Even more reason not to act as an implicit apologist for the actions of a rogue state, which she most definitely is. She’s saying that Parliamentary motions and/or UN resolutions are not the way to deal with the issue. In a sense, she’s right, at least on the UN part. It hasn’t mattered, and that is largely down to the fact that Israel has enough mates in the Permanent Security Council to veto international agreements. The problem with her stance is that nothing will get done.
Agree with that. I think having proposed what she has though, even she can make a positive contribution by reiterating her support for a two-state solution but also proposing a Marshall Plan-like settlement in which people - Israelis and Arabs - can actually see a tantalisingly prosperous, peaceful future. Of all places, an oil-rich Middle East should have no trouble at all in finding the funds for such a plan.
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Also some buzz on Twitter concerning people flocking to Corbyn over the welfare shambles. Way to go, Harriet! That’s sensible stewardship.
Bazza bang on the money as per, this split is similar to the 80’s one but could be even worse, principles over power anyday and even though I don’t agree with Corbyn I respect he is doing this as he is true to his conscience as opposed to what th electorate want to hear, it actually resonating with the people is strangely a side issue.
…
There you go Baz - you need about that many full stops in that.
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Written by a dyed-in-the-wool Blairite.
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I don’t think that disqualifies the content of the article. He was part of the group that had to get Labour re-electable again, and he’s right. Labour didn’t get their landslide in my pandering to the Conservatives, or trying to out-Tory them. They slowly, but surely built a platform of policy and electoral credibility that convinced the public to come out and vote for them.
That’s why I made the point about Corbyn earlier. I don’t rate his chances as PM, but the bloke stands for something. Do any of the others? I don’t see it. The tag “Red Ed” still makes me giggle, because on most domestic policy issues, he was quite close to the Tories and played to their bollocks on welfare. That’s easily defeatable stuff; bloggers like AAV do it all the time, yet Ed couldn’t form a coherent defence of his own against it. Not even able to reeducate Myleene Klass on the issue? Fk sake.
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Wow, you’ve gone all New Labour! No wonder Bazza is on your case.
My earlier point holds, I think - this leadership election is for a baton-holder only. It’s the next one that counts. Or maybe the one after that, when a candidate with genuine leadership qualities and a distinctive, new centre-left political programme, emerges.
Devising an electorally coherent and persuasive manifesto - one that will overturn the political order - takes time. I actually don’t think New Labour really did that - they did coat-tail Tory policies to some extent, not least in committing to spending limits set out in previous tory budgets and spoending reviews.
New Labour also profited from the Tories’ hopeless division on Europe - another reason why this leadership election is something of a mirage. Wait until Cameron makes a complete political mess of the negotiations and referendum - just as he did with the Scottish devolution/independence vote.
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Well I don’t know about New Labour, but I do agree with many of the points made in the article, especially those about having a credible alternative to what is being offered by the sitting government. Most governments continue the policies of the previous one, for contractual reasons as much as anything else, but Blair was putting stuff like minimum wage on the table, easily comprehensible to the electorate and something to set them apart from the Tories of the day, who’d voted against it.
Those are the sort of policies that Labour needs to develop. Big, easily understandable ideas that show a near universal benefit.
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Not sure I’d describe Bryan Gould as a Blairite, let alone a dyed-in-the-wool one. He was gone from the Labour party and British politics by the time Blair came to the fore, and had resigned from John Smith’s shadow cabinet over the party’s rejection of a referndum on the Maastricht Treaty.
And the contents of that article are a long way from Blairite, unlike the mealy-mouthed shit spouted by Harman et al.
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Bryan Gould was a friend of ours back in the day. He would be horrified to be classified asa Blairite! He now lives in his native New Zealand with his wife Gill and his 2 children (although I’m sure they’ve flown the nest by now).
He’s a lovely man.
Do I get points for name-dropping?
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Labour should bring back John Smith
He could ghost in 
True star…shame.
Labour should bring back John Smith.
He could ghost in
True star…shame.
SOOOOO GOOD i HAD TO MENTION HIM TWICE 
Originally posted by @hoofinruth
Bryan Gould was a friend of ours back in the day. He would be horrified to be classified asa Blairite! He now lives in his native New Zealand with his wife Gill and his 2 children (although I’m sure they’ve flown the nest by now).
He’s a lovely man.
Do I get points for name-dropping?
When he lived in Furzedown Rd? A good friend of mine was their babysitter.
Originally posted by @Lets-B-Drinking
Originally posted by @hoofinruth
Bryan Gould was a friend of ours back in the day. He would be horrified to be classified asa Blairite! He now lives in his native New Zealand with his wife Gill and his 2 children (although I’m sure they’ve flown the nest by now).
He’s a lovely man.
Do I get points for name-dropping?
When he lived in Furzedown Rd? A good friend of mine was their babysitter.
And when he lived in Russells Water - that was when he fronted a Channel 4 television programme (Dispatches? My memory has a blank here). At the time my (ex) husband was chair of the Regional Labour Party and we used to rub shoulders with a fair number of Labour MPs. Bob Mitchell was another good friend.
Corbyn in the lead according to a Times poll. Chapel End Charlie over at TSW is distraught.
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I wouldn’t pay too much attention to Bell End Charlie’s crocodile tears, or his pompous tosh.
I don’t understand the ‘standing on the edge of extinction’ meme. Aside from the dollop of wishful thinking, Labour remains the second largest party in the Commons by some distance and will remain so (the SNP, its nearest rival, can only get smaller). We have nigh on five years of Tory demolition of instituions and values people hold dear in this country. We have Europe looming as the most divisive issue since the Major years, with possibly worse consequences. And we have another five years of the Tories trying - but surely failing - continuing to eke out a claim to economic growth using asset bubbles in shares and property.
Things will get a lot better for the Labour Party. They just have to avoid Corbyn to start the rebuild now.
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Originally posted by @Fowllyd
Not sure I’d describe Bryan Gould as a Blairite, let alone a dyed-in-the-wool one. He was gone from the Labour party and British politics by the time Blair came to the fore, and had resigned from John Smith’s shadow cabinet over the party’s rejection of a referndum on the Maastricht Treaty.
And the contents of that article are a long way from Blairite, unlike the mealy-mouthed shit spouted by Harman et al.
Yes, you’re quite right. I’d mistaken him for Philip Gould, who was not only Blair’s key strategist but, as far as writing Gaurdian articles is concerned, is also dead.
He (Bryan) wrote this rather prophetic and powerful piece about Labour’s foreign policy in 2009. Worth a reread…
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I think your analysis of the next few years is spot on, which is why I disagree with your conclusion. It’s almost a straight up conflict between the Labour Party finding itself again and chasing what it thinks is electability. A right turn from Corbyn is fair enough. A right turn from Miliband? I’m personally not so enthused.