

      2. florian albert says:

        Alasdair,

        Can you explain how you reached the conclusion that RISE amounts to a ‘viable alternative’ ?

        1. Alasdair Macdonald says:

          Florian Albert,

          My comment regarding RISE is in the context of possible destinations for the votes of people who have become disenchantment with the Labour Party in Scotland. Given that a proportion of Labour supporters in Scotland hold left wing views which entail redistribution of wealth and power, then they might feel that from their perspective that RISE is ‘a viable alternative’.

          I was not implying approval or otherwise about the policies of RISE.

          I could have added the LibDems as a ‘viable alternative’ for some disenchanted Labour voters, but because I was talking about the voting options in Scotland as distinct from the rest of the UK, I did not mention LibDems, because it is an option in England and Wales.

          1. florian albert says:

            A proportion of Labour voters ‘hold views which entail the redistribution of wealth and power.’

            I would suggest that this group is tiny. If they were serious about such views, they could hardly have gone along with New Labour. When RISE came along, it pinned its hopes on this group being enough to give it electoral credibility. When the votes were counted, it became clear that this was not so.

            One major problem for the left in Scotland is that it assumes there is support for left wing policies among voters. The election results continue to say otherwise.

          2. Alasdair Macdonald says:

            Florian Albert,

            The group is, in all probability, small, but bigger than tiny! Many of those who hold such views, such as the readership of the Morning Star, have historically voted mainly for Labour because they recognise that a party expressing their views would be unlikely to be elected, anda Labour government would enact some policies which shifted things in a direction they wanted.

            However, to repeat, my original point was to indicate where some former Labour voters might now be voting. I suspect a fair number will have voted Tory and that more willsimply have stopped voting.

      3. Jack collatin says:

        I was waiting for the ‘but’.
        And there is was, in the final sentence.
        I am not a member of the SNP, but I demand Self Determination.
        UK sympathisers Up Here leave me cold.
        There are a remarkable number of not very capable bench warmers clogging up the works at Holyrood, who will argue Black s White if that’s the edict emanating from the Blue Red and Beige Tory Head Offices Down There.
        Blair Brown Mandelson Campbell Straw Baz and Co destroyed the Labour Party. I consider the Tories to be a pure evil entity hell bent on crushing Oi Polloi and ‘ruling’ by economic cleansing, and Poor House threats.
        The Lib Dems are just a pointless self serving buffer. Clegg Danny Alexander Steel The Mighty Ming Cable are in it for dosh, and lots of it.

        Jo Swinson who lied on QT the other night, represents a Scottish constituency, but failed to introduce the fact that her constituents enjoy Tuition free University education, , when this hoary old hardy annual got its regular English slanted slot.
        I am left leaning; Corbyn and Momentum are not.
        They are determined to smash Scotland first, and rebuild it as a People’s Socialist Republic, and fuck the 5 million in the meantime.
        The Fiery Red xenophobic philosophy and strategy is no different from Rees Mogg’s scorched earth capitalist Free Market culling of the Proletariat.
        Both would destroy society, and then re-introduce Victorian Britain, or Stalinist Cooperatives.
        Eye on the prize. Self Determination first, then let democracy take its course.

    2. Alex says:

      I agree with this comment. God knows there is an article to be written about problems within the Labour Party and its death in Scotland, but this is absolute nonsense.

    3. scrandoonyeah says:

      It might not have convinced or informed you and might not be well written

      but eh……epitaphs don’t have to be

    4. Jo says:

      I couldn’t agree more.

      1. Jo says:

        My reply above was to John.

  4. Daniel Raphael says:

    Take away the rhetorical larding and the (insincere) posture of sighing regret…and this article offers nothing. There is no substantive analysis at all.

    Do I correctly recall that those daring the Labour Party to expel them were expressing solidarity with a former Labour high-up who publicly admitted to voting for *another party*, rather than Labour’s own? Oh my goodness–expelling someone for voting against your own party? Stalinism indeed!

    1. Ronald AlexanderMcDonald says:

      Aye, the truth can hurt.

      Daniel could have added, that with regard to Scotland, The Tories and Labour are different cheeks of the same arse!

    2. I dont think that was where the accusation of Stalinism came from Daniel.

    3. Gordon Guthrie says:

      Well I did run for the Scottish Parliament as a Labour candidate in ’99. I might have left and joined the SNP in 2002 but I have friends in Labour and I sincely feel sorry for them

      1. Jo says:

        Sincerely, Gordon?

        I didn’t see anything in your article that was remotely sincere. You haven’t even scratched the surface of what’s going on in the Labour Party. You’ve skimmed over so much it’s embarrassing.

