The memory is very selective. In reflecting on 10 years of Labour rule in today’s Eastern Daily Press, Norwich South MP Charles Clarke fails to mention 
any achievements from the Home Office and how he was sacked as Secretary for his gross failings.
In case he has forgotten, there are more than 1,000 foreign prisoners on the run, including rapists and murderers, and our prisons are overflowing. Drug offences and robberies are on the increase. Norwich Prison has recently had to reopen a condemned wing.
Norfolk PCT is in crisis, with some vulnerable patients forced to pay for their treatment And a local judge has complained to the Government at the lack of provisions for mental health patients. There are also 26 areas of Norfolk ranked among the most deprived 10% in England.
Here are some of Clarke’s reflections:
“Labour’s victory in May 1997 made an enormous difference. It directly created many of these improvements and indirectly encouraged the strong economy which has encouraged so much investment in the City. This progress would not have been achieved without both Tony Blair’s leadership and Gordon Brown’s stewardship of the economy.
“It is certainly true that Labour could have done better if we had been more ambitious; we were insufficiently courageous, for example in promoting environmental sustainability and in strengthening our relationship with the European Union; we were too indecisive in some public service reforms; we should have reformed the constitution more urgently. And internationally our commitment to development in Africa and addressing climate change, combined with successful intervention to defend human rights in the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan, has been tarnished by the failure to secure peace in Iraq.
“These are important qualifications in the narrative of Labour success. But they are as nothing in comparison with what would have happened had Labour not won in 1997. Conservative economic and social decay would have become chronic and cities like Norwich would have slipped into long-term decline.
“I am sad that Tony Blair is leaving office reaping the media consequences of positive changes that he has sown. Labour rightly legislated for the first time to require publication of political donations, to permit Freedom of Information and to guarantee Human Rights. All of these now offer weapons which enable the prime minister’s critics to make their case, often dishonestly.”
Regarding Freedom of Information, the Government recently failed in its bid to severely restrict access to this. Knowledge is power, the public has a right to know how authorities are working on its behalf. The only dishonesty is preventing the truth from reaching the public, like these questions it has refused to answer. No wonder Charles Clarke wants new laws to control our media and stifle freedom of speech.
Politicians spout rhetoric.
That’s ok if they mean what they say and do what they say…
That is one of your best posts for ages Ellee its nice to see you onto mainstream politics and administering a clunking fist thinly disguised in an elegant glove . The great advantage you retain by not fulminating in the way I and others do is that you can be taken seriously when you make an aggressive point and this is just perfect.
There isn`t a lot to add you summarise incompetence perfectly, the only thing that infuriates me is the constant claim by a Party that have raised tax on business and thwarted enterprise at every turn to have helped the economy. This is, laughably ,there only good card and without it the game would be up.
Globalisation has happened in the last ten years at an exponential rate and it all down to the free economies. It has cut costs dramatically and created previously impossible clement economic conditions in which inefficiency and anti market laws could survive . It seems to me that the endless red tape and barriers to entry have benefited the Large companies we have by allowing them to act as quasi monopolies . Cheap imports have helped the retail trade , Global explosion has helped financial services and with inward and outward investment still the highest in the world ( I think) the retained openness of the economy has allowed great affluence to flow into the country. None of this has anything to do with Labour . They did not undo the Trade union reforms true but he has killed off small companies and eventually that will, have an effect on competitiveness but only over a very long term . I believe we are starting to see the results of this now . It would be truer to say we have moved to a corporatist state than purely statist one although it is also true that the Public sector has grown to unsustainable levels . The regional spread of these sinecures is distinctly worrying similarly the areas in which hospital closures have taken place . The amount of Public employment in Scotland and Wales is staggering .
Without the booming Global economy this would have gone badly wrong a long time ago . We are by far the worst performing Country in the Anglo sphere , on the other hand we are all better off than we were. That is why the Labour Government have survived and it is the basis for the Browns reputation for competence. In the absence of these other economic factors there would be no one to listen to the idiot Clarke .
In Gods name GO !
The ability to continue as if they’ve done nothing wrong, as if their behaviour is a feature, as if their efforts should be applauded and it’s all someone elses fault is pretty much to sum up NuLab. When is Blair going to apologise? He should have been impeached for misleading/lying to parliament. I’m not defending Clarke but in fairness he is simply being as all men in power tend to behave – with the most astonishing front! New Labour, New Leader, New lies?
