My brother (Maurice Glasman) the Labour Peer, is back in the spotlight-on Newsnight tonight. Which is unsurprising-I’ll explain why: he evolved an entire political philosophy, #BlueLabour. I’m not going to expound or advocate for it here, but explain the relevance to Labour now/1
His thinking was based on earlier ideas which informed the reconstruction of post-war Germany, based on what skills people contribute to society, rather than their market price. That’s why vocational quals are prized in Germany; Workers sit on company boards;.../2
...regional banks fund local businesses etc. Critically, it led to a rejection of EU ‘Free movement’ as that allowed swathes of communities established that way to be undercut. Labour, at the fag-end of the Brown era, loved it. It was neither New nor Old Labour, but-Ta-Dah! .../3
...it connected Labour back to its working-class communities that had become estranged by middle-class Islingtonian management. Now you see where this story is going?.../4
As I remember, the Class of 2010 loved it, the Millibands, Purnell et al. Ed slew his brother, enobled mine, and set about re-connecting with a working class deeply suspicious of a Blair-Brown government who ‘accidentally’ let in 800,000 Poles after saying it would be 30,000../5
Then came a twist that changed everything: to cut a long story short, Ed decided, in his infinite wisdom, that in reality, the workers were crying out for Socialism. He went Left and dumped Blue Labour../6
All of which is to say two things: A) Labour had in its grasp a plan which an up-coming generation of its talented leaders had embraced and which, if they had even only partially deployed it, would have prevented this shit-show. They tore it up and went the wrong way.../7
B) imo @Ed_Milliband is the villain of the entire era. From disposing of his electable brother’s corpse with the help of McCluskey; the £3 membership that ushered in Corbynism that he then supported; turning his face away from antisemitism, even saying he wasn’t a Zionist../8
..when only emigration to Israel saved his own Mother’s life; perhaps worst of all tipping the vote in Parliament that stopped Cameron & Obama from intervening to stop a war in Syria that dwarfs the Iraq debacle.../8
...but also, the less well-known story above of how he chucked away the tools Labour had acquired that would have secured not just the Red Wall, but much more. Ed has arguably been a walking, repeating, political disaster, an anti-Midas, destroying all he has touched./9
Finally, the opinions and perceptions related in this tale are entirely my own. I do not speak on behalf of my brother, nor to advocate for him, but only for myself-an angry former Labour member, a Jew forced to defend my community as a consequence. Ends.
