Four Campaign TONY Blair's proposed replacement foe Clause Four is little more than an exercise in evasion, with the intellectual depth of the Neighbours' theme song ("Everybody needs good neighbours... with a little understanding, we can make a better world. ")
The new clause makes no serious attempt to address any of the key challenges facing the modern world: the growing gulf between rich and poor, the unaccountable power of multi-national corporations and global financial markets, the mounting environmental crises, the decay of public services, and mass It is a classic specimen of professional politicians' waffle. Though pledging to place "power, wealth, and opportunity in the hands of the many", it leaves economic ownership concentrated in the hands of the few, and thus deliberately discards the one practical strategy for realising the values of solidarity and soHaving abandoned any ambitions for a change in the system under which we live, Labour will be a prisoner of the undemocratic forces which dominate the It is not those who defend Clause Four, but Labour's leaders who "fear change" -they fear any challenge to the vested interests which The media has allowed the Labour leadership to get away with persistent distortions both of the content of Clause Four itself and the arguments for its retention. No one has objected to renewal and extension.
But from the beginning, many members feared that Blair's real aim was simply to delete all references to common ownership. That fear has now been confirmed.
In place of the long-term Buzzwords aplenty: Prescott out fighting for Blair's clause economic strategy clearly articulated by the existing Clause Four, we are oftered an empty string of catchphrases, buzzwords and "feelgood' rhetoric.
There is little in Blair's proposed new clause to which Liberal Democrats or even many Tories could not subscribe.
Labour lost in 1992 because it was not trusted by sufficient numbers of voters. The replacement of a clear and cogent statement of principles with empty phrase-mongering will, in the long run, merely re-enforce public suspicions that Labour politicians will say anything to win the City's approval.
Had Blair's new clause been presented to regional Labour Party and trade union conferences, it would certainly have been rejected.
On 12 March, the North. West Regional Labour Party Conference voted overwhelmingly to demand the inclusion in any new Clause IV of a clear commitment to common ownerThe London and SouthWest Conferences voted to retain the existing wording of Clause IV.
The Scottish Conference voted to renationalise all utilities.
The GMB and other un-