The Golden Strawberry

One senior minister under fire would just be shrugged off as a normal, everyday occurrence. Two senior cabinet ministers under fire is unusual. But three? That’s taking the pee.

This is not a resignation issue, but it will hardly be Pauline Prescott alone who thinks far less of her husband as a man and as a public figure after learning of the full details of this story. The Deputy Prime Minister is becoming a liability to this administration. The ugly aroma of the arrogance of power is rapidly attaching itself to him.

Finally, although some Labour bloggers are bristling at the ingratitude of the nurses who booed and jeered Patricia Hewitt, you can see their point, can’t you chaps? If you are going to make daft remarks like this, with the NHS in the financial state it’s in, what do you expect? Labour is spending more than ever on the NHS, and getting improvements. That doesn’t mean the Health Secretary should get delirious, sack 7000 nurses, and then tell a conference of nurses that everything’s going to be OK.

I was surprised not by the heckling (you’ll always get one person heckling, even if it’s only some mad old bat with an asparagus complex) but by the scale of the heckling. It was uncomfortable and embarrassing to watch. Even I, as someone who would usually rather extract my own teeth with a rusty spanner than listen to Patricia Hewitt talking, had some sympathy for her on this occasion. I get the impression that she is a fighter and that she will carry on. Opposition from angry nurses wearing similar t-shirts is not a resignation matter.

Cameron was very impressive at PMQs. Blair was indeed on the ropes, and squirmed the best he could. Probably still wasn’t good enough. I will reserve judgement on the state of New Labour and his premiership until after the local elections next week. Perhaps the person who has emerged from the day with my opinion of them most damaged is Sir Menzies Campbell, yet this story most newspapers have only touched upon. What a muppet Campbell is! He has a golden opportunity to make some political capital, and somehow managed to score an own goal. Even Labour managed to get through the day without misleading the house…

Posted by Roy

Just read Daniel Finkelsteins critique of the Manifesto here. He raises some interesting points, especially this one:

Meanwhile, I wonder and I wait. I wonder when Mr Blair is going to stop being bewildered and frustrated by this failure and begin living with its consequences. I wait for the penny to drop that his war on Iraq required Tory support in the Commons, despite him having one of the biggest majorities enjoyed by a progressive party. I wonder and I wait for him to understand that while he might feel that progressives should support his views and those of the Euston Manifesto, in practice they do not.

No, they do not and many of them never will. Finkelstein is wrong however, to deride the manifesto as a waste of time because of the pig headedness of (as the drinked soaked trots call it) the 'pseudo left'.

Do we want to 'save the left from itself' when the left we are referring to is in bed with Islamism and totalitarianism? Perhaps now is the time for a final parting of the ways. At least until those on the pseudo left realise their compromised position and admit their mistakes.

Not much chance of that though, is there? I think one of the best things the manifesto has done is to thrust the split on the left into the spotlight and lay bare the treachery and hypocrisy of the apologists for terrorism for all to see.

-posted by Adam

Hello there,

Here’s just a little more information about this blog. As you may have guessed by now, its inspiration is the Euston manifesto. The manifesto is the starting point for a debate over where the “progressive left” can go from here. The Golden Strawberry is intended to be part of the debate about the issues not covered in the Euston Manifesto (like health, education and crime) as well as those covered (like foreign affairs, liberty and equality).

As Adam says, our political views are still evolving. I attended SWP and RESPECT meetings at university, before realising it’s possible to be a member of the left without opposing everything. I’m still very much a left-winger though. I believe in the nationalisation of key industries, and am unsure if you can reconcile private profit with the public interest on massive schemes like health and education. But don’t be surprised if our views change over the next few weeks, months, (years maybe…?) After all, Clement Atlee was a Tory at university, Harold Wilson a Liberal. So watch this space…

Now to the blog itself. I can’t quite remember where the expression, “Golden strawberry” came from, though it’s definitely an attempt to liven up dull history or economics lessons at college. Don’t ask. The quotation by Elvis Costello at the top is also my idea (I doubt whether Adam would be seen dead listening to an Elvis Costello album). One could say that the quotation represents the contradiction in the blog; with a quotation from one of the great anti-war songs on what you may call a “pro-war left” blog. But it’s only supposed to be a great quote from a great song by a great songwriter. It makes a change from all these George Orwell quotations on other blogs (!) though I have it on good authority Adam is finding a suitable Orwell saying for the top of our blog, to go alongside Elvis.

All that remains to be said is thanks for reading, and enjoy the blog…

Posted by Roy

Greetings

This blog is a joint project between myself and Roy and, as you can see from his first post, it will be mainly political in nature. We were inspired to set this thing up by the publication of the Euston Manifesto - an excellent summary of which is avaliable below.

I interpret the central thrust of the Manifestoes argument to be Universalism. The belief that values which happened to have grown and flowered in the West (Universal suffrage, womens rights, individual liberty, seperation of church and state to name a few) should be avaliable to everyone - not just people in Western Europe and North America. An Iranian woman has as much to gain from Western Liberalism as a Chinese coal miner, an American billionaire or someone suffering from AIDS in sub-saharan Africa. What I oppose is the form of soft-relativism that has been peddled in the comment pages of the Guardian for too long - that cultures which subjugate women, hang homosexuals or commit genocide deserve understanding or even respect when in fact these cultures should be critiscised as barbarous.

Cultural Imperialism? Perhaps, but I am firmly convinced that, if given a real choice between a Western Liberal society and the alternatives (Soviet Communism, Iranian Theocracy, Baathist fascism etc), its a no-brainer.

Me and Roy disagree on a number of issues - the extent to which can be used to spread Liberalism is one example, the balance between the public and private sectors in a modern economy another - but we agree that everyone should have the rights we in the West possess.

This blog represents a growing process. I can't speak for Roy but my political opinions are certainly in a state of ongoing evolution. If you want a purely ideological blog, go and read Pat Robertson.

- Posted by Adam