Labour Party in moral free fall

The Labour Party, of which I was once a keen and passionate member, is in crisis..worse than crisis..it is in moral free fall. I believe the rot started with Bliar and his easy avoidance of all the codes that had kept Labour on the straight and narrow in his relentless pursuit for money. There was Bernie Ecclestone, cash for honours and other indications that 'New Labour' was prepared to turn a blind eye to where money came from provided it benefited the Party.

Then Bliar finally sailed off into the sunset to be replaced by new squeaky clean Gordon promising a new safe pair of hands administering a sound ship.





What has happened in the last few months? Problems over immigrant numbers at the Home Office - carefully concealed by Jacqui Smith. Problems with 25 million address and bank details lost by Revenue and Customs, government labs leaking foot and mouth, and now the third General Secretary in as many years has resigned because he knew that £600,000 had been donated to the Labour Party illegally. Peter Watt seemed to be a good, sound competent Secretary, yet here he is suggesting that he defied the rule book which he of all people should have been aware of..and now he has quit.



Does anyone really believe that Watt is other than the fall guy in all this?. Hot on the heels of Watt's resignation, that pathetic excuse for a Deputy Leader , Harriet Harman, announced that she would 'send back' £5000 she got from the same source as the £600,000 to fund her Deputy Leadership campaign. No suggestion that she should resign of course! Yet her loss would be of considerably less severity.





Ms Harman claims she didn't know the money was a 'proxy'. You know what? I don't believe a word of it and I'm beginning to doubt every goddamn word this government says..particularly when it comes to funding, for its not an ethic they seem to take particularly seriously. The Conservatives have asked Harman why, in any case, she accepted this money after the Deputy elections were over, and the donor, one David Abrahams, is now being investigated over some attempt to gain planning permission for a major property development. The whole thing stinks of corrupt fiscal opportunism.

Despite the appearance of calm assurance with which Gordon Brown assumed the helm, he is now beginning to look like a man not in control of his Party - a grim irony given that he worked pretty hard to make Bliar look as if he (Bliar) had no control when Brown was Chancellor and making life difficult by plotting against his leader. Tony must be laughing his socks off.

But all the while the nation gets more disillusioned and while Brown appears to be captaining a sinking ship and having no idea where to steer it, the beneficiary is chinless wonder Cameron and his clueless Tories..now 14% ahead in the polls. Rarely have I seen British politics at such a low ebb..and after Bliar and Iraq thats quite something. Brown needs to get Labour's act together ..and fast! He could do worse than use the £5000 donation as an excuse to sack Harman and get someone decent in the Deputy's job!!