Labour's murmuring grassroots

By demoralising the Thatcher-hating core Labour vote Baroness Thatcher's afternoon tea at No.10 may well cause more long-term damage to Brown than to Cameron, although I doubt that that was in her or her advisers' calculations.

Glancing around what there is of a Labour-supporting blogosphere I see that Bloggers4Labour "can't imagine any remotely plausible political strategy" for the "nauseating sight" of them together. Skipper believes Brown was right in saying that Thatcher was a conviction politician, but sees his cosying up to her as yet another example that he is not, and poor GrimmerUpNorth resents being booed at a local Palestinian Solidarity Campaign fund-raiser because of it.

So what will be the mood of the Labour faithful as they gather in Bournemouth a week on Sunday? I'm no expert on the internal machinations of the Labour coalition but I did attend their conference last time it was there (not as a member) so have some idea of the type of people who go. Then, in 2003, they were all muttering darkly about "blood for oil" and I often found myself compelled to defend Blair.

Now they're meeting for the first time under Gordon Brown's premiership but it will hardly be a love-in. It won't simply be the things that he's "done" in the last few months that will have annoyed them - as well as the above he's recently had run-ins with the Prison Officers' Association, Rail Maritime Transport union and, to some extent, the Trades Union Congress - but the things he hasn't done.

What happened to the man the Left looked up to? Many of them Some of them will have held out during the Blair years patiently waiting for the coup d'etat, and now Brown's got the crown and gone all Blair on them. New Labour hacks will accept Brown's political manoevring for what it is, but the ideologues will be wondering when the political capital is actually going to be used for some ideological ends (sound familiar?).

Deputy Editor

Comments

[Labour Party member]

I am happy to report that you are making the same mistake as CCO in 1994 - 1997 - thinking that inevitably it will all fall apart.

The blogs you quote are written by people who never gave Gordon the time of day. The RMT disaffilitaed from the Labour party years ago and the POA have never been affiliated.

The reality is clear from last night's by-elections - the Brown bounce is ongoing.

[Moral minority]

Thatcher has wound up her old enemies in the Conservative and Labour parties. That is political genius, not the actions of a frail and lonely woman (as she has been smeared by Rob Wilson MP on this site today).

[Richard Lowe]

This is what I like to see - a positive 'spin' on what was apparently an attack on the Conservative Party - perhaps more accurately a way to get traditionalists gooses going! Whilst this may irritate "those on the right",those on the left are surely more likely to hate this picture.

[Andrew Woodman]

I made this point yesterday when everyone was in a state of shock. Brown is too clever by half (his last budget being a prime example). He think he's being clever with all these tactics to destablise us, but his own grassroots will see him as betraying them. I still believe they will cause more problems for him than Blair because they regard him as their own, whereas Blair was a path to power.

[dizzy]

Sam, am curious to know why you doubt that either she, or her advisors, thougth about what the impact of the visit would be on Brown?

[Gnosis]

I don't think gordon will be that bothered by what the unions have to say or the grass roots for that matter as they fell out of love with the nu-lab project long ago and will more than likely vote for the soc-lab party..what we have to worry about is him casting his net over the floating voters out there as they will win the next election for either party.

[JP]

I'm sure they will be overjoyed at seeing the "racist" Partick Mercer joining Gordon Brown on the main platform [Brown's platform of "all the talents'] at labour's conference also

[Chris King]

It’s the floating voter that counts. The Labour left have nowhere to go and worse case scenario is they stay at home. Whilst Brown cannot completely ignore his grass roots, his focus will remain the floating voter. His recent stance on trade unions, his perceived effectiveness of running the economy and now his embracing of Lady T, send all the right signals. With the current flux in the financial markets “a safe pair of hands” and the economy (better the devil you know – JM in 1992) will shoot up in voter’s minds, if not reflected in polls. Peter Riddell’s piece today sums up the challenges the Tory Party faces.

[MrB]

Leaflets with pictures of Gord and Maggie's smiling faces together should be distributed in the conference hall just before Gord's big speech.

Any volunteers?

[Gnosis]

Mr Editor,
i have just taken a look at the sites you quoted here and i see that there are very few mention's of the visit so it hasn't sewn the seeds of anger as it has to us ,so i don't really think we should be smiling or very pleased with that,it seems the labourites are reserving their judgement on the whole episode,we should not start crowing about Murmerings in thier ranks until we see what happens during the conference season then we will be able to properly gauge what his party thinks about the whole affair ,it not the right time to pop the champagne corks yet methinks.

[Oberon Houston]

In the absence of any real understanding of what to do now he is finally in power, Brown has reverted to what he does best - cheap publicity stunts. I hope it's not just the left of his party that find this latest spectacle unsavoury and strange, strange in a not-nice way.

[Right wingery]

Labour MP's won't say anything! They are leeching parasites who become MPs for the express purpose of getting a rather substantial payrise on their lesser skilled jobs.

