Dead Parrots and Fighting Cats
Having been kept well away from Chequers for the past two years - see previous post dated 17 July 2009 - Gordon Brown finally invited the country's union bosses to lunch yesterday.
Who'd have guessed that the annual TUC conference gets underway in Liverpool - next week?
The purpose of the meeting was to pour oil on troubled waters - because some unions have been threatening to turn off the taps - and stop pouring their members' money into Labour party coffers.
But despite the warm words and reassurance - the PM's guests were less than gracious afterwards - fighting like cats in a proverbial sack about the future of the Labour party.
Unite boss Derek Simpson issued the Prime Minister with a stark ultimatum, calling on him to abandon the New Labour platform or “stand aside”.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror, he said: “This is no time for mincing words. The party is at best eight months away from a general election. If you want to go down the New Labour route it is suicide.
“New Labour is dead. It’s like the parrot in Monty Python. Anybody who is going to take over and lead us down that path is taking us to certain defeat."
Speaking to The Times, Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said he expected Mr Brown to stand down if Labour lost the general election.
“At the moment you would get pretty long odds on Labour winning. In some ways I feel quite sorry for him. I’m afraid the public will have made up their mind about him well in advance of the election, although I hope it can be changed.”
On possible successors to Mr Brown, Mr Kenny said: “Who do I wake up each morning excited by? Nobody. I’m not trying to hedge a bet.”
Just imagine what ordinary union members make of all this political posturing.
Not a lot.
Who'd have guessed that the annual TUC conference gets underway in Liverpool - next week?
The purpose of the meeting was to pour oil on troubled waters - because some unions have been threatening to turn off the taps - and stop pouring their members' money into Labour party coffers.
But despite the warm words and reassurance - the PM's guests were less than gracious afterwards - fighting like cats in a proverbial sack about the future of the Labour party.
Unite boss Derek Simpson issued the Prime Minister with a stark ultimatum, calling on him to abandon the New Labour platform or “stand aside”.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror, he said: “This is no time for mincing words. The party is at best eight months away from a general election. If you want to go down the New Labour route it is suicide.
“New Labour is dead. It’s like the parrot in Monty Python. Anybody who is going to take over and lead us down that path is taking us to certain defeat."
Speaking to The Times, Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said he expected Mr Brown to stand down if Labour lost the general election.
“At the moment you would get pretty long odds on Labour winning. In some ways I feel quite sorry for him. I’m afraid the public will have made up their mind about him well in advance of the election, although I hope it can be changed.”
On possible successors to Mr Brown, Mr Kenny said: “Who do I wake up each morning excited by? Nobody. I’m not trying to hedge a bet.”
Just imagine what ordinary union members make of all this political posturing.
Not a lot.
