the wilted rose

Labour Home has (perhaps unwisely) conducted a poll of the Labour grassroots, asking them to rank Cabinet Ministers.  Who comes at the bottom but Darling (3.35) and Brown (3.37 ).  The hapless Chancellor keeps the Prime Minister (by 0.02 percentage points) from the ultimate humiliation. 

Ed Balls does slightly better (3.82) with Miliband (5.48 ) and Johnson (5.45) ranked considerably higher.  This suggests that Miliband or Johnson will succeed Brown, but not Balls.  Harriet Harman and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith are ranked somewhere in the middle.  The table below says it all:

If this is the opinion of the Labour Grassroots, then that of the voters will not be much better. 

As this blogger cheers on the (political) Blues in the Crewe & Nantwich by-election, he is off now to cheer on Rangers in the UEFA Cup Final … here’s hoping.

Caroline Flint gave the game away by flashing her notes with 5-10% house price falls being the “best scenario”.

And now we learn that inflation can only get worse (so much for things can only get better).

Despite Darling’s attempted £120 bribe yesterday, it’s time for the people of Crewe & Nantwich to send Labour a clear message by voting Conservative next Thursday.

I was sitting marking some university coursework on the terrace of Starbucks on Botanic Avenue, Belfast today in the blazing sun, thinking for a moment that all is well with the world.  Then reality returned and I remembered that Labour is still in power, and floundering, and misgoverning the UK.  Its current policies on taxation affects everyone, even those of us ruled partly by a Devolved Administration…

So Alistair ‘he’s no’ Darling has backpedalled.  Brown’s latest u-turn still leaves 1.1m people worse off.

Labour just can’t admit its policy of abolishing the 10p tax band is plain wrong.  So, rather than reinstating the band, he tinkers with thresholds and still leaves over a million people, many of whom no doubt live in Crewe & Nantwich, worse off.  They’re unlikely to be voting Labour next Thursday.

What is the source of Labour’s ills?  My fellow Belfast blogger (although of a different political persuasion) Johnny Guitar sums it up pretty succinctly:

As Polly Toynbee commented in the Guardian on Monday, it was about “basic political competence” rather than abstract ideological concerns. For me though there is a strong connection between the lack of ideology in the New Labour project and the political incompetence which we have been witnessing in recent months.

Precisely what policies are required to turn around Labour’s fortunes I’ll leave for another post, though a quick u-turn from Mr Darling on a certain issue may be a good way to kick start things.

Back in 1995 Clause IV of the Labour constitution was amended to present the organisation as a “democratic socialist party” whose goal was to place “power, wealth and opportunity in the hands of the many, not the few.” Barely a decade on and Gordon Brown’s current government is finding it impossible to live up to even the superficial sentiments expressed in that diluted statement of intent. Tony Blair once remarked that power without principle is barren but that principle without power is futile. Unless things change radically in the short term Labour will be a party with neither power nor principle.

In fact, people in Crewe have made it clear that they see through this latest Labour scam.  People who once owed their allegiance to the Labour Party have been betrayed and many are going to vote for the Party that stands up for them, the Conservatives and its candidate, Edward Timpson.

Post election: what should Labour do now?

I was astounded to find the above survey on Labour Home, not by the results (which are not surprising if it is a councillor who has recently lost his/her seat, a disillusioned activist or a Labourite pounding the streets of Crewe), but by the fact they actually put the survey on their website.

It seems that respondents can answer multiple questions, e.g. 49% (66 people) voted to sack Gordon and 33% (45) to keep him.  There is also clear opposition in this survey to 42 day detention and a wish to have a new Labour HQ Team, as well as a split between a ‘new left-centred radicalism’ and ‘new thinking’ in policy and little appetite for ‘unremittingly new Labour’.  Who would blame them?

A man of honour and with a lifetime of political experience, Frank Field, has been attacked by a minnow, Ed Balls who was only elected in 2005 (they used to attack Mrs Dunwoody too (off the record), remember, for she did not kowtow to the ‘leadership’, spoke her mind and stood up for her constituents).  Nick Robinson describes how Balls has ‘taken up the gauntlet’, as Balls accuses Mr Field of “settling old scores”, and impugning his fellow Labour MP’s integrity.  Such unparliamentary language is often used outside the Chamber, often in off-microphone briefings, but rarely between members of the same political party.

The fact that ‘So What?’ Balls has the gall to attack Mr Field, who was a superb Welfare Secretary until stuck-in-the-past Brown forced him out because the proposed reforms were too radical.  Hundreds of thousands would probably not be stuck in welfare if New Labour had acted on Mr Field’s agenda, and the Government would be credited with a remarkable achievement.  As it is, the Brown/Balls Axis can take credit for the 10p tax band abolition and the mess the current economy is in.

