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Written by Austin Mitchell
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13 November 2003 |
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New Labour is dome prone: grandiose projects costing billions to do bugger all. Now the Olympic bid (Winter Olympics in Grimsby) and the Blair-Blunket I.D Card folly. A botched compromise with no clear purposes because the Government hasn’t got its head straight. It’s on a “voluntary” basis ahead of the technology with an enormous national data base but not universal until 2013, and maybe not compulsory. So it’s useless. Folly on a Mandelsonian scale. Our spectacular record of government computer cock ups doesn’t need adding to.
Waiting for Gordo continues. Has he the guts? Has he the alternative? Blair is unrepentant and clearly thinks the nation, if not Hutton, will acquit him, Magna cum Laude.
Gordon must differentiate himself and emphasise redistribution, growth, and a dollop of socialism to offer an alternative. He can’t replace Tony by offering the same menu with added menace. We need a new direction of travel. If Gordon won’t offer it he’s blown it.
Blair v Howard: Round one. No winner. 55 million losers. An endless trade of phoney statistics. What a prospect! Two years of barrister pie fights. |
