I suppose it comes as no surprise to discover a politician being arrogant but Tony Blair still being adamant in his belief that all he did was for the common good and that Labour lost the last election because they wandered from the true New Labour path and did not go far enough (to the right presumably) for his liking is astonishing. To dress your party as Diet Tory to appeal to conservative voters might work when the full fat version are in disarray but you risk alienating your own core voters. As soon as the Tories appeared slightly electable the public were always likely to vote for the real thing. The many external factors such as the economy or crime suddenly appear more apparent and change was always bound to happen after 13 years of the same government. These things come in cycles as the ruling party are not going to reverse any unpopular policies for fear of looking weak so the party that was in opposition come in and can make popular decisions from the comfort of often being against those unpopular policies when in opposition. The real test comes when the honeymoon period ends and they have to come up with their own ideas instead of blaming the previous government.
   That reminds me of the apocryphal tale of the Soviet leader relinquishing power and the new chairman taking office to find two letters on his desk. The first letter has on the envelope "Only to be opened in the event of your unpopularity" and the second reads "Only to be opened when you are so unpopular and in the middle of a crisis". At first everything runs smoothly but sure enough he starts losing popularity and so opens the first letter. Inside it reads "Blame everything on me". The new leader therefore blames the policies of his predecessor and this appeases everyone for a while, but soon his troubles restart and he resorts to opening the second letter. In it he reads "Write two letters..."
   Anyway all this seems to have eluded Tony Blair (unlike today's eggs and shoes - got the message yet) who still maintains that a tired government would still have won had they followed through with his vision. The biggest disappointment after 13 years of Labour rule is that in the last two general elections Darlington has failed to field a left field candidate. It's as if they have actually admitted that they are all much of a muchness, no more red and blue just magnolia everywhere. Like all these property shows telling you to use pastel colours to decorate your house lest you offend any potential buyers, even though every new house now looks like a hospital ward so the politicians are trying to please everybody. This is not how it works in a democracy - settling for something bland that no one can identify with - people debate issues and the side with the most votes win. All this is achieving is to marginalise core voters who will run off to extremist parties although they are doing a bang up job of showing how ridiculous they all are themselves. The odious Nick Griffin doesn't like immigration but quite frankly looking at him and his corned beef face this country needs all the help it can get in the gene pool. The Monster Raving Loony Party (or UKIP) are quite funny in that people can still take a one policy party seriously and the least said about such vanity projects as Veritas and Respect the better.
   All in all I suppose I'm quite fearful that Labour will elect David Milliband as leader and we will have the status quo preserved. Everyone promises change when things go wrong but I've yet to see any - except the loose change in my pocket which is all I'll have left after the Tories hang around a bit longer (I know it's the coalition but really the Lib Dems are just so pleased to be there they daren't say no).