New Year, same Old Labour

There is very interesting article in today’s Guardian, which is almost a commentary on the state of the Labour Party.  It suggest that there is now an abandonment of the truce between Chancellor and PM (which I would suggest really ended some months ago), with the Brownites now starting to implement a plan to get Tony Blair out of Downing Street and the Blair camp suggesting that Brown would take the Labour Party back to the days of old (which he has been doing some time).  

What is extremely telling about the article is that, although well researched, the insights into the Labour Party are all sourced from insiders and leaks (with the Prescott camp coming out on the side of Gordon Brown again).   This reinforces what I have said earlier; the Labour Party spin machine is slowly but surely turning in on itself, becoming more obsessed with infighting, reducing its willingness to spin policy and delivery.

This, I suspect, is why the true nature of New Labour policies is able to come to the fore.  The overspending in the NHS and the proposed introduction of selection in schools would have been lost amid a sea of spin and propaganda in days past.   Whilst the Spin is still there (i.e. another plan to rescue the NHS and proposed compromises over the education bill) the majority of the focus is undoubtedly on in-fighting.  Today’s Guardian article says that Brown would be a return to the 80s for the Labour Party, this article is the surest evidence that they are back there already.