The Last Real Labour P.M.

[tjwmason]

R.I.P. Lord Callaghan of Cardiff.

The Torygraph editorial said this of Sunny Jim:

"Lord Callaghan was not only Britain's last Old Labour prime minister: he was also, in a sense, the last proper Labour prime minister there will ever be."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/03/28/dl2802.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2005/03/28/ixopinion.html

Taking a very class-based analysis, and especially his close connexion with the labour movement (i.e., the trade-unions).

Do others DUers think that what one might call Real Labour (whether Trade Union based or not) is gone forever, or do you hold out hope for a Gordon Brown leadership?

[LeftishBrit]

1. I hope the pendulum will swing back!

Jim Callaghan was considered on the right of his party when he was PM - it's scary how much both parties have moved to the right.

I don't think that Gordon Brown is super-left; but I would certainly prefer him to Blair. He is more competent and more honest.

As regards the class issues: I think that the basic difference between right and left is that the left wish to fight for the rights of the weak or disadvantaged in that particular society, even though it may reduce the powers, wealth or privileges of the strong; the right wish to protect the rights of the strong to become stronger still, even though it means increasing disadvantage for those in a weaker position. The details of who the 'strong' are in a particular society will vary according to time and place: they may be feudal lords, or yuppie businessmen, or generals, or Stalinist apparatchiks, or wealthy celebrities, or senior managers... Therefore, I don't think the precise form that the left/right distinction takes is going to be exactly the same in the future as it was in the 1970s, but I think that the basic distinction will remain, and I hope that there will be some move to the left.

[Wat_Tyler]

2. I wouldn't quite call him 'Old Labour', though that may be because

I understand that term to mean Tony Benn/left-wing of the party Labour. He certainly was a solid left-of-centre leader, though. The real tragedy of Jim Callaghan is that he was a perfectly competent leader undone by the actions of his predecessors and the post-oil crisis economic tailspin. I suppose another factor may have been his indecisiveness over going to the polls in October 1978, when he could well have won a minority - he even booked the TV time to announce the election, but had cold feet at the last minute. That minority government may well have ridden out the storm of the Winter of Discontent and the recession, and avoided Thatcherism. As it was, Callaghan left himself subordinate to events, and thus, subject to that one vote that led to 18 years of misrule.

[mr blur]

3. I'd like to think that Gordon Brown could step in

and get the party back where I feel it should be but I fear it's gone for ever into the hands of the shiny suits and the Tories with red ties. But what do I know - back in the leadership elections when Bliar got the job, I voted for Prescott.

[fedsron2us]

4. The Tory press have given Callaghan quite glowing obituaries

whilst the commentator in the Independent panned him as being a complete failure in all of the four great offices of state that he occupied. My older contacts in the Labour movement tell me that Callaghan was a nice man and very loyal to the party but they felt he showed poor political judgement as a leader. For example, if he had gone to the country in autumn 1978 then the winter of discontent would not have occurred and Mrs Thatcher may not have become Prime Minister. Many people in Britain paid a very high price for that error.

[non sociopath skin]

5. I am sad for his family

However, Callaghan's views were not my views and his advocacy of small "c" conservatism ushered in the Thatcher era and the near-destruction of the trade unionism which nurtured him.

I suspect that the Telegraph will feel his loss more than most of us in the North-East.

As for him being "the last Labour PM," I suspect that the jury's out on that one.

The Skin

[fedsron2us]

8. I do not think it is fair to tar Callaghan with the Thatcherite tag.

Although he succumbed to the threats from the IMF it is important to remember that he was trying to govern in very difficult circumstances and without a workable majority. Callaghan's heart lay in the Trade Unions where he had once led the Inland Revenue Staff Federation. He was in no way a corporate toady like Blair. The tragedy of his career was that it was the union movement that helped bring him down. In my darker moods I still suspect that some of the agitation against that Labour government was being orchestrated by people within the unions who were agent provocateurs in the pay of the right. The aim was not merely to put Thatcher in power but to ensure that the huge oil reserves discovered in the North Sea in the 1970's could be plundered without any concern about whether this resource was being exploited for the benefit of the people of Britain. The malign geopolitical forces that drove those events are still at work in the world today

[Briar]

6. I'm afraid I remember him

as the man who let the IMF in and who initiated the "Great Debate" on education which has been so destructive since. He started the, "When you want to appease the right, knock comprehensive schools" ploy.

[non sociopath skin]

7. Indeed, Briar ...

.. together with his right-wing Education Secretary, Shirley Williams.

Now I wonder what happened to her ....?

The Skin

[LeftishBrit]

9. Compared with Blunkett or Charles Clarke...

Shirley Williams was practically a Communist!

Actually, probably so were some Conservative Education Secretaries!

Where does Blair get such right-wing people from, I wonder? Maybe they misunderstand "The Red Flag" as meaning red as in 'red states' in America!

[tjwmason]

10. It's more authoritarian than just right-wing

When Blunkett flew the red-flag, perhaps he really did want to make us Soviet.

[LeftishBrit]

11. True, very authoritarian!

And there is certainly a Soviet-like quality in all those plans, targets, etc.


How many people are needed to change a light-bulb under Blair's government?

301. One to change the light-bulb; 100 to set the targets for light-bulb reform; 100 to carry out an assessment exercise on whether the targets have been met; and 100 to carry out a quality review on how well the assessment exercise was done.

[Briar]

12. Perhaps where people fall on the liberal/authoritarian axis

is as informative (or more so) as where they fall on the left/right one. Old stalinists like Reid and Aaronovitch (sp? David of that ilk) are now fervent Bliarites and deeply pro war and anti liberal.