Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

The Shadow of Labour’s Past.

This is going to become a mounting difficulty for Labour. I think Ed Milliband knows it. The stack of problems waiting for the bonfire is growing. There are some good bits to keep. Devolution, Northern Ireland, Freedom of Information and Human Rights are the best. Against this we have a disastrous foreign policy, two wars and a compltely shot economy. But there is something else emerging. In some ways even worse.

Labour has always had an unquenchable thirst for making new laws and regulations. It contributed to the end of the Attlee government after a mere six years, when it was the greatest reforming government in our history. The new Churchill government got the economy moving and the welfare state functioning, by ditching  tons of rules and by disbanding what Churchill described a collection of inspectors, snoopers and busybodies larger than any peacetime army.

As this country has fallen victim, once again, to its inability to function in snow, those of us who can remember 1947 and 1963 have noticed a sharp deterioration in the quality of the remedial services, especially in country areas. Here farmers stand ready, as in the past, to clear roads with their tractors, but are prevented from doing so by absurd new requirements, including special clothing, hard hats, white diesel and insurance policies covering them, literally, for  £ millions of public liability.

Even the considerable personality of the Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles, is having trouble sorting this nonsense out, in order to take the heat of his colleagues at the transport ministry. They must all have our sympathy. The reason that Labour may find its fortunes sinking in opposition, as Attlee did, is that it is becoming more and more apparent that in the rush to define every detail of life in some new law ar regulation, New labour came close to creating a Lunatic State. The two year policy review needs to come up with a much less invasive form of Democratic Socialism

The U.S. and Wikileaks

Now that we getting used to our new breakfast diet of the latest Wiki leak, we can get this whole drama in a better perspective.  It is not as big as it seemed and, in the view of many including  this Blog,  America has nothing to be embarrassed about, or ashamed of, in the  disclosures. They tend to show some shrewd, often prescient, assessment of world leaders and events.

Nobody is surprised by the sometimes unflattering portrait of politicians, whose sense of self importance can often do with a prick. Somebody was  right to describe the British fetish about the special relationship as corrosive, especially when it provokes fawning acquiescence, when candour of the kind in which the American diplomats engage would be more helpful to everyone.

I have many times said that common heritage and blood ties make America more than a relationship to Britain. We are family. Families sometimes fall out and sometimes disagree, but in the end they are family and will always be there. Once we descend into staying awake wondering if the U.S. President will visit London before Paris or Berlin, we end up wasting our own time and theirs. There are some areas where America’s interests and ours combine but others where they do not. We must get our judgements to a practical rather than emotional level. I speak with a foot in each camp. My grandparents and mother were naturalised Americans and two of my children are U.S. citizens by birth.

Americans have a natural courtesy and good manners and do not like to offend. With this in mind they should restrict this diplomatic traffic to those who really need to know; that cannot be between two and three million people down to the rank of corporal. Hilary Clinton has been tireless in her efforts to smooth offended egos, but there really is no more need. She can go back to her day job. With her head held high. Those cables need to carry on flowing.They are really very good.