Well, I am waiting for the ballot papers for the Labour Leadership to land on my doormat. And in a Simon Cowell-esque “pick me” moment Tony Blair is apparently expected to pass comment on the contest, contenders all waiting with bated breath to hear which one of them the warmongering neoliberal will choose. I think Diane Abbott will be safe in the knowledge that she won’t be picked neither will, apparently, be Ed Miliband. But then Blair passing comment will be more of a possible “kiss of death” moment for his chosen successor. One hopes. Unfortunately, Mandelson has decided to wade in with his own tuppence halfpenny about this contest with his defending the indefensible the Frankenstein NL hideous monster that he created and unleashed on the rest of us. And of course this is the man who is pretty comfortable when it comes to wealth.
And as the final days approaching fast regarding this uninspiring politically tedious and mundane contest. The Miliband brothers have been saying things. David M. provided something of a defence of the NL governments. Mr Ed has sounded more critical but nothing of substance in terms of an alternative vision of politics has been forthcoming.
The NL project may have made sense in its own terms up to 2007. A property boom on steroids allowed NL to spend the public’s money on PFi, outsourcing and consultancy firms, prison building and illegal wars. Now it will not. If you follow either of the Milibands this is what you hope for: capitalism unreformed, a fresh property boom, an establishment that will allow increased spending in return for lots of public spending going into private pockets through privatisation of one kind or another, some of the remainder indeed going to make the poor a little less poor for a while.
Even if NL kicks the ConDems out of office in 2015 either Miliband offers a recipe for the Con part of the ConDems getting back in at the 2020 election. Sooner or later the boom will turn to bust and the capitalist beast will need to be a plague of locusts yet again. This is the reality of the “realism” followers of either Miliband will preach to the Left.
Why do you pay subs to the Labour Party? There is a difference between the Milibands imo.
Good stuff. I especially like the last 2 paragraphs, including comment on the unfeasibility of NL even on its own terms. And no illusions in Mr Ed – quite right.
Cheers Alex.