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January 10, 2006
Showing a little Respect
Once again Tony Blair hits the road with another campaign. This time it is the Respect campaign, basically a rehashing and re-presentation of old and flawed ideas that will achieve very little indeed. In many ways it would be fairier to call it a half-baked campaign, not only because it contains nothing new, but also because it appears to be another New Labour rush job as Tim points out.
I could spend time pulling the whole thing to pieces, but in all honesty that would be a waste of both your time and mine. New Labour, and Blair in particular, has shown time and again a complete inability to deliver on the fundamental issues facing society, and Respect is just another case in point.
Meanwhile, Channel 4 is showing Respect, or rather Respect's MP "Gorgeous" George Galloway, on Celebrity Big Brother. I bet those 15,801 electors in Bethnal Green and Bow who elected George are really happy with the return on their democratic investment. According to Get Back To Work George, Galloway has so far cost his constituents more than £800 in wasted salary as a result of his appearance on the show. More importantly, his presence in the Big Brother House makes it almost certain that he will not be in Parliament for Thursday's Crossrail Bill debate, a matter of great local importance as one result of the bill passing would be massive disruption in his constituency, affecting thousands of people. In an online interview last year, Galloway had this to say on the matter:
Crossrail will devastate the East End - if it is allowed to go ahead on its current route - in a way they wouldn't dream of devastating the West End. They would never build a "Ground Zero" in High Street Kensington in the way they plan to do in Brick Lane. They counted on eastenders being a push over - I suspect May the 5th will prove them wrong.
So given the importance of the matter and his awareness of its significance, what on earth is he doing on Big Brother?
Posted by Clive on January 10, 2006 3:27 PM in the category Labour