        The “back another referendum” people in Labour are matched by other MPs who are shouting the opposite! The latter were willing to defy the whip on that. Some like Nandy and De Piero were writing articles in The Guardian saying a second referendum wasn’t the way to go. Go and check out the English results constituency wise. I got a shock when I did that. I had no idea just how many Labour constituencies had voted Leave.

        Where they ALL went wrong was in allowing Cameron to treat an advisory vote as legally binding and in treating a 51.9% result as decisive. Where were all their voices then?

        Shall I tell you? 2015 Corbyn was elected leader and the minds of the PLP plotters were immediately on bringing him down. Within a year he was challenged for the leadership, right after the Brexit vote. Yep, the Leave vote was in and all they wanted was a civil war in the Party! And the tactics have just got dirtier and dirtier. Addressing the very real issues that Leave vote threw up for Labour was the last thing on their minds.

        I’m very glad I abandoned the Labour Party a long time ago, around the same time as you did going by your post. I’m glad I don’t need them. I’m glad Scotland doesn’t need them. But be careful too, because we don’t know what’s coming for the SNP this year Gordon. There are things in the pipeline I’m sure none of us can be looking forward to. But the same media will be rubbing their hands in anticipation.

  5. Bert Logan says:

    There is not much to add here.

    Was a member for over a decade from the age of 15 – family – everyone I knew – Labour.

    And then Iraq, the lies, the utter suckup to USA.

    And then … I clicked, it was so hard … in my head I was saying why why why did I not click before. I wish I had seen this at 15 or at any point sooner than the wasted support I gave to the Red Tories. For that is what they are. Self serving & for England alone, with a mild – we care – motto.

    Independence now and forever – how can you go back?

  6. Jo says:

    I’m going to be blunt, Gordon. I thought this piece was appalling on so many levels I lost count. It’s disgraceful. It’s one thing to offer an opinion about something, it’s quite another to indulge in a complete b*tch-fest and exclude many other facts…and when the Labour Party is in the mix the facts are many. I expect standards like this from the MSM, not on Bella.

    The most recent trials and tribulations of the Labour Party have been well documented in the (almost) four years since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader. It’s only right to point out that the biggest problems Corbyn has faced have all come from one main source….a core group within his own PLP whose single aim was to bring him down by any means required. (It should be said too that this aim even eclipsed dealing with Brexit!)

    I’m sixty years old. I’ve been voting and paying attention to politics since I was 18. I have never seen any politician being treated as Corbyn has been treated. I knew politics could be a dirty business but, God almighty, there were no depths to which this Fifth Column would not sink. They didn’t give a toss about the Party, Gordon, or changing it. They were still worshipping at the altar of Blair. They still are.

    I’d seen Labour factions before of course. They’re not new. But during those there was usually a responsible Deputy Leader around to work with both sides. Prescott, Harman and Beckett all did that. But Watson? Watson’s been leading the Fifth Column! Watson wanted to form his own separate Party within the PLP. Watson even announced in recent weeks that he’d set up a parallel Complaints Process and personally investigate complaints himself! Watson may have shed seven stones lately but, goodness, his sense of self importance has more than filled the space left behind! Elsewhere, check out Watson’s personal donations Gordon. The saying may be old but it holds true. Follow the money indeed!

    In the period since Corbyn’s election as leader we’ve seen other extraordinary scenes. We’ve heard that MPs from outwith the Labour Party were present in the chamber when “Dame” Hodge brought her foul mouth out to play and shouted at Corbyn that he was “a f****** anti-Semite”. How very dignified, not the Dame Margaret we’re used to when she has her posh voice on. She also claimed she’d personally referred 200 complaints of anti-Semitism to the Labour Party. (It turned out that 180 of them weren’t even Party members).

    We had plenty of other stunts too. We had staged and staggered walkouts from the shadow cabinet led by Benn, all notified in advance to the BBC. We even had a “live” resignation on the Daily Politics when Angela Eagle stumbled in and tried hard to “cry” as she declared, “I can’t do this any more!” (We then learned that Angela’s new website for her leadership challenge had been set up long before she resigned.) And the other Labour lasses were happy to join in, with daily reports going out that they were being “bullied” by bad men in the Labour Party. It got that on seeing three female Labour MPs together I found myself recalling that line , “When shall we three meet again?” That the bullying allegations were neverending but the vicious plotting was ignored by the MSM said it all.

    I can still recall Seema Malhotra accusing McDonnell’s people of “breaking into” her office. This was something else announced during the Daily Politics and was then all over the papers. The truth, established following an investigation by Speaker Bercow, was very different. Malhotra didn’t have an office! She’d resigned her shadow cabinet post and McDonnell needed access to the office for the person who replaced her in the shadow cabinet. There was no break in! Obviously Malhotra wasn’t keen to apologise for having lied to, sorry, misled, the media nor did Bercow’s findings get the front page billing afforded to Malhotra’s original nonsense.

