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Blairites demand pledge on reforms as price of halting a challenge
Joe Murphy7 May 2009
Gordon Brown is under pressure to make major concessions to former allies of Tony Blair as the price of avoiding a bloody leadership battle.
Senior Blairites linked to rumours of a plot to unseat the Prime Minister have indicated they can be bought off by being allowed to influence Labour's next manifesto.
Their stance signals a battle in the weeks ahead for the soul of the party, with Brownites and Blairites repeating the internal warfare that marred many of Labour's years in office. Among the demands made by the Blairites are commitments to put consumer choice and market-style reforms at the heart of public services in future, such as giving patients more say over how and where they are treated, and parents more influence in their schools.
Former health secretary Alan Milburn today used an article in the Independent to urge Mr Brown to resist pressure to tackle the economic slump with Leftist policies and instead pursue a modernising agenda.
Labour think tank Demos issued a pamphlet arguing for individuals to have greater say than the state.
Saying the public have “reached their limits in terms of tax”, Mr Milburn said: “We can no longer treat patients as passive recipients of care in a system that denies them both power and responsibility.”
He called for a “new relationship” between citizens and state “by giving parents new powers to choose schools and patients to choose treatments” and letting the elderly or disabled control their personal care budgets.
Reader views (4)
It is rightist policies (Blairite policies,that is) which have brought us to where we are....at war in two countries which were never a threat to us,in the middle of the worst recession in over half a century, with the Labour Party at its lowest point of support in its entire history...and with a complete collapse of public faith in government.Do these deluded Blairite idiots NEVER learn?
- A Macmillan, Volos Greece, 01/06/2009 17:27
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No honour amongst the 'honorable' members, and certainly not discharging the obligations to the electorate!
- Hugh, Middx, 01/06/2009 16:27
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Great Jock Gordinski, oh mighty leader, beware.
Having so foolishly let him enter your lair, the hideously dark Lord Mandelson is even now sadistically preparing his terrifyingly torturous mechanical mincer!
And you WILL do as his Blairites decree.
- Dave, Cumbria, 01/06/2009 16:27
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If there was LESS back-biting, eye-scratching and pulling each others hair out amongst MP's and MORE of representing the interests of the electorate, we just MIGHT have a future in the UK.
Roll on 4th June 2009.
Roll on the publication of MP's expenses.
Roll on the end of Gormless Brown, MISS PIGGY SMIFF, Jackboot Straw and Balls and Cooper and Harperson and Blears and Blunkett.
WHAT AN ABSOLUTE RABBLE THEY ARE.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe UK, 01/06/2009 16:27
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