Feeling Blue :( + a rant from MJ

As the polls suggest we could be looking at a Tory Mayor of London and a Tory Government at the next General Election, the Guardian auditions candidates for the role of the Emperor Nero to watch over this conflagration.

Charles Clarke thinks we have to maintain the momentum of “reform” of our public services. The high priority that he gives to denouncing “oppositionism” (after eleven years in Government) demonstrates just how obsessed the Blairites are with the lessons they think they learned in the 1980s. Jon Trickett’s critique of New Labour is far more appealing to a trade unionist.

However, when Trickett says that; “It's time to break with New Labour timidity. No longer will the modernising left sit quiet, hoping for a more progressive face to emerge from New Labour's bunker”, you have to wonder if he ever sees that timidity when he looks in a mirror, or wonders whether the batteries in the timepiece upon which he is relying went years ago and he just hasn’t looked at it for a while.

There is no doubt that the trade unions have an interest in the political ascendancy of the Labour Party rather than the Conservative Party and of the left rather than the right within the Labour Party. We ducked the opportunity to try to use the change of Party leadership to change the direction of the Party and the Government in our favour. We shouldn’t abstain from a vigorous contest against the failing reactionary policies which attack our members and threaten a Tory Government.

But as trade unionists we are about more than party politics. We need to think ahead and work out how we will deal with the challenges that a Tory Government would confront us with. We might not like it but I don’t think we have a choice…

Update
I thought I’d have a rant and stick my tupance worth in :)
Marshajane

Yes Tricketts piece was soft but then what else do we expect from him really?

It shows a distinct lack of understanding of where we are today - Clarke is stuck in the past talking about opposition when we haven’t been in opposition for 11 years- the New Labour leadership have lost all touch with the grassroots of the party and don’t no what its policies are doing to people on the ground.

When the Tories take over and the careerists abandon ship the labour party will be an empty shell of a party it is now let alone the party it was 10 years ago - it will be unable to win back the trust of the members it has shit on over the last few years and have lost the confidence of the big business’s it has been so keen to woo.

Trickett and compassite type MPs still feel that they have to differentiate between the socialist left of the party (cos we are such a threat?)and call themselves the modernising left.

What they are doing is as bad as the trade union general secretary that say we don’t agree with what your doing but don’t want a Tory government they would be worse.

They are not doing anything concrete to stick up for the policies they believe in and are as solid as a plate of jelly - they are giving Brown soft cover to go ahead with his agenda and undermining the lefts ability to stop him.

There has been ample time in the last year to stick up for what they claim to believe in and Trickett, compass MPs and the big 4 trade union leadership have failed time and time again.

We should still of course try and work with compass and help them acquire some backbone - but I agree with Jon those of us in the trade unions need to start preparing for the worse because by not effectively challenging Brown et al they are helping new labour into opposition.