The forthcoming inquiry into Labour's surprise defeat at the Uxbridge by-election on 3l st will no doubt scapegoat hapless regional officials and local party members for Labour's hopeless "from triumph into disaster" campaign in the West London constituency.
The real reasons for the defeat however, are signalled in Labour's disastrous public relations record in August (crabs and Monserrat) and are summed up in the ironically titled "Partnership into Power" proposals coming before the Labour Rarty conference at the end of September.
Both encapsulate the accelerated • trend towards complete centralisation in the Labour Party that appears to go hand in hand with the desire to out-Tory the Tories wherever possible ("pay per bed" in the health service, tuition fees and the abolition of grants, continuation of local government capping, refusal to allow asylum seekers to stay in Britain etc.)
While the chickens will come home to roost in the short to medium term through increasing struggles, industrial action and voter unpopularity, the internal Labour Party changes are an even more immediate threat to any notion that Labour is a place for radical politics and a vehicle for progressive change.
Uxbridge illustrates this nicely. The useless Andrew Slaughter was not picked for his dazzling oratory but because "he is totally new Labour and a complete supporter of mine" (Tony Blair's words a week before polling).
At the selection meeting back in June Slaughter was asked whether there where any circumstances he would break the Labour whip in parliament eg over charges for VHS beds. He out new-Laboured his opponent and veteran right wing hack Willy Bach in answering in the negative.
Labour claim to have discarded the General Election candidate David Williams "because by-elections are national campaigns" and I was told that there would be an emphasis on phone canvassing and as few door to door calls as possible - as in America, new Labour favours razzmatazz rather than local involvement or discussion.
•Thousands of pounds were lavished on huge posters to create an image but there was a complete absence of any message. Whereas soundbites may once have been a summary of something more substantive they are now completely meaningless - "Uxbridge deserves the Best" -and Uxbridge gave its answer In Uxbridge Blair and co have signalled their continued intention to run campaigns completely from the centre and with the absence of any politics whatsoever. alinar:
This, they obviously feel, was what was responsible for the general election result, not an overwhelming desire by working people to throw out the Tories. With Partnership into Power the proposal is very clear -conference will no longer decide Party policy and the NEC/CLP influence will be reduced.
This all puts in writing what has been the practice since Blair became leader - that politics, particularly those which offend the City of London - don't matter any more. All that matters is winning elections - by any means necessary.
For a while some of the people remaining in the Labour Party have apparently accepted this notion on the grounds that ousting the Tories TEMPORARY POLLINO STATION SITE PLEASE KEEP CLEAR After the first flush of enthusiasm, are Blairite politics getting bogged down? was of prime importance.
The left has always warned that this abdication would lead to a Labour government that promised nothing for working people and bereft of any vestige of socialist policies or radical debate.
This is the time that is now dawning. When the honeymoon finally ends, when cuts and charges really bite, when the next by-election is lost - then maybe the message will get home to people at large.
Uxbridge and "Partnership into Power" signal an important step in the erosion of the Labour Party as a party linked to the struggles of working people via the trade union leaders.
Ironically it is those very trade union leaders who will probably deliver "Partnership into Power" to Blair next month.
A concerted campaign in the unions as well as amongst Labour members is therefore still urgently needed so that Uxbridge does not become the turning point that all those who loathe socialist ideas hope it is.