My imaginary, regular reader cannot have failed to notice that of late my blog cupboard has been bare.  It is not a matter of "writers' block", because people who write drivel suffer no such condition.  It has been more a case of "War and Peace" syndrome, where what had been intended to be a short, incisive critique of something silly someone had done or said somewhere, turned into a ten thousand word thesis.  Frantic editing is now taking place, so something entirely worthless is bound to emerge sooner or later....very much later if that imaginary reader's luck holds.

The report by Greg Hurst, Dominic Kennedy and Andrew Pierce in The Times this morning that,

“Every member of the Lib Dems will have to pay about £30 to clear its debts if the party is forced to surrender its record gift from Michael Brown. The party’s legal status is that of an unincorporated association, in effect a club of its 73,000 members. No committee or individual is responsible for any financial liabilities. Nor is any insurance policy”

is not all bad news for the members of the Liberal Democrats.  Presumably if the liability to repay Michael Brown’s £2.4 million donation does materialise, only people who are still members at that particular time, will be liable to make their obligatory contribution?[1]  It will be interesting to see how many party members are fair-weather supporters.

[1] Though I am no expert in such matters and I might be entirely wrong.

The theory that the transition to a Gordon Brown led administration will lead to a fresh start for the New Labour Government is palpably false.  Parallels are being drawn with John Major's succession to the premiership in 1990 when the Conservatives, purportedly effecting a "regime change" by disposing of Mrs Thatcher, avoided defeat by Labour at the General Election in 1992.

Gordon Brown entered Parliament in 1983 becoming Labour's Shadow Chancellor in 1992. He was one of Tony Blair's original "conspirators", playing an integral part in the creation of New Labour.  He has been the Chancellor of the Exchequer since 1997 and thus has held one of the two most powerful posts in HM Government for nine long years.  As a senior member of the Cabinet he is jointly responsible for every major policy decision involving every part of Government (after all, he is the paymaster.)  Thus, along with Mr Blair and the other members of the Cabinet, he is implicated in every failing of the Government.  He cannot escape the stench of sleaze or fug of Government incompetence even though he might not be responsible personally. Distancing himself from Mr Blair (and of course the rest of the Cabinet) just does not wash.  The implicit "not me guv" stance is not only deceitful and disloyal; arguably it is cowardly.

By contrast, John Major was a nonentity in Mrs Thatcher's first administration.  He had not played any part in formulating the principles of the Thatcherite Revolution. He entered Parliament in 1979 and did not enter the Cabinet of the Conservative Government until 5^th June 1987[1].    In consequence he was not so sullied by Mrs Thatcher's or her creed’s, perceived failings.  The public were entitled to give Mr Major the benefit of the doubt, but not so Mr Brown.

It is forgotten also that New Labour achieved their electoral success by stealing the Conservatives' clothes (so as not to scare the horses) and presenting themselves as more honest, down-to-earth and united than the "sleazy", “division ridden”[2] Conservative Government.  Gordon Brown is an  unreconstructed socialist.  It is by his deeds, not his words, that we know him.  He craves Big Government.  He is driven to tax hard and spend big.  Middle England will not warm to him - he has hurt them too much, already.

In truth, Mr Brown is an accomplice without whom the Blair Project could never have come to be.  When Mr Blair's collar comes to be felt, whether that be by his erstwhile Parliamentary Labour Party colleagues or the electorate, it is only right and just that Mr Brown stands alongside him, in the dock.  Whilst his “Brownite” colleagues will fall over themselves to provide an alibi for their new leader we, the electorate, will not fall for it.  You will have to pack your toothbrush, Gordon Brown, because when the time comes, you are going down.