Rhetoric becomes reality

[Michael Hoover <hooverm@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Rhetoric becomes reality
With each reactionary word, Blair moves his party further to the right
Roy Hattersley
Monday July 26 2004
The Guardian


Tony Blair, speaking at Warwick University last Friday, boasted that,
thanks to him, the Labour party had not ruptured. Wisely, he said
nothing about internal haemorrhage or heart transplant. The rest of his
speech was a collection of meaningless generalities about a
contradiction in terms called "permanent renewal." But at least he did
not set out his policy in a way which gave a false impression of the
proposals that he was supposed to be advocating. That has been his
recent practice.

First, aided by a corrupt Downing Street briefing, he convinced lazy and
gullible journalists that Labour had turned its back on comprehensive
education. Then, he obscured a swath of sensible proposals on crime
prevention with the absurd claim that the problems of modern society are
the malign legacy of the 1960s. He seems determined to hide from public
view the few remnants of social democracy he has allowed the Labour
party to retain.

Hiding principles inside copies of the Tory tabloids has become a habit
with the government. Gordon Brown can certainly take credit for more
redistribution than he is prepared to admit. But at least the chancellor
does not glory in disparities of wealth and income while trying to
reduce the gap between rich and poor. Gordon Brown's attitude to policy
and presentation is defensible. Although he feels no obligation to
trumpet his philosophy, nobody doubts that he is Labour and proud of it.
Tony Blair seems ashamed of the party he leads.

Defenders of the Blairite faith will argue that the prime minister is
doing no more than securing votes in the still instinctively Tory
suburbs. What possible harm can come of that? Cynics will claim that
political rhetoric rarely matches reality and disciples of the New
Labour project will insist that obscuring the party's residual
radicalism is simply the sensible way to market a product which the
electorate still suspects. By speaking in the language of the upwardly
mobile moralists Tony Blair is doing what he does best - guaranteeing
Labour's re-election.

Politics is not covered by the Trades Descriptions Act. But it would be
unfortunate if - WMD not withstanding - the dubious prospectus became
the government's trademark. For although news management promotes
carefully contrived headlines, the long-term results can only be the
impression that Tony Blair is either devious or absurd. His attack on
the values of the 1960s will come back to haunt him.

The prime minister's apologists will point out that he was careful to
condemn the "ugly prejudices" which the 1960s tried to sweep away. But
that was the small print. He must know that it is the legalisation which
civilised our society - homosexual, abortion and divorce law reform -
that critics of the so-called permissive decade deplore. Nobody suggests
that Roy Jenkins was an advocate of binge-drinking, truancy and
vandalism. The intentional creation of headlines which reject the values
of Britain's liberal hour was a direct, and we must fear intentional,
appeal to some of the worst instincts in what used to be called Fleet
Street.

Such behaviour would be bad enough if the apologists were right and Tony
Blair's appeal to the most repressive elements in the electorate was
just an attempt to secure their vote. But I have no doubt that he means
every reactionary word. And he must know that by expressing such views
he is trapping his own party's policy makers in a dangerous vortex.
First, following his lead, they are forced to make presentational
concessions to attitudes which social democrats should deplore. Then
they feel obliged to accommodate the prejudices which they have
encouraged.

The process is most tragically demonstrated in the progress of policy
towards asylum seekers. During our last conversation - now almost two
years ago - the prime minister told me that the topic dominated
conversation in his constituency. When I asked how many would-be
refugees had made their home in Sedgefield, he told me "none at all".
That illustrates the message which the government should have spread
throughout the land. For most people, asylum policy should not be an
issue. Instead of saying so, ministers have spoken in the language of
national crisis. Then, having heightened the apprehension, they took
draconian steps to restore tranquillity.

The leader of a radical party - even if he can do no better than locate
himself on the centre left - has a duty to promote a progressive
consensus. Tony Blair plays leapfrog with his own party, and each leap
moves Labour further to the right of the political spectrum. That
technique, like so much in his campaign to rebuild Labour in his own
image, is a brilliant stratagem. It is being passively accepted by
members of parliament who think of nothing other than retaining their
own seats. I hear them rejoice at the thought of the prime minister
outflanking Michael Howard. Do they not care that, at the same time, he
is side-tracking socialism.



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