It seems typical of Labour’s reaction to being removed from office after 13 frustrating years in power that it should have decided to disown one of its braver, better, bolder decisions: the decision to permit unfettered movement from Poland and other EU-accession countries to the United Kingdom. It takes a special kind of malignancy to disown your most benign moment in power. But this is where Labour are; trapped in equal measure by their search for populism and their weakness for authoritarianism.
First it was Ed Balls, then it was Yvette Cooper and then Ed Miliband himself. Each apologised for decisions that did their party – and their country – credit. And in its place nothing but a dreary parochialism based on fear-mongering, dubious economics (whatever that nice Mr Liddle says) and a great abandonment of principle. Then again, Labour is not a liberal party so little of this should surprise anyone.
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