Unlike Tory newcomers to Westminster, who can rail against their leader on principle safe in the knowledge that a cushy, well paid exisistence lurks after an election defeat, Labour MPs know that if they rock the boat and lose their seat it will be back to the Unions and £25k a year.

The reason why Brown can do all this is precisely because of Labour MP fears of losing their cushy little existence.

[Tony Makara]

Although I am certainly not left-wing myself I do make a point of reading as many far-left journals as I can get my hands on. I find them entertaining and I enjoy their aggressive style of writing. A common theme that comes up in many of the journals is 'Reclaiming the Labour party' The left really seem to believe this is possible, in spite of Labour's millionaire-donor culture. The left feel that once Labour are turfed out of office a battle for the soul of the Labour party can begin. Whether that is possible remains to be seen. Labour these days are no longer the firebrand party of old, now the Labour party has been hijacked by career politicians whose only raison d'etre is to stay in power. Political power for its own sake, nothing more nothing less. The quintessential example of the transformation from firebrand socialist to career politican can be seen in Neil Kinnock, now sated and satisfied, no fight left in him. The best thing the left can do is break away from Labour and form a new party of conviction. They can't revive a corpse.

[Cassilis]

For heaven's sake - let's not read too much into this. It was an ex-PM visiting a sitting one, a constitutional nicety and tradition that only the most obdurate extremists from either party could possibly take issue with.

Yes, I'm sure Brown's people had a chuckle at the discomfort it might cause in some circles and perhaps even the timing was a little contrived but I'm sure the meeting would have taken place regardless of all that context.

[Graham Checker]

THIS is a corker!!

http://www.labourhome.org/story/2007/8/27/154056/735

"Thatcher - a necessary evil"

The thread they DIDNT want Conhome to find out about!

Too late ;-)

[JP]

Leaflets with pictures of Gord and Maggie's smiling faces together should be distributed in the conference hall just before Gord's big speech.

Perhaps some heckling of Mercer when he appears on the platform with Brown as well? - I believe the correct Labour phrase is "Scab"?

Funny how his diary is full for the following week [apparently he'll be busy advising 'Gordon' on 'security issues'] and cant make short journey to Blackpool for his own party's conference

[James Cleverly]

I've blogged about this. I think it could be a thinly veiled warning to the unions. "Look what happened last time you tried to bully a Labour PM".

[George Hinton]

Anything that infuriates the hard left is good.
At least they will recognise that Maggie was principled and didn't obfuscate like this shower of reprobates.

[bill]

JP

Have you served your country as well and with the same distinction as Mercer?

[Henry Rogers]

Followed Graham Checker's 13.35 link. Loved it! And people worry about contributers to this blog getting a bit worked up? 'Trads' winding up 'roons' and vice versa just can't match that sort of passion.

[JP]

bill

By your comment, are you suggesting that Patrick Mercer's record of service somehow puts him beyond critisism for his foolish support of Gordon Brown?

[bill]

JP

Read the link from Mercer's website (http://www.patrickmercer.org.uk/type3.asp?id=96&type=3) and then honestly ask yourself whether you are as big a man as him and whether your original comments were fair and appropriate. Off the top of my head I struggle
to think of a single member of the Cameroon illuminati who impresses me as much or whom I'd rather associate with than Mercer.

[susan press calder valley CLP]

As some on the hard left of the Labur party, the odd thing is I often get more sympathy from Tories trying to cope with Cameron. Thatcher and Gordon is nauseating for millions of us. You are right.
As John McDonnell MP said in the Mirror:"It is hard to imagine a greater insult to the labour and trade union movement."

[Traditional Tory]

By your comment, are you suggesting that Patrick Mercer's record of service somehow puts him beyond critisism for his foolish support of Gordon Brown?

With Cameron's blessing, by all accounts.

Smearing a decent man with the disgusting epithet 'scab' says more about you than Mercer.

[Richard Carey]

Smearing a decent man with the disgusting epithet 'scab' says more about you than Mercer.

In fairness to JP, Trad Tory, I took his comments to be more of a parody of the Labour movement and their usual tactics than an attack on Mr Mercer, as befits the topic of this thread.

I do think we should not have been out-flanked on this in terms of the media handling, and maybe we should have found a way to have slapped it down at an earlier stage if we had visibility on it. But there's no problem finding a message on this from our side - not so much "Mercer joins Brown's bg tent" as "Brown has done what you do when the country is getting serious about getting things done - he's sent for the Conservatives!"

Of course it was a nakedly political stunt, as was yesterday's meeting with Baroness Thatcher - and they were both clever ones. However, Conservatives on here (as usual I make no apology for the capital C!) should be more careful not to openly walk into it.

[James]

This is more of a comment on Conservative grassroots than Labours.

Given that this site has no prcess of registration, and no way of knowing who people posting comments are, shouldn't we (and the media) stop referring to comments on here as coming from Conservative grassroots?

The sad truth is, any comment on here has simply come from 'an individual who made a comment on the internet'