New Labour is disintegrating before our eyes
March 22nd, 2010The expulsion of Byers, Hewitt and Hoon is entirely justified – and necessary – when indeed nobody has done more to bring the Labour Party into disrepute (the grounds for expulsion under the party’s rules) than they have. But the implications go far deeper. We are witnessing the final denouement of what was infamously called New Labour. The Blairite version never had a distinctive ideology of its own apart from taking over the Thatcherite one it inherited. It was simply a power project from start to finish, and now its underlying motivations of self-interest, money-making and power manipulation have been nakedly revealed, reinforcing ever more strongly earlier examples from the Derek Draper ‘lobbygate’ scandal, the policy for sale exposed by the Ecclestone affair, the peerages for major donors to Labour’s 2005 election, and the Labour peers last year who offered to assist in amending legislation in exchange for substantial payment. (more…)
