The Labour party’s ability to take any opportunity to contemplate its navel (or build sandcastles) never ceases to amaze me. What we need is a leader. Not at the party conference, but now. Imagine, parliament will return in September and we still won’t have a leader. Under normal circumstance a Labour leadership contest would last approximately six to eight weeks or about twice the length of a general election campaign. If a potential leader of the Labour party can’t get his or her point over in that period of time I hate to think how they would cope in a general election.
Yes I agree with OMOV. I was there at its inception. No-one is saying the Labour movement shouldn’t be involved in the decision. But please, should it take four months to reach that decision? I don’t think so. Harriet Harman is doing a sterling job. But the best she can do is tread water. She cannot lay out a strategy taking us to the next election because her tenure as leader ends on September 25th.
Leadership is required. Direction is looked for. Some say Labour is not being listened to. That is because we are not saying anything loud enough to be heard.
And what is the government doing? Their landing craft are on the beach, their ramps flattening the sandcastles. They march towards us strong in the belief of a big society when all they offer is a little Britain. They sharpen their knives on the anvil of cuts and blame Labour for the sharpness of the blade. The knife is their weapon of choice and we must make sure it is not used to slash away our public services and prevent any chance of economic growth.
The economy and our public services have improved over the last thirteen years. We defend that. We are out of recession and into growth. We have come out of the worst global recession in living memory with fewer people out of work. With fewer repossessions, fewer bankruptcies and lower interests rates, which is a record to defend, not walk away from. Labour did better in the worst recession since the war than the Tories ever did in the recessions of the 1980s and 1990s. If you lived through those years, you’ll know what a recession was really like. Times are hard, and they are going to get worse because the Tories are back again, aided and abetted by their Liberal Democrat cousins.
I can remember a time when Labour in opposition meant cutting ourselves to pieces without realising what we believed in was being cut to pieces. We’ve matured. But how much is the question. We’ll get a leader by the autumn. Five months after the election (can you believe it). And then the real fightback begins.
So, we have no time for rest. No time for sandcastles. No time for navels. Whoever leads us should never forget: the government we face was never elected. I can not remember a candidate on the ballot paper who stood for the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. There was Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and whoever else. But we have a government which is gaining credibility because they have no opposition. We have at the moment government by mood music. David Cameron is the Mantovani of politics and Nick Clegg his lead violinist. And being defeated by an orchestra of string instruments stepping of landing craft trampling over sand castles is not a pretty sight. But that is the surreal world we are living in at the moment. Please can we have a leader?