Heads, Sand and New Labour

Labour failed to win back Blaenau Gwent in yesterday's by-election. And in Bromley and Chislehurst they came forth. Behind UKIP.

I wonder...

What would Aneurin Bevan do
If he was here right now,
He'd make a plan
And he'd follow through,
That's what Aneurin Bevan'd do.

It's highly unlikely that he'd be happy to participate in an attempt to deploy damage limiting spin so that the hugely unpopular party leader could survive just a little bit longer. Unlike Hazel Blears.

It's much more likely that he'd be mostly interested in the long term implications of what's actually happening in the real world. The Labour Party's slow but entirely visible slide into another long period of unpopularity and unelectability might just be of greater concern to him than a futile attempt to prop up a failing, flailing leader whose moral authority is in tatters and whose only strategy is to try to keep right-wing authoritarian tabloid owners onside.

So, Labour Party types, the party leadership types are undoubtedly sounding like Lance Corporal Jones right about now. Well, they're right that panicking won't help. But they're wrong about pretty much everything else. I suspect you know this already.

Action needs to be taken. The party will not recover if Blair is allowed to continue as leader and an "orderly transition" will simply transfer Blair's unpopularity straight onto Brown. There needs to be, for want of a better word, a bloodletting.

Make a plan and follow it through.

And what would Aneurin Bevan do,
He'd call all the kids in town,
And tell them to unite for truth
That's what Aneurin Bevan would do.

Or, alternatively, start preparing for a long period of opposition.

Tags: News, Politics, Labour, Tony Blair