Beating the Tories requires beating Tory ideas
He comes across pretty well in the BBC's New Labour documentary series. A solid social democrat with a genuine interest in redistribution, and a politician of much greater intellectual substance than Blair. Temperamentally unsuited to the chaos of leadership though, even allowing for the fact that he was constantly briefed against by the Blairite wing of the party.Mmm, I quite liked Gordon Brown until he became leader. Not sure how he sits with the righteous but he’s a serious politician who has a good grasp of policy.
That’s a fair summation, not sure about his comparative ‘intellectual substance’, Blair was no dummy.He comes across pretty well in the BBC's New Labour documentary series. A solid social democrat with a genuine interest in redistribution, and a politician of much greater intellectual substance than Blair. Temperamentally unsuited to the chaos of leadership though, even allowing for the fact that he was constantly briefed against by the Blairite wing of the party.
The one thing in the documentary that left a sour taste in my mouth was Brown's near-silence on the Iraq war, which came across as an abdication of moral responsibility, especially when compared with Robin Cook's principled stand.
especially when compared with Robin Cook's principled stand
A spiv.That’s a fair summation, not sure about his comparative ‘intellectual substance’, Blair was no dummy.
Slick, quick, and ruthless, but not a deep thinker when it comes to policy. If he ever had any ideas of substance, there was no sign of them in the BBC documentary. I was genuinely surprised by how intellectually vapid he is.That’s a fair summation, not sure about his comparative ‘intellectual substance’, Blair was no dummy.
Very good article that, thanks.Gordon Brown talking more sense in a few paragraphs than the entire Labour front bench has managed all summer:
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ing-suppliers-into-public-sector-gordon-brown
He stops short of full and permanent nationalisation but there are lots of crunchy policy ideas that might, you know, help people.
Of course, the people now running the Labour Party see Gordon Brown as "a Trot", so I doubt that Labour's own ideas will be anywhere near as comprehensive.
NoBeating the tories is going to require a lot more than ill-conceived sloganeering.
ie paying the wages of the furloughed in pandemic was arguably a torygovernment idea. Does that make doing so a bad idea?
It won’t touch the sides, it leaves all the problems in place for next time, and the Tories are already doing it: it’s basically a promise to do what the Tories are doing but more competently. I’m not surprised they’re not shouting about it, “We have no answers!” is not a vote-winner.Lots of chat on the morning news about the effects of rising energy costs on households. Labours policy of a windfall tax on the oil produces for a couple of years to mitigate bills of the poorest seems like a good idea to me although maybe they should shout it a bit louder.
That article is all about “closing loopholes” in existing government policy i.e. same policy done better. It doesn’t matter how well they do it it won’t touch the sides and it won’t address the underlying issues, it’s a nothing proposal.Not true.
It’s been Labour policy since before the Wakefield by-election whilst the government (from today’s Grinder):
Ministers are rowing back from threatening energy companies with a bigger windfall tax, after Liz Truss and her ally Kwasi Kwarteng made plain they would not support this option.
Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor, and Kwarteng, the business secretary, will meet energy companies on Thursday morning, but multiple government sources said the discussion would be with electricity generators to discuss investment, wholesale prices and security of supply, rather than a windfall tax.
Ha, haAt least on this occasion Cook was able to stand, most of the time he was pissed and prostrate on the bathroom floor having had a row with his wife about his girl friend.
This is just projection because you don’t agree with him. Leadership is a skill, it’s not frippery or insubstantial. Blair was pretty smart, Brown made a number of missteps & mistakes which show he wasn’t exactly a genius. Some of his ideas resulted in endemic low pay, an unintended consequence I grant you.Slick, quick, and ruthless, but not a deep thinker when it comes to policy. If he ever had any ideas of substance, there was no sign of them in the BBC documentary. I was genuinely surprised by how intellectually vapid he is.
Careful ... these days it's hard to differentiate between truth, irony, gags, hubris, hypocrisy, BS, etc.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-487796/How-Queen-charmed-pants-Confessions-old-Leftie.html
Silly Billy!
It really isn't.This is just projection because you don’t agree with him. Leadership is a skill, it’s not frippery or insubstantial. Blair was pretty smart, Brown made a number of missteps & mistakes which show he wasn’t exactly a genius. Some of his ideas resulted in endemic low pay, an unintended consequence I grant you.
Anyway, we are covering old ground so let’s just agree to differ.