I doubt the Labour Party as it’s led now is even really left wing. It’s probably more a party of the centre-left opposing as much as anything its own MPs who are centre-right. Frankie Boyle’s New World Order s2e7
‘If they [Militant] gain power, parliamentary democracy will disappear.’ TV Eye: Militant Labour, Terry McDonald, Thames TV 1981
Ted Grant is the founder of Militant, political editor of the weekly newspaper … ‘We stand for a peaceful transformation of society … abolishing the monarchy, abolishing the House of Lords by an enabling act and taking over 200 monopolies: we stand for complete democracy.’ ibid.
But do its followers share the aims of the Labour party or should the party expel them in the name of parliamentary democracy? ibid.
‘We want to see socialist managers of the local authority.’ ibid. Derek Hatton
‘I know why they call us names. It’s because they daren’t face our arguments.’ TV Eye: Benn’s Bandwagon, Thames TV 1981
It was in April that Tony Benn dropped his bombshell: he would oppose Denis Healey for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party. This week a meeting of the Labour Party Executive, and once again Tony Benn walks his own path. ibid.
Mountbatten had been engaged in an audacious plot to overthrow the prime minister [Harold Wilson] he was now glad-handling. Lord Mountbatten: Hero or Villain? Channel 5 2020
If Kinnock Wins Today Will The Last Person To Leave Britain Please Turn Out The Lights. The Sun, general election 1992
I had a deep respect for him [Brown] and affection for him that no amount of squabbling could ever erase. Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution I, BBC 2021, Blair
I defy people to say this was not a constructive partnership. ibid. Brown
There was a sense that a new type of progressive politics could shape the future. ibid. Blair
It was a tragedy. It was a story as old as the hills. The prince couldn’t wait for the king to die. ibid. John Reid
1985: Neil Kinnock appoints television producer Peter Mandelson as director of communications. ibid. caption
After just four years in Westminster, Gordon Brown becomes deputy to shadow chancellor John Smith. ibid.
John Smith’s death leaves Labour seeking a new leader. ibid.
May 1997: Labour is on course to win its first general election since 1974. Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution II
It was never ever going to last, was it? ibid. Blair
5 months later, a story breaks accusing Peter Mandelson of taking an undisclosed loan from a cabinet colleague. ibid. caption
I was increasingly becoming a sort of radical within my own government. Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution III
Tony and Thatcher is an interesting relationship. He was always keen to analyse who she was, where she came from, what she was doing. ibid. Peter Mandelson
I think he was the centre of his universe. Except that Gordon was always competing and pushing him out of territory, getting in the way. ibid. civil servant
An opportunity to serve. That is all we ask. ibid. Gordon Brown, Labour conference
There were genuine policy differences. ibid.
July 2016: The Chilcot report into Britain’s role in the Iraq War is published. It is critical of Tony Blair’s Labour government. Blair & Brown: The Labour Revolution IV, captions
Also about my fear that if we left America on its own in the circumstances without trying to build a coalition, the consequences will be much worse. ibid. Blair
I think that Blair’s increasing closeness to Bush baffled people because he was seen as superficial, he was seen as right wing, and he was seen as too narrow American interests. ibid. Diane Abbot
12 days after President Bush addresses the UN, a 50-page dossier compiled by British Intelligence is made public. ibid. caption
The relationship was in a pretty bad way. As the election started there was a real problem and that’s why they had to be brought back together and made to campaign together. Blair & Brown: The Labour Revolution V, Jonathan Powell, chief of staff
By then I’d come to the recognition there was a difference in policy terms that was not going to be resolved. ibid. Blair
17 Labour MPs including a minister signed a letter calling on Tony Blair to go and go soon. ibid. news
48 hours after the ‘coup’ begins, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown meet to discuss the succession. ibid. caption
27th June 2007: Gordon Brown, elected unopposed as Labour leader, becomes prime minister. ibid.