    As has been pointed out elsewhere on the comments, we’re fortunate in Scotland that we have an alternative. England does not Gordon and if you are serious about feeling for English voters then you do a great injustice here by blaming Corbyn for this mess. That is thoroughly dishonest.

    John Major had a group he referred to as “b*******”. I shudder to think what new noun Corbyn would find that fully describes this mob!

    Every move they make has a purpose. Look at Campbell! Playing the victim, Campbell of all people. Me? In response to his staged announcement that he’d voted Lib-Dem… I’d have done the worst thing you can do to Campbell. I’d have ignored him! Publicity is oxygen to Campbell. To see Campbell, whose role in the UK being lied to in order to take us into an illegal war, now being painted a victim by the UK media is truly vomit inducing. Our media aren’t just in the gutter…. they’re way below gutter and deep into the sewers. They eat, sleep and breathe fake news.

    1. Daniel Raphael says:

      *Applauds*

    2. SleepingDog says:

      @Jo, I think your comment is the highlight to a disappointing and difficult-to-parse article. It is important to feature testable statements in such critiques, as you have provided.

    3. Gordon Guthrie says:

      I have heard all this before, about Scargill, about Tommy Sheridan, its always the conspiracy.

      The fact is that Corbyn is terrible at politics, has no public policy on Brexit, the raging political fire of the day – and a huge proportion of his own party members voted for other parties. The Labour Party went on fire under his watch, and isn’t coming back.

    4. The Clincher says:

      Well said, Jo. The Peterborough result showed the way to deal with the Remain-Leave dichotomy: fight any election on the anti-austerity grounds, the key to the increase of Labour’s vote share in 2017. Corbyn has to deal with treachery from the Watson fifth column, from Mandelson saying he would fight every day to overturn the democratic mandate which installed Corbyn, and don’t get me started on the anti-semitic lies emanating and orchestrated by the Israeli Embassy.

      Scotland should ignore Labour at its peril; they may take an ostensible Unionist stance but that is not immutable – there is a common enemy here and it is not Scotland.

  7. Dougie Blackwood says:

    Many of the points made in these comments here are accurate.

    Corbyn was elected despite the opposition of the PLP. There has been a sustained campaign to depose him ever since but there is no credible figure waiting to replace him.

    Corbyn has some leanings toward old Labour but at the end if the day he couldn’t kead a school outing. He does not proclaim a view that is consistant but swings in the wind seeking political advantage and losing credibility as he does so.

    1. I agree with this and suggest Gordon does also.

      This was a short piece in a quizzical style that was intended to be lighter and provocative. Not all of our articles are in-depth, feature-length writing. Gonna gie Gordie a break?

      1. Jo says:

        No Mike, I’m sorry, you didn’t write this piece so you can’t just jump in and interpret it on the writer’s behalf.

        It’s also out of order to say it’s a “lighter and provocative” piece not intended to be in-depth. Gordon has savaged Corbyn in this. You just can’t produce something like this and totally ignore the plotting we actually know was going on and still is. For goodness sake, la Kuennsberg was happy to tell us she was receiving texts from inside PLP meetings!

        Frankly, I just don’t think it’s possible to do a “lighter” article about what’s happened in the Labour Party. For the roots of it all are in very dark places indeed. The irony is that those up to their armpits in the dark stuff have the nerve to call themselves “moderates”. They’re no such thing! They bang on about fighting for the soul of the Labour Party. They sold its soul years ago along with their own! They are lying sods.

        No reasonable person should write on this subject without even touching on what has gone on. That’s what Gordon has done here and it’s out of order. We are well used to the bias against the SNP in the MSM. All the more reason to show balance ourselves and rise above that sort of thing rather than match their appalling standards.

        So don’t ask us to “gie Gordon a break”, Mike. People have been civil in response to his article even if we are in disagreement with it.

        Corbyn’s certainly not without his faults but my own view is that if we had any decent investigative journalism in this country, we would have been enlightened by now on exactly who is behind all this. Sadly we don’t. Bella frequently talks about dark money, rightly so. Well, there’s plenty of that stuff going to individual Labour MPs. It’s all there, in plain sight, yet no one bats an eyelid.

        People bang on about reforming FPTP. I’d start with reforming private donations that can go to individual MPs. I’d shut those right down. Go and look at Watson’s just for starters. Join the dots. It becomes clear very quickly whose corner he’s fighting and many other “moderates” share the same goals. Dark money and dark agendas indeed.

        I remember my father, whose fault it is that I got into politics, saying to me, “One thing, Jo, be careful about getting in too deep because sometimes you discover things that don’t sit well when you’re honest.”. He died in 1994. I shudder to think what he’d make of this setup we have now.

