‘What does Labour stand for?’ shock – official

David Miliband's exclamation today: "We have responsibility to make sure that, come the election, voters know what Labour stands for" is worthy of a H.E. Bateman cartoon for its shocking honesty. After 12 years Labour has come so far adrift from its ideological moorings that it has lost its very identity and sense of purpose and direction. There could scarcely be a more crushing condemnation of the Blairite interregnum than that, and coming from an arch-Blairite (whose interview today is designed to put him back in the leadership race he funked 9 months ago) the admission is all the more poignant. Since neither the Government nor David Miliband seems to know, perhaps the rest of us who were there before the party was hi-jacked in 1994 should tell them what are the values, principles and objectives of the modern progressive Labour Party of the Centre-Left. They can be...