“Vote for what you believe in, not tactically” pontificates Blair like a throwback from the past.   But what did New Labour believe in, distinct from the Tories?   The both agreed on unbridled markets, worship of the City of London, privatisation of public services, light-touch regulation, suppression of the trade unions, the Iraq and Afghan wars, subservience to the US, and no cap on inequality, to name but a few of the overlapping similarities.  

The only point on which New Labour and Tory leaders seriously differed was on who should hold the reins of power – even though Brown, Blair, Darling, Miliband (David) and Mandelson are virtually indistinguishable in policy from the Tory Front Bench.

So what exactly is the point of voting tactically if the resulting policy melange bears a marked resemblance whichever party wins the most seats?   It might have made sense once when the ideological divide was sharp and deep, but no-one can believe that is the case today.   It’s true that pragmatic differences between the parties – most notably about the role, depth and timing of public spending cuts to counter the public finances deficit – are significant, though even here the policy outcome may well turn out to be rather less dramatic than the pre-election rhetoric might suggest.

But if one is to vote for what you really believe in, which I personally agree with, who do you vote for if you believe in taming the banks, expanding the manufacturing sector, strengthening the role of the State against unfettered markets, reversing privatisation of public services, making taxation of income and wealth more progressive, limiting inequality, launching a massive crash programme for building social housing (and mopping up unemployment), providing a power-sharing co-operative role for the unions in industry, making a rapid exit from Iraq and Afghanistan, delivering an independent foreign policy not kow-towing to the US, radically democratising Parliament, and establishing the Green New Deal to deliver the sustainable new green digital economy?

New Labour will never do these things and doesn’t believe in them, but the re-politicisation of Labour after the election remains the best option for the transformation of Britain which the majority want and which has been blocked for three decades by the stiflingly narrow parameters of the three-party collusion against the British people.

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