Today's "
You Ask the Quesions" in the
Indy contains a rather intriguing answer from it's subject Philip Gould. When asked what would have happened if John Smith had not died when he did he said,
He would have won with a substantial majority and governed with conviction and competence. He would have been an outstanding prime minister, but the need to renew and modernise the Labour Party would have remained, as indeed it still does. (my emphasis)
The Blair/Brown feud continues by proxy then? Blair's personal pollster says the Labour Party has failed to modernise and in its current state still needs too. In other words, "Brown is stuck in the past"?
Today's "You Ask the Quesions" in the Indy contains a rather intriguing answer from it's subject Philip Gould. When asked what would have happened if John Smith had not died when he did he said, 
4 comments:
For interest , I was totally cheesed of with the Conservatives at that time and was going to vote Labour as John Smith was in charge ,I didnt vote Labour because every time I saw Blair on the telly ,giving his 5p's worth ,I just cringed ,when he took over ,forget it ,I ended up voting Green even tho I knew it was a lost vote.
Eh? I think you're clutching at straws here.
I'm not sure I can follow your reading of this comment Dizzy. Surely after 13 years of Blair Gould can only be saying that Blair hasn't renewed and modernised the party enough or in the right way. I tend to agree.
Blair has presided over the opposite. Whereas the signs with Brown are quite promising as far as they go so far - widening participation from MPs as a whole in policy formulation.
Feared attacks on the part of affiliates and CLP delegates, as conference is turned into even more of a set piece rally, may or may not get through, but even on that the question is what is proposed instead. Blair's Partnership in Power has been a bit of a ramp, manipulated by fixers.
We'll have to see. But Gould's remarks seem to reflect on Blair's failure to get this right.
Dear Dizzy
I think Gould's comments are a reflection on the Blair era. Gould is seeking to blame Brown for halting the ultra Blairites 'get rid of the unions' agenda, of which he (Gould) was a principal architect, and anticipating no change under Brown on that score.
Personally, I think the federal structure is fine. The problem is the Command Party run form No.10 On that score Brown is not doing as well as I hoped. He doesn't seem to have thought through the logic of debate about national constitutional reform and still dictating reform inside the Labour Party. The statement issued by the LabOUR Commission today here:
http://www.labourcommission.org.uk
is worth a read.
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