[DanaC]

Cyclefrance: I think Blair feels beset on all sides by people who don't understand the tough decisions he has to make as leader......he reminds me a little of Thatcher in her last couple of years. Very out of touch, something of the messianic martyr and a determination not to be swayed by those around him. He believes he is right, I think he is arrogant enough to think he is right and the rest of the world will catch up sooner or later.

9th: I suspect Jay has referred to Blair as 'the first of many' of that kind of career politician, because that's all there is to see amongst the likely contenders. There are one or two impressive people within the field of politics but the vast majority are uninspiring careerists (in all the major parties). That carries through to the Bright Young Things who are starting to make their presence felt. They are like mini-blairs and mini-camerons. I cannot think of any really inspiring up and coming politicians at this time, in any party.

There must be some.....somewhere.....but where? I know amongst Labour most of the really impressive, politically inspired and inspiring MPs will never be anything but backbenchers. Why? because they tend to get classed early on as 'rebels', for disagreeing with some of the worst of our current leader's ideas and obsessions. He's shuffled his cabinet so often. Everytime someone gets inconveniently vocal they vanish back to the benches and he drafts in someone more amenable to his cause. In cases where his 'friends' have been involved in scandals, he abandons them fairly quickly, gets them to resign and then replaces them from amongst his shrinking crop of hopefuls. Consequently, even those who were his friends end up hating him.

I know a handful of backbench MPs. They represent their constituents, they refuse to be bought with empty promises and blair's broken rhetoric. One of them was an MP for two terms, before she retired. Her name is Alice and she is one of my absolute heroes. That woman is able to rally a room, she speaks from the souls of her feet and has a twinkle in her eyes. She's old school. She rebelled against the move to reduce assistance for single mums and got relegated to the ranks of the rebels. End of parliamentary career. She was a great MP, her constituents loved her, and when she moved on to UN and amnesty work, her successor was in a similar mould. Linda: also a wonderful woman, but also entering politics at quite a late stage in life and also already earmarked as a rebel because she wouldn't vote for various draconian measures.

Incidentally, there has been a change in how the whip works within labour. Cyclefrance and Jay, you may find this interesting: If a Labour MP votes against the government now, they will face 'suspension' which would mean if it was near election time, they'd be barred from reselection. See, they don't want to have to win the argument with their own side. Not even if their stance is a total departure from party ideals or election promises:P

As a lifelong Labour supporter and current activist and Labour Councillor, you can imagine how terribly impressed I am with that. There are times I despair, but then I remind myself: Labour is not just the cabinet, it is not just the Whitehall scene. Labour is the MP that fights for better nursery provision; it's the Surestart programme and the Every Child Matters agenda; it's the MP that sits and listens to the asylum seeker who isn't able to get help or assistance from the system and is now living in doorways; It's the minimum wage and an insistence on equal pay for women;it's the grassroots, the membership who have never been as far to the right as this government is; it's people who believe in social justice and don't accept the argument that the world has moved beyond it, or that we can't afford it. And it absolutely isn't, and never was, Tony Fucking Blair.