Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

   BROWSE MY BOOKS WITH THESE LINKS 

       Malcolm Blair-Robinson U.S        

       Malcolm Blair-Robinson U.K.

The Tory Party is about Power. It is and always has been the party of the establishment, the aristocracy, the well to do, old money, big business, capital and the accumulation and expansion of personal wealth. All those interests are best served by exercising power; in other words by governing.

The Labour Party, a key element of the Labour  Movement, is about Mission. When the public mood chimes with its mission it wins. Mostly electors are happy to let the establishment party rule, so Labour’s mission has to be clear and appealing for it to win. It won for the first time convincingly in 1945, when it completely changed the social and economic structure of the country in what amounted to a revolution. It won again hesitantly in 1964 and convincingly in 1966. Its last big win was in 1997. All these winning sequences have been after long periods of Tory government building a desire for change. Labour did not win this time because in England electors were willing to stay with the Tories a while longer and Labour’s mission has been lost in trendy Islington. That loss of mission identity is critical in analysing this latest defeat and recovering it is essential to the survival of the Labour party.

The story is in the figures. Blair won his landslide in 1997 with over 13 million votes. That was the last time the working class voted en masse for Labour. When it became clear that New Labour was a caring edition of Thatcher’s Tories, the ordinary voter turned away. Blair’s second landslide was achieved with a turnout which fell off a cliff, down from 71.4% to 59.2%. He also had nearly three million fewer votes. He still had a landslide because disillusioned Tories backed him. But the working class felt betrayed. And Labour’s vote fell again in 2005 and again in 2010.

So New Labour won one general election in 1997 and when the masses saw its pink Tory colours they walked away. This culminated in the complete replacement of  moribund Scottish Labour by the SNP, possibly irreversible for a generation, and many working class votes going to UKIP. The figures tell the story. Labour’s vote fell election by election under the New Labour flag, in 2001, 2005 and 2010. It rose again for the first time in 18 years in 2015. Pay attention to that. The much maligned Ed Milliband shifted away from New Labour towards the left.

Now the call of the Blairites and their acolytes is to move back to the centre and cosy up to business. If you want Labour to revive and govern again do not heed it. That is the Tory road. For Labour it is the road to ruin.