When political dinosaurs ruled the earth.

As the General Election draws ever nearer, a number of Labour Party luminaries (specifically Tony Blair, Alan Milburn, Peter Mandelson and Ed Balls) have talked about the need for Labour to chase the 'centre ground'. All of them, in my opinion, wilfully ignoring the fact that, since the days of Thatcher, the Tories and their cronies have been working hard to change where the centre ground lies. Labour, following the lead of their natural opponents like a puppy, has allowed the project to succeed. The centre no longer lies mid-way between the old-fashioned binary choice of Left and Right: it is well to the right of where it once was. And is that where the Labour party should be? Is that really the pinnacle of its aspirations? Once upon a time the party had ideas that transformed society for the better but all that now remains of Clement Attlee's post-war revolution is the NHS and even that is under serious threat (No, Posh Dave, I don't believe the NHS is save in your hands).

I think Ed Miliband understands the need to make public ownership, redistributive taxation, greater social equality, employees' rights and fair welfare provision subjects for serious discussion once more. Unfortunately I don't see any signs that he can turn these issues into a coherent and convincing set of policies to present to the electorate. I know what the Tories are about as they've been at it for years. I want a real Labour party of the conventional left to oppose them. But where is it, Ed?

I've mentioned Clement Attlee once already and some say that Miliband is a sort of latter-day Attlee. A man who is deceptively modest and unassuming; who will amaze us once he gets into Number 10 and his many strengths emerge from behind the scenes. Possibly but this scenario forgets that Attlee had a formidable team to help him get his policies through. Who will give Ed the passion of Aneurin Bevan? The skills of Herbert Morrison and Ernest Bevin? The intellectual support of Harold Laski? These are the people Ed needs, not the likes of Blair and Balls babbling about the centre ground. A truly vacuous concept if ever there was one. 

Me? I'm a political dinosaur: unashamedly Old Labour with a fantasy that one day Real Labour will come back and represent the social values and heart that have long been stolen from mainstream politics by the Tories, Lib Dems and New Labour. I am a product of Attlee's reforms and, to a very large extent, I owe my present lifestyle and health to them. I wish that my children and grandchildren could have the same privileges but the chances of this are fast receding. Perhaps we need a Syriza or a Podemos to stir things up?