They Blog For You

THERE’S much talk in the blogosphere and wider media today about the Labour Party “tearing itself apart”, following interventions in the leadership election by Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson, not to mention the alleged full-scale war of words between the brothers Miliband.

Ha!

And again I say: Ha!

You think this is division? You really think that Peter Mandelson expressing a preference for one candidate over another and – Shock! Horror! – giving reasons for that opinion is threatening to tear the party apart?

Oh, you poor, poor, innocent fools…

I’ve recently finished reading Kenneth Morgan’s excellent biography of Michael Foot. I had to steel myself before I read the account of Foot’s turbulent time as leader of our party (well it wasn’t actually my party at the time, but you catch my drift) with its constant and interminable battles – battles that were often physical as well as verbal – over the nature of socialism, the entryism of Trots and how to deal with them, CND, reselection of MPs, electoral college cock-ups, defections…

Two words: Deary. Me.

And you think that what we have now is remotely comparable? And the so-called “row” between the Milibands can be distilled into: “I’d rather he wasn’t standing against me and if I don’t win, Christmas is going to be a bit awkward at first.”

Can we just rewind to 1985, after Neil Kinnock had taken over? And I’m not just talking about his awe-inspiring “You end with the grotesque chaos of a Labour council – a Labour council…” speech, which provoked a total rammy in the hall at Bournemouth and saw the welcome departure – literally – of Eric “Nasty Piece of Work” Heffer from the platform in protest at a leader talking sense (which at the time was against the constitution of the party). People forget about the other set-piece debate the following day, when Kinnock had to intervene personally to oppose a motion calling on a future Labour government to compensate striking miners retrospectively. And the conference defeated him! And you think 2010 is bad?

Annoyingly for the media and our opponents in the Tory/LibDem Party, Labour has remained remarkably united since May 6 and wil continue to be so, especially after our new leader is in post.

There are certainly disagreements, thank goodness, but the debate is between competing visions of a Labour Party that aren’t really all that different in essence. Oh, and Diane Abbott is also standing.

Yes, I agree that recent events have not been a pretty sight. Who could possibly have predicted that a leadership contest following a general election defeat would result in people having strong views on the subject? I certainly never saw that coming!