3 months after taking over as prime minister, Gordon Brown surges to an 11 point leader over the Conservatives. ibid.
I’ve never seen a more flagrant, repellent and cynical exploitation of anti-Semitism in my life than its disgusting use to smear Corbyn because of a lack of alternatives for how to defeat him. Glenn Greenwald, journalist, Tweet October 2021
Enter one of Britain’s wealthiest tycoons: Bernie Ecclestone, the pint-sized ringmaster of Formula One. With Blair’s approval, Ecclestone had secretly given new Labour a £1,000,000 donation. Just before the election. So he needed no introduction one day in October 1997 when he went to ask the prime minister for a favour. Bernie Ecclestone had a big request: new Labour were about to ban tobacco advertising from all major sporting events. Ecclestone wanted Formula One exempted, and for a small guy he must have been pretty persuasive, because after just one meeting with the prime minister, Tony Blair asked his health minister to do a U-turn and exempt Formula One ... They tried to cover up the details of what had happened. Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain, BBC 2007
‘We want a barometer of the indicators of the quality of life.’ Adam Curtis, The Trap, Prescott, BBC 1989
What New Labour began to discover was that people were more complex and devious than the simple model allowed. ibid.
Hospital managers proved to be particularly devious. When they were set targets to cut waiting lists, they ordered consultants to do the easiest operations first, like bunions and vasectomies. Complicated ones like cancers were no longer prioritised. And they found other clever ways of getting people off the lists. ibid.
Recorded crime: again, inventive strategies were found. ibid.
New Labour: they gave power away to the banks and the markets. And in the management of society New Labour turned to the mathematical systems that John Major had brought in but on a scale never seen before. They believed that people actually behaved in the way described by the simplified economic model. Performance targets and incentives would be set for everything and everyone. Even cabinet ministers would have to perfect their performance targets or be punished. ibid.
But report after report came out which revealed that this inventive gaming of the system was now endemic throughout the public services. What was supposed to be a rational system was instead creating a strange world in which no-one knew whether to believe the numbers or not. ibid.
A powerful system of control: but the numbers were also having as strange and perverse effect on New Labour’s vision of a freer and more open Britain. They were in fact creating a more rigid and stratified society. At the heart of this was education and league tables for schools. The tables showed parents which were the best performing schools and which were the worst ones. ibid.
Under New Labour the country is even more unequal than it was under Mrs Thatcher with an ever increasing share of the wealth going to a tiny 1% of the top of society … The social divisions in Britain are hardening and deepening. Adam Curtis, The Trap II: The Lonely Robot, BBC 2007
To save the pound Labour decided on wide-ranging spending cuts, and one of the main targets was defence. Denis Healey had been made minister of defence, and in 1965 he began a series of enormous cutbacks; he closed the overseas’ bases and brought the troops who had once protected the empire back home. Adam Curtis, The Mayfair Set I: Who Pays Wins ***** Channel 4 1999
[Denis] Healey believed that instead British defence industries should make money for the country. The Americans were selling weapons throughout the world and Healey wanted Britain to compete with them and earn precious foreign currency. But Britain was not very good at selling weapons until David Stirling decided to get involved. ibid.
Through the summer of 1976 Arab oil money continued to leave London. The heads of Arab banks now became powerful figures ... Denis Healey began a series of savage cuts in public expenditure. It was the only way he believed for Britain to get a loan from the IMF and avoid bankruptcy. But it was clear to many in his party that he had given away control of the economy to the markets. ibid.
In 1964 a Labour government had been elected. They came to power promising to create a modern prosperous Britain. But almost immediately they were faced with a crisis: the boom the Tories had begun five years before had gone out of control. British industry simply couldn’t cope with the demand created by the boom. A new government faced growing inflation and a balance of payments crisis. They had to cancel many of their election promises and cut spending. Adam Curtis, The Mayfair Set II: Entrepreneur Spelt S.P.I.V *****