Clinton, Godfather
Seductive advice from New Labour's spiritual godfather
He won repeated applause with his appeals to fight global poverty, the audience once again marvelling at the contrast between this American president and the current incumbent. They lapped up his attacks on George Bush, both explicit and implicit - not least his almost throwaway declaration that "we can't kill, jail or occupy all our enemies." When he explained that it was cheaper to give the children of the poorest countries access to clean water or free schooling than it was to fight a war - and that it would do a better job of preventing terrorism - his words were drowned in applause.
Clinton offered something no less valuable: free political advice from an electoral master. He had two messages for Labour and for Blair's eventual successor. First, do not let voters take the last nine years' achievement for granted. Instead, persuade them that all the advances since 1997 were not an "accident," part of the natural order, which would stay in tact even if "the other crowd" were in power - but the product of specific decisions that could be rapidly reversed. Look, Clinton said, at how fast all his good work had been undone in the US.
Second, he said to Labour, do not cast yourself as the party of continuity, but as the party of change. So what, he said, if the Guardian poll finds 70% believe it's time for a change. "Of course it is. It is always time for a change in a great, dynamic country." Labour must ensure it, and not the Tories, are the "agents" of that change.
(tip to Inwit)
Comments
i hope one day gore and clinton work together again. i think they were a good team and shouldn't let personal reasons prevent them from rallying up the party.
Posted by: Anonymous | September 27, 2006 2:55 PM | Reply to this comment
I don't dislike Mr Freeland nor do I disagree with him on the fundamentals, but speaking as a (very drunk) Brit, the principal problem of New Labour isn't an issue of whether or not changes inacted under New Labour will be left in place under its sucessor (which will, depressing though it is for a Lib Dem activist to admit, almost certainly Gordon Brown or David Cameron) it's whether or not there has been any change whatsoever between 'Labour''s way of doing things and the Thatcherite Tories. If you examine the record you will find what mild divergences there were are linked to traditional Labour manifesto pledges (such as the minimum wage) which Labour couldn't help but inact. In actual fact, this 'Labour' government is as right wing as the one which preceded it, if not more so.
In case Mr Freeland is not being ironic: Labour are corrupt, they have indefinately blotted their copy book, no one sensible will ever trust them again whatever they (or their spindoctors) say: whether they claim to be the party of change or tradition, peace or war, rich or poor. It's all lies; they are bankrupt.
Posted by: Duncan | September 27, 2006 6:13 PM | Reply to this comment
What "other crowd", Mr Clinton? There is no "other crowd"! The Reds are really Blues, the Blues are pretending to be Green but they're really still Blue and the Yellows... well, the Yellows are probably never going to get into power if we're honest. So what choice do we have? Blues to the right of me, Blues to the right!
Posted by: Chris Murphy | September 28, 2006 4:46 PM | Reply to this comment
This seems like a good place to mention a quote from Bremner, Bird & Fortune (UK Channel 4) which made me laugh.
Rory Bremner (a British impressionist and comedian specialising in political satire) was doing a Clinton impression. As Clinton, he said:
"I once asked Tony whether he'd rather do the right thing for the wrong reasons or the wrong thing for the right reasons - I don't think he understood the question."
Posted by: Chris Murphy | September 28, 2006 5:01 PM | Reply to this comment
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