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Because it's so nervous about any association with "socialism", for the last 20 years Labour has learned its lessons form the US rather than Social Democratic parties in Scandinavia or Europe.
As a result so many of our policies come form the US: tax credits and Sure Start, and less happily triangulation and rainbow coalitions.
So it's good to find that after picking up little that was new in 2006 and 2007 it's exciting to be here in 2008 to find the US bubbling with new ideas, good books and hopes for change. At home New Labour has run out of steam, but at least the aprty can refresh itself from the USA. That's if it's not too nervous to take up ideas for tougher regulation, better control of debt to stop the Financialisation of everything, greater public spending on the infrastructure, higher taxes to reduce debt. There's a widening realisation that tough times lie ahead which we daren't even think about.
And for me a huge postal bill to ship all my new books home.
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Miliband One to Georgia. Do we cheer or laugh? Georgia got into this mess beacuse Bush was daft enough to encourage them to tweak the bum of the bear.
Britain's best course is to discourage these delusions but we're also America's cheerleader in an EU which is suspicious of barmy busheries.
So here's the test. Give them hopes of coming into NATO (or even the European Union - why not David?) and dealign with BUsh. Insist that they stop stirring it and we can align with the EU. It's an interesting test of just how schizophrenic Miliband can get. |
