Tony Blair has once again intervened to tell Labour voters not to vote for Corbyn. Many think that each Blair intervention is worth a few thousand more votes for Corbyn. We shall see. There are a few things that Tony does not understand.
The first is that New Labour is a busted flush with a shattered reputation which walked away from Labour’s roots. In Scotland it suffered an electoral wipe out. In England it has lost between four and five million working class votes. The Tories have moved back to the centre and positioned themselves slightly to the left. The difference between them and New Labour is about arguments at the margin which ordinary people cannot distinguish. It is also the case that the Tories have now restored their reputation for competent government and reliable economics.
The second is that the Labour leadership election is not about winning in 2020. It is about reclaiming the Labour Party as the champion of the ordinary people, the working class or whatever, who look for a voice to challenge the power of capital over their lives. They want a Labour party which will restore balance with the interests of millions who work in all manner of jobs which will never make them rich, but without whose daily effort the civilised structure of the nation would collapse. That is why the Labour Movement was formed and why it is now becoming re-energised. Once it is, it will doubtless work out how to win and when it does it will not betray its people in the way Tony and his spin doctor cronies did.
There is nothing which connects the public school educated, fortune hunting Blair with any of this. His spell as a peace envoy in the Middle East has seen the inauguration of violence and chaos on an unprecedented scale and his emergence as a global celebrity brand who has amassed a personal fortune estimated at £60 million since leaving Downing Street, while ordinary folk have struggled through the privations of austerity, underscore his utter disconnection with the realities of the hour.