September 13, 2007...3:54 pm
Gordon Brown Hails Thatcher
What is going on with our Gordon lately?
First Gordon Brown praises Margaret Thatcher as a great conviction politician, then he says he’s the new Thatcher (in terms of having deep conviction I presume).He then starts a written correspondence with the ageing uber Tory (Dear Saint Maggie, I would be most pleased if you would come and bless my party) and now greets her warmly outside number 10. All this on the same day that we learn that Nu Labour have hired Saatchi and Saatchi, the traditional advertising agency choiceof the Tories.
Cabinet Of The Talents?
I’m all for a cabinet of the talents but does that mean placing the final brick in the wall in the conversion of Labour from nu Labour to Nu Tory. I can’t quite work out if this is good moderate centre ground politics or just a way to stick the boot into David Cameron at a time when many Thatcherite conservatives are finding it awkward to fall into line behind his new caring sharing Conservatism.
It’s probably just very skilful politics and courting Middle England slightly. The re-appraisal of Thatcher’s time in office and the assertions that the Britain we live in now is entirely her legacy also have come hand in hand with many political commentators saying that Thatcherism had much less to do with ‘traditional Conservatism’ than with a kind of updated socialism (I know, what?) merged with the idea of a very free market economy.
British politics is in a very odd place at the moment.
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1 Comment
September 13, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Observing politics is like observing icebergs: while some interesting stuff occasionally happens in plain view, all the important stuff is going on in the invisible depths.
It seems to me that politics is less and less about doing what you think is right and more and more about secret horse trading and alliances.
To give a simple example: when composing a manifesto, no party lays out policies that it thinks right but policies that it thinks will attract votes. Once these votes have been attracted and the party is in power, it can tear up the manifesto. Why, then, does the voting public still behave as though manifestos mean something? It means we haven’t yet caught up with the politicians and are still mesmerized by their PR displays.
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Stuff(Em) replied: I’m a keen watcher of politics even though I’m not an advocate of it. I tend to feel that it’s modern politics (its structure is pure 19th centurry in a 21st century world) that has failed to keep pace rather than vice versa but agree with what you say in terms that people seem to want government off their backs and yet want it to sort so much in the lives out.
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