The beginning of the end? (For Tony Blair)

The benefits of a front door, in short, are manifold. It keeps pets in, and burgling riff-raff out. It provides a place to show off your house number and your taste in knockers. It even opens to let you in when you come home after a hard night out consuming art - unless you're the prime minister, in which case your front door has no keyhole and can only be opened from the inside. Those seeking an early end to Tony Blair's premiership would do well to remember this; all they need to do is get all his staff to go out at the same time.

From "What is the point of a front door?" in today's The Guardian:

Quote:

The benefits of a front door, in short, are manifold. It keeps pets in, and burgling riff-raff out. It provides a place to show off your house number and your taste in knockers. It even opens to let you in when you come home after a hard night out consuming art - unless you're the prime minister, in which case your front door has no keyhole and can only be opened from the inside. Those seeking an early end to Tony Blair's premiership would do well to remember this; all they need to do is get all his staff to go out at the same time.

:wink:

The latest issue of the "Fabian Review" (from the Fabian Society) has a couple of articles about "Britain after Blair", e.g.
- Cover story: 'Is Labour lost', by John Denham
- 'Five things our new PM should know about what women want', by Deborag Mattinson
- ...

Sounds very interesting, but arrived only just by post.

I remember being baffled by the Barbican once. There's no signpost from the Tube, and you have to get up on to the walkway to find the way in.

Brown regrets differences with PM

Monday September 25, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

Gordon Brown today laid out his credentials to be the next Labour leader and prime minister, telling the Labour party conference: "I know where I come from, what I believe and what I can contribute."

Mr Brown made a public admission of his "regret" over the "differences" between himself and Tony Blair, saying "where over these years, differences have distracted from what matters I regret that, as I know Tony does too". [..]

He told the conference he offered: "New Labour renewed, not just holding the centre ground, but modernising it in a progressive way too."

His 37-minute speech was received with an ovation lasting two minutes and 45 seconds.

The PM, who sat on stage alongside the chancellor, has so far pointedly refused to endorse any candidate as his successor. [..]

Mr Brown immediately stressed he would, if leader, want to "draw on all the talents of our party and country" - hinting he may offer cabinet jobs to personal rivals.

He also talked about his upbringing in a Scottish rectory "surrounded by books, sports, music and encouragement", opportunities denied to some of his friends. [..]

His speech ranged across the Middle East, global poverty, terror, education, the environment, citizenship, parliament, as well as his own childhood and his praise for Mr Blair.

As billed in advance, he suggested forming an independent executive to run areas like the NHS, in the manner in which he made the Bank of England independent. [..]

He suggested that decisions over peace and war should be matters for parliament, as well as making patronage over appointments arm's-length from government in the wake of the cash-for-honours saga.

And, while the police investigation into claims that Labour lenders were offered honours continues, Mr Brown said he thought home helps and carers "should be the first call for our honours system". [..]

On policy, he announced that the Treasury would be publishing a far-reaching study of the interaction of economics and climate change in the next few days.

After the tumultuous infighting of early September, a tentative truce between the Blair and Brown camps is so far holding in Manchester.

Shut up - or else

A year after Walter Wolfgang was thrown out for heckling at Labour's annual conference, many complain that security has become too heavy handed. But it has always been like this, says Natasha Walter, whose father was jailed for protesting at Harold Wilson's 1966 conference

<snip>

My mother, Ruth, shared that sense of pride [..]. "Those were good times," she says now. "We felt as though it was worth raising our voices for what we believed, so we did. There were a lot of other people who thought like us, that it was worth having a go and trying to change things. There was an optimism about the way things were going. I never thought we'd end up with what we have now, 40 years on. We seem to have regressed in so many ways."

Government the Tesco way

The Labour party conference opened yesterday, a crazed blend of the new and the traditional. The convention centre, in Manchester, looked as if it ought to be welcoming a meeting of computer systems operators, or travel agents, or, these days, even porn stars. [..]

