Saturday, January 16, 2010

The team

There is nothing unusual in the fact that political parties suffer, at times, from internal fighting and rebellion; what is remarkable is that our New Labour Party has been doing it with the periodicity of a lunar phenomenon, and that our beleaguered Prime Minister has managed to survive, although not unscathed, each attempt to unseat him.
The most tiresome aspect, however, is that after each spell of hostility comes the pacification, and, if you can still stomach the Labour Party’s unending treachery and backstabbing, you may find the bogus kissing and making-up that usually follow - together with all those group photos where prominent members of the cabinet, madly, parade their unity – far more distasteful.
As George Eliot said, there are victories worse than a defeat, and our Prime Minister's latest victory could be safely categorised as one of those. Because, after their latest ‘surrender’, the New Labour rebels seem, nonetheless, to have won additional power and have even acquired prime ministerial prerogatives. The PM himself, it has been suggested, is now a captive and seemingly afraid of his cabinet.
And, like burglars trashing the house they’ve just robbed, after having tied the owners to their chairs, the New Labour insurgents, we ourselves have noticed, now appear free to cause as much mischief as they please.

Caught between a disappearing past and a terrifying future, the New Labour team - representatives not of the people, but of those moneyed interests and shady business networks that sponsored their access to power - have a lot to fear from a change of regime. As the prospect of the coming election starts to hit home - having confiscated our reality and arrogated its powers - the realisation of their inevitable removal from office is leading the New Labour team to desperation and absurdity.

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