Blair is losing it
sundayherald: Blair's empire crumbles as Kinnock plays Brutus to the Labour Party rebels
ET tu, Kinnock. Last week, the former Labour leader, Lord Kinnock, added his voice to the rebellion against Tony Blair's education white paper. It was the deepest cut. The Prime Minister's power is draining fast and next week's expected reshuffle may be his last.
Neil Kinnock is not just a failed Labour leader; he remains a powerful moral force in the Labour Party. He keeps his own counsel. I spoke with him in Edinburgh last August and he made clear there were a number of Labour policies with which he disagreed, but he assured me he would never "ever" speak out publicly against an elected leader on a key issue of confidence. Well, times change.
Neil Kinnock has legitimised the most serious rebellion since Blair came to office. It is now open season on government legislation.
As this column noted last year, there is almost an alternative government on the Labour backbenches, and in Kinnock it has an alternative elder statesman. Nobody is afraid any more. Labour MPs go on television to explain, more in sorrow than in anger, why the latest piece of their own legislation - on schools, hospitals, nuclear power, ID cards, terrorism - is just not acceptable.
It is all very intoxicating. Suddenly a party that have made a fetish of discipline, leadership and collective responsibility are all over the place. Tony Blair chairs the Cabinet and goes to meet the Queen, but increasingly he is becoming a dignified rather than an efficient Prime Minister. Second among equals, in office but not in power, a lame duck - choose your metaphor. Blair is simply losing it. Read more
ET tu, Kinnock. Last week, the former Labour leader, Lord Kinnock, added his voice to the rebellion against Tony Blair's education white paper. It was the deepest cut. The Prime Minister's power is draining fast and next week's expected reshuffle may be his last.
Neil Kinnock is not just a failed Labour leader; he remains a powerful moral force in the Labour Party. He keeps his own counsel. I spoke with him in Edinburgh last August and he made clear there were a number of Labour policies with which he disagreed, but he assured me he would never "ever" speak out publicly against an elected leader on a key issue of confidence. Well, times change.
Neil Kinnock has legitimised the most serious rebellion since Blair came to office. It is now open season on government legislation.
As this column noted last year, there is almost an alternative government on the Labour backbenches, and in Kinnock it has an alternative elder statesman. Nobody is afraid any more. Labour MPs go on television to explain, more in sorrow than in anger, why the latest piece of their own legislation - on schools, hospitals, nuclear power, ID cards, terrorism - is just not acceptable.
It is all very intoxicating. Suddenly a party that have made a fetish of discipline, leadership and collective responsibility are all over the place. Tony Blair chairs the Cabinet and goes to meet the Queen, but increasingly he is becoming a dignified rather than an efficient Prime Minister. Second among equals, in office but not in power, a lame duck - choose your metaphor. Blair is simply losing it. Read more
posted by exoplanet at 2:39 PM
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