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The solution to the Blair Brown rivalry and the problem of when Tony hands over the chalice he`s poisoned is blindingly simple. Even ESN Whips should see it.
Once he`s lost the referendum on the European Constitution, Tony should become Foreign Secretary. That sets Jack Straw free to be Chancellor and allows Gordon to step into the Premiership. It also stops Tony messing about with public service reform to allow him to concentrate on what he`s good at: preaching and getting passionate about vast visions of a better world. Gordon will then not only be running the country but the economy too. Jack is so good at following instructions from on high.
Tony`s very unexciting reshuffle is the direct result of his rivalry with Gordon. Each is so busy clinging to their friends that they keep unsuitable people in the wrong jobs and exclude the new talent they need to shake up a government in danger of becoming boring.
An election brings MPs right back into touch with the people, their problems and instincts. Tony has claimed that “I,We, the Government”, have been listening to the people. He hasn`t because they were quite deliberately kept away from him. But we rank and filers have had a learning experience that`s often painful but always eye opening. It`s about time that that experience was brought into a government which has been steadily losing touch.
Defeat was the best thing that could happen to the Tories. It drives home the fact that their pathetic programme of picking scabs off running sores doesn`t constitute a policy and puts people off.
More importantly, it gives the party four years to reform themselves in the way we did. They need an alternative set of policies for a society to which they`re becoming irrelevant. People don`t want paternalism but involvement, and for all, not just the pushy middle classes. They don`t look up to public school twits any longer. Imperialism is dead and they want a more equal society, not one characterised by class and privilege. So what`s left of the old Tory party and what can a new one be about? Certainly not freedom for the few to trample on the many. The British are programmed to fairness.
The general tone of economic commentary since the election has been that now the economic problems really begin. House prices have ceased to rise. Consumer demand is plummeting. Investment is down, as is manufacturing output, while the trade deficit gapes and exports suffer. All this will lead, the pundits now claim, to higher taxes and more borrowing.
I don`t think so. Gordon has been right in the past more than the critics. The lower rate of growth at 2.5 is still respectable. The real problem is whether the Bank of England will see sense. Instead of putting up interest rates which are currently double those of our competitors, it needs to bring them down. If they do that debt burdens are easier, consumption will increase, and the pound will come down with the dollar, thus improving the prospects for exports. Our life in their hands. |
