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However, these eighteen months of Labour rule have shown them to be just as Conservative as the Conservative party in terms of economic policy, being tough on public spending and promising not to raise taxes. In this, New Labour policy is miles away from Old Labour. Traditionally they were seen as the party of the working classes, but have worked hard to appeal to the home-owning middle classes, the so-called "Middle England" who turned away from Old Labour as a party controlled by trade unions and "loony lefties", maybe even communists in the minds of the more prejudiced Conservative voters. As well as promising to run the economy better the new, remodelled Labour Party also promised to be completely free of sleaze.
But events of the last year have sorely tested the patience of the electorate who supported Prime Minister Tony Blair's new whiter than white party. It all started last Christmas when tabloid journalists claimed they'd been sold drugs by a Cabinet Minister's son. Because the youth was under eighteen he couldn't named and the pressure rose for his politician father to come clean. It was a damning blow to Labour's image when it turned out to be Home Secretary Jack Straw, the man responsible for setting policy on the police, crime and....er....drug abuse. The next controversy was the "Arms to Africa" debacle. A British company called Sandline International had been involved in supplying arms to one of the sides involved in a civil war in the West African state of Sierra Leone despite an arms embargo. The issue was fairly similar to the American Contragate scandal in that there was a controversy over whether the government (in this case Foreign Secretary Robin Cook) knew about the arms shipments or not.
However, the general public seem to be less concerned about sex scandals involving government ministers and Members of Parliament. Robin Cook left his wife for his secretary and later married her. When two Labour Government ministers - Peter Mandelson and Nick Brown - were "outed", the public again didn't care although the tabloid press were severely disappointed! And it's widely believed that the former Welsh Secretary Ron Davies could have survived politically if he'd revealed exactly what happened when he was robbed by a stranger he met on Clapham Common, an area of South London notorious for gay cruising and drug dealing. All he will say when interviewed is that he was guilty of an "error of judgement" which left him feeling that he had to resign from the Cabinet and as Labour's intended leader of the new Welsh Assembly being created in the New Year. Even so, in recent weeks, there's been a lot of public sympathy for Davies, seen as the man responsible for giving Wales its first ever democratically elected national body.
What really makes the British public mad is financial misdemeanours. Just before Christmas PM Tony Blair's right hand man Peter Mandelson was forced to resign after the media found out that he'd paid for his house with a £373,000 ($640,000) loan from fellow MP and minister Geoffrey Robinson, whose business affairs are currently being investigated by Mandelson's Department of Trade and Industry . At the time he purchased the large property in the trendy West London district of Notting Hill, it was wondered how an MP earning just £43,000 ($70,000) a year could afford to buy such a house. It's uncertain whether Mandelson declared the loan from his friend when filling out a mortgage application form from his building society. Robinson has claimed that he did not expect the loan to be repaid immediately but one can't help thinking that it implies that Mandelson could would have possibly been indebted to and perhaps influenced by him. Paymaster General Robinson has since resigned from the Government too, and since then another minister has claimed that he and two other Cabinet colleagues had been offered loans from him.
These latest resignations have highlighted the rivalry between Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. When they were both candidates for the position of leader of the Labour Party, Brown stood down thus enabling Blair to secure the position. It was felt that the serious brooding Scotsman who still hasn't married wouldn't appeal to the "Middle Englanders" who would be more easily sold by Blair's family man image. Brown still feels that he could have and should have been PM and most of the government can be split into Blair and Brown supporters or "Blairites" and "Brownies". There's suspicion that the Mandelson story was given to the press by the "Brownies" eager to bring down one of Tony's cronies.
We live in the real world and I don't think anyone imagines that most politicians are lily-white, but with the elections for the new Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament coming up its important that Labour cleans up its image.Tony Blair is promising to crackdown on potential sleaze by demanding that Ministers declare any interests that could potentially damage the government but whether this will restore public opinion remains to be seen.
Happy New Year to you all or, as we say in Wales, Blwyddyn Newydd Dda ich y gyd.
Marie Irshad December 1998
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