Eddie Barnes - TB GBs lives on
Essential reading for all political junkies is an article in this morning's Times by Tony Blair's former speechwriter Phil Collins (of SW1, not Genesis). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5754901.ece
The piece dissects the Brown leadership style from someone who has seen it on the inside. Collins' central point is that the PM's obsession with political positioning - with finding clear water between him and the hated Conservatives - has ensured that Labour has vacated the centre-ground to David Cameron. "Labour defined itself against what the Tories said. So it is that Labour now finds itself just to the left of sensible on everything," Collins declares. Blairite education reforms from the dog days of TB's empire were dumped to satisfy a few backbenchers and merrily nicked by the Conservatives, he points out. Now, the government has got "bogged down in guidelines for rhubarb crumble recipes and instructions for playgrounds to be painted". The "crumbling empire" of the Home Office has "no policy to speak of" because "the government thinks of crime as a political event....the strategy is clear; close down the topic, stop talking about it, somehow it will go away." It's damning stuff, personal stuff: "He (Brown) doesn't like equality because it's a good idea. He doesn't like it because it's right. He likes it because it's political useful." Ouch.
Damning stuff, and Collins doesn't even sugar the pill with a closing "of-course-he-could-still-turn-it-around" paragraph. The message is that, under Brown, all is lost. I guess the piece might well be written off as a predictable attack from an uber-Blairite (who now is a full-time writer for the Times), but the fact that such a senior former member of Team Blair has chosen to speak out like this is fascinating for tea-leaf readers like me. The constant feuding between Brown and Blair were known as the "TB-GBs" - as of this morning, it appears the feud lives on.
The piece dissects the Brown leadership style from someone who has seen it on the inside. Collins' central point is that the PM's obsession with political positioning - with finding clear water between him and the hated Conservatives - has ensured that Labour has vacated the centre-ground to David Cameron. "Labour defined itself against what the Tories said. So it is that Labour now finds itself just to the left of sensible on everything," Collins declares. Blairite education reforms from the dog days of TB's empire were dumped to satisfy a few backbenchers and merrily nicked by the Conservatives, he points out. Now, the government has got "bogged down in guidelines for rhubarb crumble recipes and instructions for playgrounds to be painted". The "crumbling empire" of the Home Office has "no policy to speak of" because "the government thinks of crime as a political event....the strategy is clear; close down the topic, stop talking about it, somehow it will go away." It's damning stuff, personal stuff: "He (Brown) doesn't like equality because it's a good idea. He doesn't like it because it's right. He likes it because it's political useful." Ouch.
Damning stuff, and Collins doesn't even sugar the pill with a closing "of-course-he-could-still-turn-it-around" paragraph. The message is that, under Brown, all is lost. I guess the piece might well be written off as a predictable attack from an uber-Blairite (who now is a full-time writer for the Times), but the fact that such a senior former member of Team Blair has chosen to speak out like this is fascinating for tea-leaf readers like me. The constant feuding between Brown and Blair were known as the "TB-GBs" - as of this morning, it appears the feud lives on.
Labels: Eddie Barnes, Gordon Brown, Phil Collins
posted by Administrator at
10:10
1 Comments:
Seems a bit rich for PC to accuse GB of being preoccupied with "poltical positioning" given that he's a Blairite - Clause IV and all that - and he also says that the Tories have done precisely the same for electoral advantage.
Also seems a bit unfair to say that GB thinks the concept of equality only matters insofar as it's a dividing line from the Tories, since viewing it as a principle while at the same time as politcally advantageous is hardly mutually exclusive.
GB has always been regarded as being ideologically left of TB, thus it seems a bit more than political positioning that has taken Labour to the left of the Tories.
But if PC is saying that GB's positioning will cost him electorally then he's probably correct, but that sort of undermines the *political* aspect of the positioning argument as well.
Interesting that PC's article is juxtaposted with a guest column from GB himself - PC may be a Times leader writer but he doesn't normally author by-lined columns. Perhaps a bit of a trap set for GB?
Maybe it's a mere coincidence, but I suspect GB will be feeling a bit peeved, particularly since PC's column is on the first op-ed page, while you have to turn the page to get to GB's on the third!
Post a Comment
<< Home