It was interesting to listen to Blair talking about his record. The stated regret about FOI amply demonstrates why we should continue to be alert to the dangers of NuLabour, particularly if David Miliband wins. The atavistic, authoritarian “nanny knows best” habit obviously runs so deep that even the recent defeat hasn’t changed their minds.

Sadly it seems like reports of NuLabour’s death were premature.

Tom Watson remains, by all accounts, a tribal Brownite who is still obsessed with old vendettas. He is not interested, I think, in party unity: he is still interested in getting back at (perceived) Blairites. His comment about FoI is a case in point. Blair says he now regrets FoI. Watson then insinuates that, if one cares about FoI, one needs to keep out David Miliband (as though now that his master has spoken, DM would be a threat to FoI). It’s ridiculous. He has also suggested to me that Peter Mandelson is a secret operative for David Miliband. This in spite of the fact that his interjections have done DM’s campaign nothing but harm, and the fact that he has been publicly slapped down by DM. In response to a tweet by me, Watson harked back to Blair’s leadership victory in 1994, by suggesting (tongue-in-cheek?) that Mandelson is known as ‘Bobby’ within DM’s campaign. This man has a long memory for old grudges. This is not an endorsement for the right reasons, or particularly welcome, I’d have thought, for a candidate selling his ability to overcome the old divides. On the contrary, it makes him look like a Brownite who has the support of Brownites.

Presumably this is a signal to Ed Balls supporters that it’s okay to jump ship now and that Balls has secured the shadow chancellor’s job if Ed Miliband wins.

Ironic that Balls should be throwing in the towel just after (and it sticks in my gullet to admit this) being by a mile the best performer in the Jon Snow hustings, leaving Ed Miliband looking like a ditherer in the Brown mould.

But I guess Balls is a realistic fellow. And he has no realistic chance of actually winning however well he performs at this late stage.

Has Damian McBride tweeted yet?

Watson, McBride, Balls….ah, when will we see such a golden age again?

@4

Lol. It IS worrying though, both for Labour party members, but also for those on the left outside the party: not just the dearth of talent, but the fact that if the coalition falls apart the winner might actually have to come up with the goods. Irrespective of who wins, it doesn’t exactly fill me with joy any of them being in a position to be PM.

Galen10 @ 5

it doesn’t exactly fill me with joy any of them being in a position to be PM

Cheer up, none of them is ever going to be PM. The next Labour Prime Minister will be Brigid Phillipson. It’s too soon to tell whether she’ll be any good or not.

Erm – should I pen an article about Ed Balls supporter Geoffrey Robinson coming out the other day and saying he’d back David Miliband as a second vote.

I’m not a supporter of either miliband, but I am a little concerned that Liberal Conspiracy is forgetting that it is a forum for all those on the left, with the aim of bringing as all together and helping to shape debate.

Recently it has started to feel just a little, well, a little Brownite in tone. Which a non-blairite like me finds odd to say.

Surely amid the attacks on Brown, the talking down David Miliband’s campaign and support, and generally lauding the Eds day by day – there is a risk that divisions remain and LibCon just becomes a voice for just another small left-wing faction?

He is not interested, I think, in party unity: he is still interested in getting back at (perceived) Blairites.

Rubbish.If you follow his tweets and articles, the opposite is quickly apparent.

I don’t know Sunny

There is a difference believing in party unity and believing everyone not in your particular camp within the party should shut up and tow the line for the sake of party unity.

m4error – I know that, and there’s no evidence Tom W does that.

Sunny

That’s not really true is it Sunny.

In 2006 he signed a letter demanding his Party leader resign, and had to resign from government at the time. The suggestion that he had not discussed such things with Gordon Brown the day before he did it, despite meeting brown at his residence, was clearly a little ridiculous despite being impossible to disprove.

A few weeks later he started fueling disharmony publicly through his blog by publicising comments made to him at private functions.

He was also close with the likes of Damien McBride in Brown’s inner circle – and although no proof he knew about their worst plans was ever found, he seemed reasonably comfortable being close with people who everyone in the party knew were happy to smear their party colleagues – which again suggests at best a lack of commitment to party unity.

Didn’t he also say when resigning that he wouldn’t accept a ministerial position from Brown? Naturally he did.

A credit to the Labour party.

cjcjc

well quite.

I do fear people tend too often to overlook bad character when that bad character happens to be on their side of a political opinion or contest. (In this case he has effectively backed Ed Miliband so his obvious hypocricy goes unstated by LibCon.