Well first off, instead of talking about shifts in any direction, why don't we talk about a return to some good socialist principles of fair distribution of wealth instead of trying to ape Tory policies in a vaguely anaemic way. Let's not be ashamed to talk about public services paid for by the taxpayer in accordance with his abilities. Let's have an education system and a social services regime we can be proud of. Let's back off these hideous defence commitments designed to make Britain look like a first division military power when it is clearly all kippers and curtains. Surely these are not reasons to defect or pin labels. The Labour Party should be going back to basics. It's what has sustained it for over 100 years. The New Labour bubble was clearly built on straw and has failed as it was bound to do as there was no belief to prop it up, simply the desire to keep winning elections.
And what if these milksops do defect? Do they think the Liberal Democrats are the answer? Oh sure their hearts are generally in the right place and they sometimes support good causes but the Party is really a hotchpotch of the disenchanted. It has no real creed. Do these people not remember the SDP? How that was going to be the saviour of Labour's middle-of-the-roaders and how the 'old' Labour Party would disappear? Never happened did it - OK it went through changes but it remained intact - and the same will happen again.
My advice to the currently disenchanted is to stay put and take part in a conscientious debate about where the heart and soul of the Labour Party really ought to be. Then you might make a sensible decision. Let's not talk about shifts to left or right, let's instead talk about the Labour Party discovering its true self once again. It can't come soon enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment