Each one can be expressed in two words:
1. IRAQ WAR.
2. FAT CATS.
3. 42 DAYS.
4. AIRPORT EXPANSION.
5. TRIDENT MISSILES.
6. CONSTITUTIONAL NON-REFORM.
7. DATABASE SOCIETY.
8. BUILDING ROADS.
When we were all pissed off with the Blair regime, it was put about that everything would be different once Gordon Brown took over.
As it turns out, this was a complete lie. Give or take the odd supercasino, all the same disastrous policies remain in force.
All the heart-searching and breast-beating now going on over Brown's hopelessness as leader rather misses the point, as far as I am concerned. Just changing the leader is not going to make Labour suddenly acceptable. There will have to be drastic changes of policy if I am ever to vote Labour again at national level.
3 comments:
Constitutional non-reform? They abolished the hereditary peers and created devolved legislatures in Scotland, Wales and NI. Nor have they built many roads...
1, 3-5 and 7 I'll grant you, with 2 being meaningless bollocks.
Now, what are the chances the Tories would do any better on any of the above? What are the chances they'd do worse?
The constitutional reforms have been timid and half-baked. Lords reform remains incomplete. Nothing has been done about the electoral system despite promises.
Govt is pushing ahead with a massive roadbuilding programme, in complete contradiction to its supposed environmental objectives. See Campaign for Better Transport.
It is not "meaningless bollocks" to assert that New Labour has always cossetted the mega-rich. This is what I meant by "fat cats".
To answer your question about the Tories: No, I don't suppose they would be any better on these issues, and would certainly be worse on some others. Even so, it is remarkable that they are now sounding significantly more green than Labour on things like airport expansion.
Hmm. Most of those are widenings, not new roads; also, bypasses are a Good Thing (if you've got a road that's otherwise motorway-ish but runs through a town, like the A3 at Hindhead, it's hell for the people of the town - short of demolishing the rest of the road, the bypass wins). And the Thamesmead bridge was designed primarily for public transport, which is why Boris hates it and has axed it...
Not quite sure who "the mega-rich" are or what cosseting them involves - are we talking Abramoviches here, or just City types? Does charging 41% income tax but not putting them against the wall count as cosseting?
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