But inside little had changed. It could have felt familiar to anyone who attended the last Labour conference in Manchester, in 1917. The report of the conference arrangements committee, a body that makes the Soviet politburo seem as open as the Big Brother house, referred to compositing and procedures on the contemporary motions criteria.

Only a few delegates could understand this stuff, but they knew they were being stitched up. "Conference is being gagged!" said a young man from the platform as he tried and failed to make a speech about Trident. A woman added, to loud cheers: "If democracy is good enough for the Middle East, it's good enough for the Labour party." Heavens, where has she been living? [..]

Then came the merit awards to people who have spent a lifetime in the party's service. A few years ago they were allowed to say a few words about their six decades in the movement, but they began to say disobliging things about the leader, so now they just pick up a plaque from him and push off.

Then we were back with Hazel, who looked shiny in scarlet. Everything about her was shiny: her cheeks, her forehead, clothes, her eyes, and most of all her teeth, which shone and smiled at us and at Mr Blair, who shone back in her direction. "He has been a great inspiration to us," she beamed.

She showed us a video. Apparently members of the cabinet had briefly worked alongside real workers. She had worked in a branch of Tesco, where she asked a young man if he had to sell what head office told him to stock, or if local customers could choose what they wanted. The young man looked evasive.

Well, if someone specifically asked for something, staff could write it on a bit of paper at the manager's office. Hazel thought this was fabulous. "Here the customer comes first, and that's really, really refreshing," she said.

And that summed up New Labour. It's government by Tesco: you have to have what head office tells you to have, but if you want something else, you write it on a bit of paper. And much good may it do you.

Monday, 25 September 2006

The Brown Manifesto

Gordon Brown has been going through a process that is very familiar to me as a former policy director for the Conservative Party.

You develop plans and hope to keep them quiet until the moment when they can make the biggest impact. However, the pressure from the media is intense and soon the policies drip, drip, drip into the newspapers.

I thought I would start keeping a list of Brown's policy ideas and add to it as we hear more.

I will try to stick to specifics. This is a list of policies, not a summary of attitudes.

So, in today's Sunday Telegraph interview he talks of his determination to make the executive less powerful and more accountable to Parliament. That does not make the list. Too vague. But Nick Robinson gives a for instance - giving Parliament a vote on going to war. That is specific enough to make it. The Brown idea of double devolution is also too vague for inclusion at the moment.

I'm including reports that seem well sourced. Do you believe the reports? The great advantage of blogging is that you can click through to the original article and make up your own mind.

Brown manifesto update

Here's the latest version of the Brown policy list:

1. Give Parliament power to declare war. (Nick Robinson article)

2. Complete reform of House of Lords. (Nick Robinson article)

3. A new independent NHS board would take over the day-to-day running of the health service. (Nick Robinson article)

4. An economic plan for the Middle East. (Nick Robinson article)

5. Removing power from politicians to administer public services (not just the NHS as above) and giving them to civil servants.(Sunday Telegraph interview) This would include education. (Mail on Sunday report)

6. He wants a written constitution. (Sunday Times report)

7. He is considering abolishing the DTI. (Sunday Telegraph report)

8. He is considering the idea of parliament holding US-style appointment hearings to key public office posts. (Guardian report)

9. He promises to replace the Trident nuclear detterent, after pledging to retain Britain's nuclear detterent "in the long term". (Times report)

Has anybody spotted anything else that I've missed?

Blair Worse Than Thatcher for Britons

Adults in Britain hold unambiguous views on the legacy of their current head of government, according to a poll by Communicate Research published in The Independent. 47 per cent of respondents think history will judge Tony Blair to have been a worse prime minister than Margaret Thatcher.

From 1979 to 1997, the Conservative party administered the British government under prime ministers Thatcher and John Major. 48 per cent of respondents believe Blair's tenure will be regarded as more positive than the government headed by Major. [..]

