Shameless Milne Starts Civil War
Jerry Hayes reckons Labour's economic policy is out of touch with reality.
12 Jan 2012, 09:30
Shameless Milne
Don’t be alarmed, those distant thuds you can hear are not the greetings of drug crazed gangs swaggering their authority in our streets. It is the sound of champagne corks popping in Downing Street. For yesterday, the Guardian’s Seamus Milne (known in Fleet Street as Shameless Milne) has fired the first shots of a bloody civil war within the Labour Party, urging Miliband to bludgeon to death Blairite Zombies who have sullied the purity of the Labour Party. And what treacherous bastards they are, having the bare faced cheek to win three general Elections and chuck money like confetti to the NHS and education. As most of that was frittered away by engorging the public sector earnings troughs and did not a jot to improve patient care nor educating our children, I’d have thought the left would have been rather pleased with themselves.
But if you really want to see what a parallel universe theses guys live in take a peek at Richard Murphy’s blog today and gaze in horror, delight or total incredulity, depending on which political planet you inhabit.
“Read the Guardian today on welfare reform and you’ll realise that the prescription of New Labour and the Tories is to cast millions of the least able to protect themselves and their children adrift and into deep poverty.
Read Richard Horton of the Lancet today and you’ll see why there is no private sector alternative that can work on these issues: it could only make things much, much worse.
Miliband, if he is to match the mood of the country, has to say no to these cuts. He has to do so for all who are Labour. He has to do more than that. He has to say no for everyone, even if they are misguided enough to believe in these cuts now.
And he has to say no because we can afford to look after our elderly.
We can pay benefits. We do not need to leave people starving, homeless, in despair, sick and disabled and without protection.
We’re a society that can afford to employ some of the 2.5 million without work in caring.
And we can redistribute to meet need.
But we have New Labour saying we can’t do that. We have them saying such redistribution to relieve need and poverty would be wrong and that we should support the private sector that already has all the resources it needs to create jobs that will enrich the 1% more than anyone who gets a job.
That’s not social democracy. That’s market orthodoxy. And Labour should be nowhere near it. And it needs to say so. Now. And it needs to say to those who do not agree that Labour’s not on their wavelength. Now.
PS I’ll explain the economics of why I’m right in the next day or so – I’m working on it.”
Well, I can’t wait to read the economics of that remarkable bundle of pious, well intentioned slurry. The sad thing about it all is that it is totally out of touch not just with reality, but the mood of the country. And Miliband knows it.
As a Tory I am delighted that Labour has a death wish to repeat the mistakes of the eighties and rip themselves apart over fantasy ideals that can never be met in times of prosperity, let alone when there is a recession. But as a democrat I am rather alarmed. Government’s need strong Oppositions to keep them accountable. The arrogance of both Thatcher and Blair riding roughshod over the wishes of their cowed backbenchers is a horror that should never be allowed to be repeated. Politicians never seem to learn. But there is a plus side. We may be seeing a gradual realignment in British politics of social democratic pragmatism versus the head banging purists of the right and the left. Now, that could be fun.
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Jerry Hayes
Jerry Hayes is a former Conservative MP and leading barrister defending and prosecuting high profile cases
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Comments (4)
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Good God, Jerry! Slurry? There was more slurry then in 100 farms. Oh, sorry. I forgot. Those Labour lot hate farms and well, they hate all businesses, don't they?
12/01/2012 22:58Milne is beyond parody. I used to quite enjoy the Guardian; it's now the last refuge of the politically insane.
13/01/2012 12:05That's News. Thought slurry was a bit more polite than than shit! And Nick, Guardian has lost its way, but the Mirror is seriously bonkers!
13/01/2012 18:30And of course, I was forgetting about Jim "Gentleman Farmer" Callaghan, the millionaire land owner.
16/01/2012 22:46