Uber-Blairism, to my mind, is not so much a serious political philosophy, as belief in a sort of political parallel universe in which Tony Blair still retains the support of the overwhelming majority of the public, Gordon Brown and his cohorts are a group of unpersons quietly fulminating on the backbenches, and the Labour Party, far from being a "moral crusade," is no more than a vehicle for the permanent retention of power at whatever cost.
This is the gist of what I wrote in the comments in the LibCon post:
Uber-Blairism is defined by the following core values:
1. That the Labour Party's position on any given issue should be defined in opposition to whatever views its traditional supporters hold on it.
2. That there should be no ideological constraints on the party drifting as far to the right as necessary in order to outflank the Tories.
3. That Gordon Brown is a useless twat who should never have been allowed to become Prime Minister and should now be got rid of at the earliest possible opportunity.
I could, perhaps, have added a 4th, namely: That the only viable British foreign policy is to disappear up the arse of the White House and stay there (a senior Blairite official actually said this once.) Can anyone think of any more?
2 comments:
Frankly, Paul, it doesn't matter anymore what uber-blairism may or may not be.
Having had the lowdown today from a senior civil servant about the way in which the housing 'rescue' package was put together (i.e., along with the energy package, it is still being shambolically lashed together after the fact), it is quite clear that cynical, politically-driven shamateurism is not an exclusively uber blairite characteristic.
Of course, #3 is scarcely restricted to "uber-Blairites"...
Post a Comment