Polling Data

Do you think history will judge Tony Blair to have been a better or worse prime minister than Margaret Thatcher?

Better
30%

Worse
47%

The same
15%

Not sure
9%


Do you think history will judge Tony Blair to have been a better or worse prime minister than John Major?

Better
48%

Worse
26%

The same
17%

Not sure
10%


Source: Communicate Research / The Independent
Methodology: Interviews with 1,010 British adults, conducted on Sept. 8 and Sept. 9, 2006. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

Blair made a great speech yesterday. ... ...

The long goodbye

[..] The prime minister steered clear of the things that have gone wrong with his government, though these include episodes so significant that they will determine how he is seen by history. An undercurrent of evasiveness has run through his premiership and it was evident again yesterday when he asserted "terrorism isn't our fault. We didn't cause it". That slippery claim is not entirely true of Iraq and he would have strengthened his case had he shown a little humility. He also talked of a country that was "aching for change" in 1997 but did not admit that, from honours to the environment, his government's record has not always matched those hopes. His belated conversion to the benefits of regulation (green restrictions on business, on the advertising of junk food) was notable, as was his confusion over whether this was "old" or "new" labour. [..]

I'm right, you're wrong, and the voters know it ...

Sketch
Simon Hoggart

[..] The speech was well-delivered, and well-received, but it was classic Blair. He could have delivered chunks at any time in the past 12 years. The gist was, as it generally is: "I'm right, you're wrong, and the voters know it." On education, reforming the NHS, identity cards and even Iraq he read them a crisp and businesslike lecture. There were the usual verb-free sentences - 79 in all - which in the past implied commitments without making promises. Now they evoke achievements that may or may not have occurred: "The end of waiting in the NHS. Historic. Transforming secondary schools ... Historic."

And there were those clunking sentences that make you ask what on earth he could possibly mean, though you haven't time to work it out because the speech has swept on. "The USP of New Labour is aspiration and compassion reconciled." Eh? "Ten years ago, if we talked pensions, we meant pensioners." What was that about? "The danger is failing to understand that New Labour in 2007 won't be New Labour in 1997." Sorry, run that past me again. "Ten years on, our advantage is time, our disadvantage, time." Lost me there, old cock. [..]

The organisers tried to whip up a frenzy which was almost, but not quite there. Before he arrived there was a "spontaneous" demonstration in which members of the audience held up hand-written posters: "We love you, yeah, yeah, yeah", "Too young to retire" and simply "Thank you". It was like waiting for a very cuddly version of Stalin. We saw a video in which ordinary folk and celebrities gave thanks for the existence of Blair. One old lady said: "I'm grateful for the £200 fuel allowance - it's better than a woolly hat." And they claim the British have a poverty of ambition! [..]

Then he arrived and ran to the podium. Party leaders have to run now, to show how fit they are.

Blair may delay exit, says Johnson

Alan Johnson suggested today that Tony Blair might stay in office for longer than expected following his triumphant conference speech yesterday.
Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether Mr Blair's departure date was now "further away than some people thought when they came to Manchester", the education secretary responded: "Oh, well, I think so.

"I mean if the prime minister says, 'I want to use the rest of my time to try to resolve the Middle East problem in the same way as we tried to tackle the Northern Ireland problem,' I think it suggests he's not talking about a couple of weeks; it's a big problem."

I would say no.

Under his leadership - under the first Labour governments since the 70s! - economic inequality has actually boomed even further.

Under his leadership a fetishisation of privatisation has led to a torrent of impractical, wasteful policies (the latest example: handing over the supply agency of the NHS to a German transport company).

Under his leadership and that of his proteges Blunkett and Reid, a wave of illiberal legislation has swept the country. Panic about law & order was purposefully stirred up time & again, only so the government could then score poll points with populist policies.

Under his leadership, fear and resentment of asylum-seekers was fanned rather than defused.

