One of the problems that faces any member of a political party that is in government is to juggle loyalty to one's party, with concern for what goes on in this country, with occasional angst in disagreeing with some of the directions that are being taken whilst feeling that one has to be careful in what one says, because, deep down you feel that this government does a lot of good things that you don't want to be disloyal and publicly criticize them for the bad decisions they make.
There do come moments though when to defend or remain silent on several points would be wrong and does not add to one's self respect. In the past decade Labour have done great things with New Deal, Peace in Northern Ireland, banning Fox Hunting, improving Education and yet we have made some almighty mistakes. Iraq was one, being too scared to tackle some aspects of Thatcherism was another which means that we get the blame now the fallout is happening, and sadly I have to say that we deserve that in part.
Labour's main problem whilst being in office is that we have been too timid, too believing that the entire electorate are unquestioning Daily Mail and Sun readers. We were too scared of the consequences of dealing with unfettered privatisation, too scared of the Americans, too sacred of the Mail/Express reading Middle England to the point where we treated our core support from middle class Hampstead voters and working class voters with contempt. We did so much damage to give justice in this blogpost
And yet there is hope. If we are honest with the electorate, if we say sorry, trumpet our ideas, attack the Tories' on their lack of radical imagination and their idolatry of Thatcherism without resorting to inverted snobbery. If we went out and about more in listening to more ordinary people in the UK and stand fast and gently explain when we disagree, if we looked more to how why Obama won in the US instead of just admiring the outside aspects of the campaign, we may stand a chance and if we lose, then we lose with dignity.
To those readers who feel let down badly by Labour I say sorry. I ask fellow activists to do the same.
1 comment:
It's admirable that you are apologising but I don't hear Mr Blair or Mr Brown or indeed anyone in government apologising.
I'm not so sure that you can claim credit for all of those positives that you mention and no matter how many apologies are given the British public are not going to forget the Iraq war and the disastrous way that the recession has been handled in a hurry.
Whether the Tories and Lib Dems have anything more to offer is another question but all confidence has been lost in the Labour party.
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