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So now we see Gordon Brown’s vision of the future, this man who would supposedly bring the governmental policies back a little toward the left. Brown’s dream is to create a nation of “home-owning, share-owning, asset-owning, wealth-owning democracy,” all £££, Brown is clearly as New Labour as his predecessor as if he thinks that the key to a successful country is one where everything continues to be based on what you have rather than what you are then he is a true capitalist.

Frankly I would have hoped for a better vision of a world than that. One where we have what we need but that is merely incidental to having established a fair society. To judge oneself on what we have is a world wherein lies the road to madness. It perpetuates the gap between rich and poor and, contrary to what certain sources would have you believe, this is not in inexorable path.

It is a hell of a break from the traditional Labour vision of old, one where the watchword was equality for all. This departure from such noble objectives make a mockery of any hypothesis that Gordon Brown is in any way going to depart from the New Labour direction. Since Brown is likely to go into the hotseat unopposed he will be the first non-elected Prime Minister this milennium, John Major being the last to have held such an ignominious honour after he succeeded that caustic bitch and before his election victory in 1992, (which was more down to Labour losing the election than the Tories winning it.)

I suspect those who think Brown may be the saviour of the more traditional Labour party will be as disappointed as they must have been when the Cassandra theory was proven untrue in 1997. For those unfamiliar with the theory it was reported before the election in 1997 in Tribune, a paper dominated by the more old Labour style, that although the New Labour viewpoint being projected by the then opposition under Tony Blair was an anathema to most grass roots Labour supporters, this was a smokescreen, a way simply to get back into power and when that objective was achieved the real work of an intrinsically old Labour government would begin.

Much as that theory would have been nice to believe, most of us non-Labour affiliated on the Left did not give it a great deal of credence. It seemed like a last tree standing in the midst of the gales that those who didn’t want to leave the Labour party were clinging to for dear life. The great pity is that had the Labour party remained genuinely true to its roots and campaigned on a proper Socialist manifesto they would still have been a shoo-in in 1997 and who knows what might then have been the situation by 2001, certainly there would have been no support for the US war on Afghanistan or Iraq and that alone would make the country a profoundly different place to be.

It makes no difference to speculate on it now, for the day after Gordon Brown outlined in his speech that he would continue the Blair legacy, Blair made it quite clear he would not be going anywhere for a while – I don’t know which was the more tragic revelation.

Song Of The Day ~ China Crisis – Wishful Thinking

Original Comments:


Anonymous35 made this comment,
This is really a great blog. Keep up the good work. I envy how you have managed to get so many people to come and read. You have inspired me to get back to my political philosophical roots and write much more about capitalism, globalization and the social condition. More of us should be writing about these deseretely important subjects, especially in my fascist country, the United States.
-Redbaron responds – Good to have you aboard Christopher, if you write they will come, to paraphrase a film I remember.

I started out with some politics and some diary stuff and over time it became almost all political, you lose some of your readers that way but the ones that stay repay in kind with comments and critiques.

If I’ve in any way inspired you to write and read and criticise then truly I can have no better epitaph. –

comment added :: 28th September 2005, 16:03 GMT+01 :: http://www.madoptimist.blog-city.com
Cancergiggles made this comment,
It’s a damn close call. Blair is such a consumate politician that I some times forget that as a consequence I should ignore everything I am told by him. I actually find myself listening to what he says and judging him based on that. Am I a Dumbo?
More worrying however, is the prospect of the equally duplicitous and bible thumping Jock being able to interfere with more than my wallet. He’s already mucked that up, but give him Law and Order and god forbid, the international stage to play with and we’re all off to hell in a hand basket.

Let’s just hope Tony Benn gets better soon – it’s our best bet!

Cass

comment added :: 29th September 2005, 19:38 GMT+01 :: http://www.cancergiggles.blog-city.com/
moog made this comment,
where is that wall? its great! i loved having that good old protest the other day! it was a lovey meander through london! haz said he really enjoyed it too, which is a boon.its always nice to see labour turfing out grumpy old men, it remeind me of why i didnt vote them in last time.
-Redbaron responds – That is your actual Berlin Wall that is. How I got some retrogressive graffitti on it is another story!-

comment added :: 30th September 2005, 16:00 GMT+01