Under his leadership corruption has gone back up to the same levels it had gotten to under Major (eg cash-for-peerages).

Under his leadership cynicism about politicians has, incredibly, soared even further. The Thatcher era was one of blatant disregard of public opinion; but Blair was too vain for that. So instead we got spiralling spin, potentially even more harmful for trust in democracy. Blair is the master of spin. In the end nobody could possibly know what he meant or didnt mean anymore, what was truth, spin or lie.

Under his leadership, government transparency was blocked whereever possible. Government policies became the domain of small cliques of political consultants around Blair personally, with the Parliament, the Labour MPs and even the Cabinet reduced to rubberstampers.

Under his leadership, unprecedented government spending was wasted on overpaid consultants, recruited by the thousands to do jobs government employees would have done for a quarter of the price. Again, a question of the fetishisation of anything "private" costing the British tax payer dearly.

Under his leadership, the Labour Party was dismantled as organisation. Any semblance of intra-party democracy was eradicated. Any potential of someone saying anything off-message was micromanaged away, up to where those aging party activists who'd be called on to the stage to be honored were barred from saying anything, because they might criticize New Labour.

As a result, the Labour Party has hemorraged members at unprecedented rate. It is no longer a living body, rooted in every community; it is a mere channel for PR campaigns. Under his leadership, British politics has Americanised more rapidly than that of any other European country.

Under his leadership, the economy ... no, wait. There was no Blair leadership on the economy. That was effectively delegated to Downing Street 11.

Under his leadership, global poverty ... no, wait. The UK did great work on the fight against global poverty, but it was all Gordon Brown's project.

Under his leadership, opportunity upon opportunity to tackle electoral reform was squandered.

Under his leadership, opportunity upon opportunity to ease Britain's existence within the EU was squandered. Instead, the EU was treated as handy scapegoat for anything that went wrong.

Under his leadership, opportunity upon opportunity to make a bold step forward on environmental policy was squandered.

Under his ... ah, I'm tired of typing.

well you would.

Quote:

Under his leadership - under the first Labour governments since the 70s! - economic inequality has actually boomed even further.

not true Labour has been redistributive, especially re child poverty

the extra money going into the NHS was made conditional on reform. If DHL can save the taxpayer money why is that wasteful? It makes good economic sense too...

perhaps populist policies is what the population want?

thats ridiculous, the govt did everything they could to stop people feeling resentful of asylum seekers...unsuccessfully.

Quote:

Blair is the master of spin. In the end nobody could possibly know what he meant or didnt mean anymore, what was truth, spin or lie.

nobody? well he did so you are wrong

Quote:

Under his leadership, unprecedented government spending was wasted on overpaid consultants, recruited by the thousands to do jobs government employees would have done for a quarter of the price.

a quarter the price eh? did you know that three quarters of all statistics are made up on the spot nimh?

Quote:

Under his leadership, the economy ... no, wait. There was no Blair leadership on the economy.

prime ministers appoint chancellors to manage the finances, its called delegation. Labour has a first class record on the economy.

Quote:

Under his leadership, global poverty ... no, wait. The UK did great work on the fight against global poverty, but it was all Gordon Brown's project.

ditto above

Quote:

Under his leadership, opportunity upon opportunity to tackle electoral reform was squandered.

you mean the first past the post system? Now why would labour want to do that when it kept returning them with good majorities?

Quote:

Any potential of someone saying anything off-message was micromanaged away, up to where those aging party activists who'd be called on to the stage to be honored were barred from saying anything, because they might criticize New Labour.

they still got their medals didnt they?

Quote:

Under his leadership, opportunity upon opportunity to ease Britain's existence within the EU was squandered. Instead, the EU was treated as handy scapegoat for anything that went wrong.

oh dear oh dear, a politician finding a scapegoat. What a sensitive little soul you are nimh.

Then what did you think of Bill Clinton's address in Manchester nimh?