Disgruntled Labour

The two articles by the Labour MPs Jon Trickett and Charles Clarke in today’s Guardian are well-worth reading. Both are deeply pessimistic about the party’s prospects (perhaps indicative of the wider mood in the Labour camp), although they outline different ways to stem the rot. For Trickett, the Government needs to depart from the Blairism that it’s been espousing in recent weeks. Whereas, for Clarke, the Blairite agenda needs to be more boldly applied.

Here’s Trickett:

“In place of the New Labour promise of a modernised Britain, we saw an older Britain re-emerge: a class system where what your parents do counts for more than who you are; unrestrained markets; dominant private interests; fragmented communities; insecurity for many; unheard-of wealth for a few; 19th-century solutions for 21st-century problems. Britain’s richest 30,000 now earn £33bn per year and pay little or no tax, yet ministers say we should celebrate “huge riches”, while appearing to demonise council tenants and those on incapacity benefits.