Balls also criticises Darling’s pre-budget report, but the hapless Chancellor is a victim of his predecessor’s dodgy policies.  In addition, Balls concedes that the Crewe & Nantwich by-election is lost … and then backpedals (slapped down no doubt by his boss) … What a comedy act.  The Brown/Balls Axis could be this century’s Laurel & Hardy, if governing this country were not so serious.

This weekend has seen unprecedented attacks on a sitting Prime Minister.  Well, unprecedented since that backstabber Heseltine - what was he doing on Question Time anyway? - and his Europhile buddies launched a Brutus-like attack akin that on Julius Caesar.  Brutus didn’t obtain the caesarship but Octavian - Caesar Augustus.  (You can tell I’ve been reading Boris’s brilliant The Dream of Rome on the bus).

In the case of the ousting of Margaret Thatcher, it was all about ambition and moving Britain in a closer direction with Europe.  Thankfully, both objectives backfired and we do not have the euro or a never had Heseltine premiership. 

Alas, we had Major and thus Blair.  Worse still, the wilderness years for Conservatives led to Brown - and he is the biggest threat to the country, the economy, and society (social breakdown just gets worse; e.g. the latest senseless murder in London, this time committed with a glass tray from a bakery rather than a knife or gun).

There is no such ambition or other ulterior motive for Labour, just political survival, because Brown (or the gutter tabloid press) has eliminated any competition.  Just imagine how different the country (and the Labour Party) would be under a Byers prime ministership - the North Tyneside MP would have been a far more competent and respected leader.  But Brown had to have the crown, and one dreads who his successor might be: Milipede, Balls, goodness knows?

Cherie Blair, John Prescott and Lord Levy have all attacked Brown in their memoirs but they have little credibility left.  Frank Field is one of few Labour MPs left who has the guts to speak out - and good on him - saying what point is there being a Labour MP any more? For the good of the country, Brown must be ousted.

One Labour MP who would have been appalled by the current Labour shambles is alas no longer alive to see this mess.  The Government even tried to stop her re-election as Chair of the Transport Committee, but Labour MPs sensibly rebelled. 

It is time that they rebelled again and vote down the Budget and replace the Prime Minister with someone who actually commands some respect and support from Labour voters (55% of who wish to see him gone and think Cameron would be a better PM).  It is ironic and tragic that the site of the next electoral battle which may seal Brown’s fate is the late Mrs Dunwoody’s former constituency of Crewe & Nantwich.

There is really only one way for the people of Crewe & Nantwich vote to reject Brownian Labour, particularly since even an activist on Labour Home (as reported by Conservative Home) is disgusted by the class warfare and racial campaigning of the Labour Party, which is compared to fascist and similar to the BNP.

The way to vote is to vote Conservative, for Edward Timpson, and perhaps to rid the country of the Brownite scourge once and for all. 

Posted by Mountjoy

This blogger has been consistently critical of Wendy, whose leadership challenge is like an Ealing Comedy. 

Wendy’s announcement that she and her Scottish Parliamentary colleagues will support a referendum on Scotland’s independence, and campaign against, is hilarious - given that it has made Brown look like an even bigger fool than he has been since he became Labour Leader.

Maybe it’s because, with Brown’s powerbase collapsing, Wendy is the true leader of Labour in one of its only remaining heartlands.  But even then, when is a heartland not a heartland?

Answer - when Labour is 14 points behind the leading major party in that area.  With the Tories slowly climbing to 21% in Scotland in the latest YouGov poll for the Sun, just behind Labour on 26%, the SNP is on around 40% in Scotland.

That means the SNP has a 14 point lead in Scotland, as Wendy desperately scrambles to make an impact and Gordon denies that she said what she said, as his leadership and credibility ebbs away. 

It’s a good thing for Gordon and Wendy that the Scottish Parliamentary elections were not last week, otherwise it would have been an even more crushing defeat for Labour.

Come 2010, we can only await scores of SNP Gains from Labour and at least 10 Conservative Gains.  Good old Scots, have come back to their senses and will be rejecting Labour at long last!

Electoral Calculus’ Scotland pages shows the following seat changes with SNP 40%, Lab 26%, Con 21%, LD 10%.  What with Sunderland Central as a Con Gain (now that Chris Mullin is stepping down), Morley & Outwood under threat and many Scottish seats up for grabs for the SNP, what an election night it will be…