The funny thing about the Labour party members gnashing their teeth at the thought of Alan Milburn assisting the coalition (in an unpaid role on social mobility I hasten to add) is that many of those same activists will have smiled approvingly and nodded sagely at Jed Bartlett hiring a Republican and Matt Santos offering the Foreign brief to his rightwing rival in the sublime but sadly fictitious The West Wing.
The uber-consensual approach to Government is a well used strategy to unbalance the distinctly partisan Opposition. The SNP certainly used it to great effect earlier in this term when they accepted the will of the Parliament and (grudgingly) took on the Edinburgh Trams project, not to mention voting in favour of a budget amendment by Labour only for Labour, so surprised by the lack of opposition, to vote against their own proposal.
So David Cameron has marked an easy win here. After all, if Milburn's no good, what do Labour care what he does. And if Milburn is good, (1) why didn't they keep him onside longer and (2) he'll surely do a fine job here 'for the greater good'.
Needless to say, the bigger question involving Milburn's social mobility brief is getting drowned out. How can we achieve a more progressive society when there are public sector cuts, a squeezed private sector, anaemic lending from banks and compassion fatigue is the order of the day?
Tough one. Over to you Alan, but please don't let the pantomime boos and hisses put you off...
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4 comments:
Labour will oppose anything any other party does or suggest as its in their blood that Labour knows best for all. Sad block of individuals good for no one except there own friends.
I had to laugh at Prescott's comment on this one. He called Milburn a 'collaborator'. And what exactly is evil about that? Collaboration is one of the the things that sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom: the ability to work through instinctive differences.
I can't help thinking about Prescott's working class roots and his new uniform of ermine, and then wonder who really has collaborated?
I think that Milburn was always more of a Tory than a Labour man. He'll be happy with them.
Peter the Grate (Mandy for short) has said that he would work for them too... I mean there would be another book in that. The Forty-Third Man. Just image the dirt he could dish on the Libories....
I suspect that there are rather more "New Labour" polititians who are closet Tories than just Mandleson and Milburn. Whoever said that Blair was the best leader the Tories never had was probably on the money.
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