What stood out was at times David Miliband paying lip service to issues. Forgetting he was part of the last UK government. Nor do I think there has been any change within New Labour for me to pay attention for all the talk about his politics 'a' politics which tends to fair better in northern England/Wales and or Scotland. For example jan of this year New Labour expelled a councillor for taking an anti-cuts stance (1). I still see a party which largely reflects the politics of the south east and London. With a continued move to the right, this can be seen with not only their anti-cuts stance but in issues where they've tried to out Tory the Tories by being tougher on the jobless (2). Paul Richards in 1992 was an adviser and contributor to "The purple book" as it shows a party that still sees its mission as a party of London and the south east of England summed up nicely here; And still relevant to New Labour “If Labour cannot win over the hard-working, car-owning, owner-occupiers in southern and eastern towns and suburbs, piling up majorities in northern cities will count for nothing. This substratum of our society decides who governs. This is the real ‘political class’ – the people who decide who forms the cabinet. They do not like high taxes, an out-of-control benefits bill, or an interfering government. They have never been to Wales, Liverpool or Newcastle, but they have been to Ibiza and Majorca. In 1992, they preferred a grey man and party which had bashed the miners, brought in the poll tax and could not give a hoot about mass unemployment." It also nicely points to at least one issue of what's wrong in UK politics (3). The crisis in democracy isn't just political party's but in media as well (I'm looking at you Economist) with their perversion of the world revolves around "Essex man" and illiteracy of issues outside the M25 (3),(4).
(1) http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=27116
(2) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-tries-to-outflank-tories-on-welfare-7546203.html
(3) http://nationalcollective.com/2012/04/09/what-nationalists-should-learn-from-1992/
(4) http://www.gerryhassan.com/blog/the-future-has-been-pre-ordinated-scotland-and-the-uk-according-to-the-free-market-revolutionaries/
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