New balls ?
Clarke is such a dangerous nutter, and quite nasty to boot. I’m just relieved that he doesn’t combine his inchoate authoritarian ‘do what i say’ mentality with any sort of other quality (such as competence/ likeability/ charisma/ good looks) that would make him any kind of leader in waiting…
What I want to know is, when is Blair actually going?! All the media are analysing his 10 years and behaving as if he has announced the date, but he hasn’t, has he? New Labour have done some terrible things, it is true and Iraq is a disaster, but I have to say I think it would have been worse under the Tories, whom I will never forgive for what they did to education.
Things – can only get better …
How much of Nu Labs’ innate self-delusion is born of the fact that so many of them are Marxists in denial ? This foundation of deceit infects absolutely everything that they do.
Thirty years ago I remember my parents saying of students then “God help us when this lot are in charge” and here we have it: incompetence, corruption and dishonesty on an unbelievable scale.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Nu Labour make me feel ill and sometimes have me awake at night.
Oh Kev – the most profound thing you have ever said: “innate self-delusion is born of the fact that so many of them are Marxists in denial ? This foundation of deceit infects absolutely everything that they do.”
so so so true.
Some of them in denial about still being Marxists in attitude at least.
And as for economic growth autonomous of government, Newnamia, a lot of money sloshing around does not equate to quality of life or good services. Young essential workers can’t find affordable housing and often the most expensive houses are placed within a knife-swipe of hoodies. Parents sit on property ‘fortunes’ which are largely elusive and their kids tap into them for deposits. Junior doctors struggle to fund the lifestyle of dustmen a mere generation ago…
I prefered Britain of the ’80s – it’s been downhill since then.
‘we are all better off than we were’ (newmania)
How has house price hyperinflation and higher taxation made young people better off exactly?
I preferred ‘boom and bust’ to this policy of doing whatever it takes to stop the economy correcting itself, regardless of the imbalances it creates.
The label ‘not fit for purpose’ applies to Clarke and a lot of ex and current Labour Ministers.
One can only shoot oneself in the foot before one loses the foot:
1) Privatisation of the nhs & PFI hospitals
2) Wholesale giveaway of Council Housing to Housing Associations for a pittance of market value
3) Tuition fees and top up fees in HE
4) War on Iraq, hanging on to the skirts of a Republican US President, for a place in the history books or annals of War.
Who does Blair think is going to vote for Nu Labour, the Conservatives?
When did someone ever give the opposition credit or praise for doing something ‘better’ than they ever could have.
Spend £90 billion on the nhs & then give it away to private institutions. Go Tony Go!
Not even the Iron Lady would have had the balls to pull that one off
Sell 2 million Council Homes to Housing Associations for £20 billion and then give them £20 billion in grants or subsidies for new build ‘affordable’ housing. Go Tony Go!
Not even Thatcher would have had the gall to pull that one off. Well she did actually, that’s how Labour lost inner City votes. lol!
If you piss into the wind, you are gonna get wet. Wake up Tony Blair, Labour voters don’t want you, and Conservative voters don’t need you. Talk about digging your own grave.
Sorry Elle, Charles who?
The guy who intoduced Tuition & Top Up fees?
You mean he was Labour? I thought he was Tory.
In case he has forgotten, there are more than 1,000 foreign prisoners on the run, including rapists and murderers, and our prisons are overflowing.
So Elle, what’s the answer – more prisons?
Or deport them to Australia with the 20,000 junior doctors that can get a job on the nhs.
Since ‘PR’ is largely concerned with omitting mention of failure, some people might think this is a bit rich…
He was a hopeless Home Secretary. No surprises then he omits his failures.
he also didn’t mention turning his very safe seat in to a labour/lib Dem marginal.
Steven L (12): ‘How has house hyperinflation and taxation made young people better off exactly ?’
How has it made me – middle-aged – better off exactly ? I only own the house I live in !
Offset the ‘booming’ economy with record levels of debt, unemployment (5.6 mil.), hidden inflation, record immigration, record emigration, record incapacity benefits, dumming down of education … it goes on …
there ain’t nothing ‘stable’ about what Nu lab have done to this country.
By the way , Steven_L, I am agreeing with you. It is only the minority in our strata who are involved in the ‘development’ of green-belt and provinces who are gleeful about concreting over our once beautiful country.
The rest drop litter on it.
Sounds like you eed a change of government to me
NEED ( sorry yet again)