Sunday 4 July 2010

Apprentice! / Tirez les doigts

Increasingly it feels to me that there is a serious question about the legitimacy of this Con-Dem government, and their mandate or moral authority for proceeding as they are and as they propose.
There is a major discontinuity between (on the one hand) the prospectuses and arguments of the May election campaign, and the raw outcome of that election, and (on the other) the plans now presented by the Con-Dem government, and the justifications offered for them.
It is as if we have been subjected to a bloodless coup d'etat. The LibDem MPs served as an unlikely commando to seize the premiership for Cameron, but as a result of that operation are now effectively prisoners, (and I begin to wonder whether Cameron himself is not under some sort of open arrest. Toying further with the metaphor: when will the show-trials begin?)

The collective leadership of the Labour Party then made what at the time was urged and applauded as the 'wise' decision to go for a long leadership campaign. That decision looks less good to me with each day that passes. The political process is moving on rapidly. We can see more certainly that ideology rather than analysis and consideration is going to drive government policy, at least in the short term. We can see the scale of their ambition, and the likely social, economic and (less us not forget, for millions) personal cost of their programme. We can also, crucially, see that as to the outcome, there will be a difference of degree only, as between whether they, in their own estimation, succeed, or (as seems more likely) fail. For the rest of us, it's a lose-lose bet. We really are set for a step-back-a-generation calamity, either way.

If the government is not stopped.

I believe it could be, but another 3 months of "Could you just wait a moment ? We're electing a leader" may tip the balance, sell the pass - choose your own metaphor.

The five candidates for the Labour leadership could instead agree to suspend conventional campaigning, cancel their cosy August week off, and offer themselves as the five founder members of a New Committee of One Hundred, open to all women and men who will work peacefully but strenuously - urgently - to rebut the government case, obstruct its implementation, and develop a fully detailed and costed alternative.

The leadership election itself could still go ahead exactly as planned. But even before the result is known, we could have an actual working vehicle/forum/campaign to try and avert disaster - and in the process re-generate the centre-left in the UK.

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