Unremittingly New Labour

Who's that knocking at the back door?

Tuesday 3rd May, 2005

Michael Howard's inability to answer the most basic questions on his immigration and asylum plans has shown the complete collapse in Tory credibility on policy.
But the Tories know their policies do not stand up to scrutiny which is why they don't want to talk about them. They are only interested in exploiting issues not dealing with them.
Instead, their strategy is to sneak Michael Howard into No.10 through the back door. And the stark truth is if 1 in 10 voters don't vote or vote for other parties on May 5th, they will wake up with Michael Howard on May 6th.

Alan Milburn, The Today Programme, quoted on the Labour Party Website.

Tuesday 17th May

The day after the election, the Prime Minister set out his priorities, the priorities that are meant to be reflected in the programme before us today: controlled immigration, school discipline, cleaner hospitals and police. Come to think of it, they sound rather familiar to me. In fact, it is almost a complete set. We had no idea that he was thinking what we are thinking.

Michael Howard in response to the Queen's speech, Hansard.

Wednesday 18th May
Another blow to the Tories as Blair steals their dog-whistle

This political cross-dressing must be extremely confusing for the electorate who thought they had given Tony Blair a bloody nose, and have ended up with Michael Howard in drag. The Labour left may think it is back in fashion, after the collapse of Labour's majority, but the prime minister clearly doesn't.

Iain MacWhirter writing in The Herald.

My ability to communicate is currently at a low ebb so I'm struggling as to how to respond. I'm torn between a full scale vitriolic rant, a sarcastic comment on the wisdom of listening, or a recomendation to keep your nose pegs handy for at least four more years. I'm also tempted to launch an appeal for asylum in a democratic country. Any genuine offers considered.

I don't want to harp on about how I'm feeling, I'm a bad enough hypochondriac in the real world, but I do feel like I'm not really able to communicate very well at the moment. I'm sure I'll be back to normal in no time at all. I might exhibit an even greater overreliance on smileys in the meantime. And I will do those alterations to the blogrolls today.