Insanity has always been integral to New Labour

Martin Bright says that the party labels its enemies as ‘mad’ for Freudian reasons: ‘projecting’ its own collective and individual mental disorders upon foes and rebels alike

What is it with New Labour and accusations of psychological weakness? No sooner had Hazel Blears announced her resignation from the Cabinet but dark murmurings bubbled up from Downing Street that the Salford MP ‘couldn’t handle it’. She had clearly cracked under the pressure following revelations about her expenses, it was suggested. Peter Mandelson appeared to be supportive when he told Sky News that Hazel Blears had a right to be angry that her career had ended in humiliation after doing such a ‘superb job’. But he couldn’t help adding that her decision to go had been prompted by the stress of discovering the media camped on her doorstep. In the end she has just ‘found it too much’, he said.

The alternative possibility, that Blears had made the entirely rational decision to walk before she was pushed, would never have been considered by the party high command.