        1. Jack collatin says:

          In my fanciful moments I envisage an Independent Scotland where we reverse the Thatcher years, which still dominate WM politics today, which were based on ‘Private Good, Public Bad’.
          Some among us remember Supermac Harold McMillan damning the Privatisation Purge instigated by Thatcher, and gleefully followed by Major, the New Labour Cool Britannia War Criminal Blair, the, Clunking Fist Brown, Cameron and Clegg, then Cameron and, Lord Help Us All, May.
          ‘Selling off the Family Silver’
          Telecoms, Gas, Electricity, the Rail Network, Education, Water, Schools, Air Traffic Control, the Prison Service…the list as they say is not exhaustive.
          Even Thatcher balked at selling off the Queen’s Head, the Post office. We had to wait for a Lib Dem Collaborator to do that.
          In Independent Scotland, I demand that my gas, electricity, education, rail network, in fact, all the PPP/PFI Group 4S nice little earners for Off Shore Carpetbaggers be returned to public ownership, immediately, and somebody should tell Syd, (remember that campaign) to feck off.
          Corbyn is not the Great Red Hope. He is my age, and believe you me, I’d find it hard to run the Tea Club, never mind England. (see what I did there? ‘England’.)

          I note that BC Editor on here describes this piece as a light wry askance: fair enough.
          But after 4 years at the Red Helm, Corbyn has done little to stop the ‘economic cleansing’ of 130,000 UK citizens by Government edict since 2013, a shocking statistic, rightly condemned by the UN.

          I observed elsewhere that our traditional organisations, mainly our religious bodies, have nothing to say about food banks, 320,000 Scottish children recorded as living in WM engineered poverty, and the ‘economic cleansing’ to which I refer above.
          Things are going to get very ugly, very soon now.
          Johnson or Rory MI5 as yet another unelected PM?
          Labour in Scotland needs radical change.
          Richard leonard has no experience or apparent drive. He was a GMB ‘official’ for three decades settling union disputes.
          Corbyn sat on the back benches for 4 decades.
          United Ireland but not Free Scotland?
          WE are taking our country back, then there will be a Scottish Government, of the people, elected by the people, serving the people, and accountable to the people of Scotland.
          In closing, Jackie Baillie should resign immediately.
          The stall at an Argyll Fair with Sturgeon and Swinney faces on plates to be smashed and on toilet seats just about sums up the putrescent pile of ordure that is the remnants of Blair’s New Labour.

          Time to clean out the stables.
          Maggie may be dead, ding dong, but the stencg of her corpse still seeps in to every corner of the Bit Nat Establishment.
          Rant over.

          1. Jack collatin says:

            ‘stench’.
            Oops.

            The level of my rage can usually be measured by the Ypographical Terrors in my humble contributions.
            The Labour Party will thrive in an Independent Scotland.
            Why doesn’t the Scottish Branch get this?

          2. Dougie Blackwood says:

            Jack.

            So, in an independent Scotland who will be the leading lights in a thriving Labour party? Sorry I do not see anybody with a backbone strong enough to take on that job.

          3. Jo says:

            Jack

            I get the rage, it’s fine. What I’m sad about is that you replied to my post without addressing the points I made.

    2. Willie says:

      Succinct and to the point Dougie about Corbyn swinging in the wind, seeking political advantage.

      Effectively standing for nothing, the wider public now see Labour for what it is.

      The sacred ‘Vow’ now dishonoured, the shoulder to shoulder working with the Conservatives, the promise that only by staying in the UK could Scotland remain in the EU, the cronyism, the continuing austerity, the plain fact that Labour will never form a government in Westminster – have all laid Labour bare for what they are.

      Analyse to the Nth degree, but the electorate have I think formed a view, and it’s not for Labour.

    3. Jo says:

      Dougie

      I think the Labour “moderates” have someone in mind already. Just my opinion, mind. I think the plan is to bring the other Miliband back as the heir of Blair in due course.

      1. Dougie Blackwood says:

        Jo.

        You may be right but I suspect he has burnt his boats with the party, just as his brother has.

      2. Jack collatin says:

        Well, Jo, even Sherlock Holmes had a ‘smarter brother’.
        Of course, Mycroft Milliband abandoned his constituents in South Shields and mysteriously landed a nice little Earner in New York as chief executive of the International Rescue Committee and ‘public policy analyst. ‘
        Like Dugdale after him, there’s always a nice little earner waiting for a failed politician in the ‘village’.
        A Blairite through and through, David Milliband he was one of the architects of New Labour, Peter Madelson’s ‘comfortable with the Filthy Rich’ Cool Britannia.
        Chukka would be back in the fold before you could say Company Directorship.
        Labour is that far gone.

  8. Jenny Tizard says:

    Agreed.
    Good title though

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