What is the point of New Labour now?

Gordon Brown has given a conference speech that went down well with the apparatchiks, not so well with the old school rank-and-file and it gave The Sun its final nail in the coffin. They just need to find a good hammer to drive them home!

Last night Newsnight showed Jeremy Paxman wandering around the conference enquiring about the purpose of New Labour. He found a votes office with nothing much to do, a number of expensive show stands conveniently paid for by willing councils and compliant unions and he sensed a rally format without much verve or nerve to rouse the crowds. Tony Blair was a man who could fill a hall on platitudes and revised beatitudes. No need for a moral compass, he had God on his side (or possibly at his side!). He had New Labour certainty which basically translated as Tony Blair certainty. Blair could easily have been the leader of the Conservative Party or the Liberal Democrats. If it had served his purpose for power, he might easily have fitted into UKIP, the SNP, or the Green Party. Blair could mould a message to suit the circumstances. But he's gone. We've got Gordon Brown now, floundering around like a beached whale. What is his purpose?

New Labour was a fiction. It still is. It doesn't stand for anything. It doesn't create policy. It hates votes, hence the sheer boredom of being in the votes office! However, it loves control, it loves manipulation, it loves messing about with things. New Labour strikes me like its a child that cannot stop fidgeting. The old adage was "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!". New Labour turns this around. They fix things or people in such a way that they end up bust, broken or bewildered.

If I were a socialist I'd be wondering what on earth the Labour Party had to offer me. As a democrat, I find their aversion to free votes baffling. If I were a trade unionist I'd be thinking about how far I could stretch loyalty and credulity. As a voter I was never conned. I knew what they were about in 1997, but have no idea now.

It seems to me that the country, as The Sun thinks, has just lost favour with the New Labour magic. The Blair pixie lost his sparkle and the Brown straw man couldn't find it. However, the Tories and Liberal Democrats are not seen as easy replacements. They will have earn their votes.

It's just that, as we approach the general election, the question as to what the point of New Labour is still remains unanswered. My guess is that many will drift away. Radicals will see the Liberal Democrats or Greens as an alternative. Those who only had cupboard love for the Blair experiment will bounce back to the Tories and other minor parties will get the intellectual socialist support.

So I've probably answered my own question. There is no point to New Labour!

Posted in: Gordon Brown,Labour Party,New Labour