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Written by Austin Mitchell
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12 March 2007 |
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The 20-20 Vision website looks more and more like Blair by any other means.
The old gang! Milburn, Byers, Charles, Mandy. The old crap: public service reform, new thinking period, a dollop of Europe. They should put up or shut up. But better still forget it. Blairism was a stage
The main strands of Blairism are low tax: now producing such strain on the NHS, Defence, Transport and Housing that we need to increase tax. Love the rich. We do but they don`t pay enough tax. Don`t interfere with business. So they`ve cut their social obligations to pensions, safety and training, and transferred profits to tax havens. Defeat inflation: so the overvalued pound has crippled manufacturing.
No future in all that except a two year run down to a hung parliament. Gordon has to be a new man with new ideas, listening to the Party, leading it in the direction it wants to go, not a more taciturn Blair.
It looks as though the Cash for Honours scandal will end up as a prosecution for frustrating the cause of justice, and Tony will dump Lord Levy as he`s dumped others when the going gets rough. Worst of all words. Levy has been a dedicated servant of Tony and the Party. Making him the fall guy is grossly unfair.
Everyone knows cash buys class, so the people assume it was done even if there are no prosecutions.
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Wednesday 14 March The Great Trident Renewal. I`m for strong Defence. So I`ll vote against it. In today`s world we need strong conventional forces, especially the Army and Navy. They`re already overstretched, underfunded and deprived of proper rifles and armoured vehicles, so why drain the Defence budget of £20 billion to update a weapon we`ll never use?
The pleading of the Whips has taken on a resigned tone. They know the Party is in a mood to humiliate Tony and they`ll have to rely on Tory votes to carry Trident.
The important question is why do it now? No need. No bonus for early orders. Why split the Party? |
