Who Goes Home?

If anyone knows about unelectability, then it is Roy Hattersley. A good writer, he was never a good politician, but he now expects a continuing political role even after having retired from the House of Lords. He lauds the supposed moderation of those who gave us the Private Finance Initiative and the Iraq War. But PFI was the work of the former Militant Alan Milburn, and of Militant’s economic guru, the late Andrew Glyn.

If Momentum is now as dominant as Hattersley claims, then it is its enemies who are a party within the Labour Party. British politics has long been prey to entryism. Hattersley defends the nominally Labour Haringey Council, whose social cleansing policies are denounced in George Osborne’s Evening Standard. Thatcherism arose on the outermost individualist fringe of the tiny Liberal Party. New Labour arose on the outermost Eurocommunist fringe of a Communist Party that had already dissolved itself.

But those in Margaret Thatcher’s own party who have since produced Theresa May did eventually bring down Thatcher. Ostensibly, that was over a European policy that, as a policy rather than as a tone, did not change with her departure. But it was really because of the mass opposition to the Poll Tax, an opposition that had been organised by Militant. And Tony Blair was eventually removed by his own party. Can anyone remember the official reason? But the real reason was of course the mass opposition to the Iraq War, an opposition that had been organised by those to the left of Labour who are often now in it, and who are all very close to Jeremy Corbyn. Think on.