Ah well, at least Blair might be good for something if he has helped (however inadvertantly) to scupper Dave’s campaign!

In more general terms, taking advice from Blair about the future direction of the Labour party is the last thing they should be doing. It’s NOT about wandering into the wilderness like the Tories did after 1997, or Labour in the 80′s. It’s not even about taking a left turn per se…. it IS about disassociating the party from the deeply repugnant direction it took as New Labour.

It’s hardly surprising Blairite and Brownite “ultras” find it hard to try and distance themselves from the legacy of NuLabour. What will consign them to the political wilderness is an inability to demonstrate that they have exorcised the ghost of NuLabour, which isn’t and never was a progressive radical force.

What will consign them to the political wilderness is an inability to demonstrate that they have exorcised the ghost of NuLabour, which isn’t and never was a progressive radical force.

How far are you going to go back though? Thatcherism made certain political positions that had once been either fringe or, at the least, only one possible point of view into solidly mainstream politics. I doubt, for example, that any potential Labour leader will be advocating a return to secondary picketing, the closed shop or ‘show of hands’ balloting. Equally, I doubt whether there will be any mention of renationalising BT, BA or even the utilities.

Blair, in the same way, made social policies that were once considered loony, or at least leftist (minimum wage, civil partnerships, the whole nebulous area of ‘social justice’) into mainstream policies that all parties adhere to. What are you going to unwind? What bit of mainstream politics are you going to rescind?

Is it really the case that the Labour Party sees its future in the pre-94 days? Or was Kinnock too much of a compromise with the evil neo-liberals as well? Who’s the model here? Benn? Foot? Atlee? Henderson?

The search for ideological purity is generally an excellent way of staying in opposition.

Good for Milliband: Blair obviously thinks Milliband is the most likely candidate to succeed and that jumping on the bandwagon will secure his ‘legacy’.

The more Milly distances himself from Blair the more I ‘like’ him (by which I mean I don’t wish him any specific immediate harm.)

@ 2 Tim J

I’m not advocating a return to ideological purity.

It’s too easy for the authoritarian reactionaries who ruined the Labour party to claim that there really is no other way, just look at what happened in the past etc. I’m all for giving credit for positive achievements: devolution, civil partnerships, minimum wage etc… tho some would argue even in areas where progress was made it was too tentative.

However, lets not gloss over the huge negatives, or indeed pretend that it couldn’t have been very much better! There are those on both the right and left who have a vested interest in seeing that things stay much the same. The Blairite cassandras de nos temps are simply rehashing the Thatcherite mantra in 1979 that there was no alternative.

It wasn’t true then, and it isn’t true now.

There is a radical, progressive agenda out there: the tragedy is that the Labour party aren’t addressing it, far less adopting it. They haven’t progressed appreciably since the election defeat, because those in positions of power and influence are tainted by their association with the nauseating NuLabour project.

If David Miliband, or any of the other contenders, want to show how they have “moved on” from Blairism, Brownism and the provisional wing of NuLabour I’m still waiting to see the evidence!

So, David Miliband didn’t want Blair’s backing, did he?

He should count himself lucky. Being given the seal of approval by Blair isn’t too bad a thing to happen. It’s not great, but it could be worse. Imagine if Gordon “Jonah” Brown had endorsed his leadership bid. Not only would he end up coming last in the contest, but numerous bad things would happen to him within days.

Actually, on second thoughts, I sincerely hope Gordon gives him a ringing endorsement very, very soon.

David Miliband can nevertheless take heart from the unsolicited endorsement by Blair.

By news reports, Blair also endorsed public spending cuts on the scale proposed by George Osborne and military action against Iran.