Brown looks intent on respawning New Labour. Or rather, New Labour’s propaganda apparatus; Derek Draper returned recently, Mandelson comes back today. Unity suspects Campbell might return in a consulting role to fully pull together the team that tripped the landslide in 1997. Add to that the apparent retention and promotion of Blairites, and the neglect of the left - and it becomes clear Brown feels the 1997 formula might just work.

If so, he fails to note the rather obvious flaw in his plan; it’s not 1997, and we no longer have a Tory government in power. We have a Labour government, who’ve been in power since 1997, and so have presided over the current decline into gloom. For which they might well be blamed. Figures such as Mandelson thus become the problem, not the solution. They’re associated with all the worst aspects of New Labour - the lies, the hated spin - and their appointment simply reminds the public that they exist. So to expect their return to lead to a change in fortune is simply bizarre; they helped construct the current mess, and will be blamed for that. It’s a sign that Labour just isn’t listening, and wants to carry on as before - when, clearly, the polls show the public no longer want that. Mandelson might be a worryingly skilled political operator, but he’s also so loathed that he could well make the situation worse. So, on ideological and tactical grounds; a very bad decision.

The reshuffle is more horrible than I could ever have imagined. Yes, it’s the return of Peter Mandelson, he who starves the poor and says that Brown should hold New Labour to the “Centre” rather than swinging left (when in fact the former would require the latter). John Hutton is moving to a role which will let him arrange killing people and Geoff Hoon, the man who previously did that job so poorly that British troops were fighting without basic body armour, is now in charge of transport. Doubtless a bus sighting will soon become a rarity.

In other words, the ascendency of the Blairites has become total. In this time of economic collapse Brown has found no place for the left. Perhaps he wishes to play the reliable New Labour acolytes off against the more radical Millibandians or perhaps, as usual, he’s just being a damn fool.

Wow. The creepiest part is how they didn’t even stop smiling.

Rather reminiscent of this:

Any yes, I have been looking for a decent excuse to post some Jam for quite a while, now. But this instance of life imitating art seemed to warrant it. I mean…What the shit? Attempting to evade the long arm of the law is usually a fairly bad idea, but plunging into the path of a lorry? And how can someone who just got went bouncing off of a bonnet need six people to restrain them properly? I’d need that many to stand upright!

Yeah.

(Via Jennie.)

A Catholic school in Bury has banned pupils from receiving the Cervical Cancer vaccination. It claims it isn’t in the position to do so; governors worry that side-effects can include dizziness. Some pupils must worry that the side-effects of cervical cancer can include death.

The decision just doesn’t make sense. It isn’t on the overt fundamentalist grounds other groups tried to stop the vaccinations; the Vatican came out for the vaccine. Their complaint seems centred solely on the grounds that pupils might faint; despite reassurances from doctors and the unavoidable fact that the vaccine can prevent a deadly disease. Do they have no sense of proportionality?

The plot for ID Cards trudges on:

The first identity cards from the government’s controversial national scheme have been unveiled.

The biometric card will be issued from November, initially to non-EU students and marriage visa holders.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the cards would allow people to “easily and securely prove their identity”.

So? Smith claims that these cards will make it easier for those here legally to prove that fact yet, if they’re here legally, they shouldn’t have to do so. It requires a lot of work and patience to enter this country legally from outside the EU. They have to prove their identity to do so - and once they have done, shouldn’t have to again. It’s incumbent on the government to enforce its laws without assaulting innocent individual’s liberty, and yet it clearly does so here.

But, there’s more:

“We all want to see our borders more secure, and human trafficking, organised immigration crime, illegal working and benefit fraud tackled. ID cards for foreign nationals, in locking people to one identity, will deliver in all these areas,” she added.

Don’t papers alreeady exist to help there? If the government feels they aren’t detailed enough, perhaps it should simply look into fixing that. It should be enough to add a fingerprint to immigration papers. They cannot be copied, and the need for a centralised database of details is negated by the useful fact that individuals carry their fingers with them and so can produce a fingerprint on demand.

And that possibility rather negates the argument that this is to the benefit of immigrants rather than the government. They don’t need to issue ID Cards, but will do so anyway. Presumably, they have a reason to do so, then; perhaps to accustom the population to the idea that they must justify their legal business at any time by forcing a group which can hardly protest to do so.

It fits with the next segment targetted; students and the young. People this age are, of course, used to proving their identity on a regular basis, softened by years of showing ID to buy alcohol or cigarettes. Like immigrants, the group has no strong political voice, and doesn’t vote in large numbers. So it’s another social division the government can foist ID Cards on with little trouble. The wider population becomes gradually used to the idea that they must carry ID Cards; so when they’re rolled out on a voluntary basis, more take them. And that suits this government.

Smith and the Home Office know there’s little active desire or support for a mass system of ID Cards. They can create that desire - or rather, weaken inbuilt suspicion - by fixing the idea that we should have to prove ourselves to the government. They can do that with less of a fuss by forcing vulnerable groups such as immigrants to do so first. And thus the idea becomes seen as normal; which it most definitely is not.

On the off-chance that anyone would miss me I should mention now that if the rumour of John Hutton being chancellor in David Miliband’s cabinet comes to pass then I am leaving the country.

Edit: I noted shortly after making this post that the “Defence” slot was filled by Jack Straw, meaning that he will leave the nation’s protection in the charge of a man likely to lose his seat in the next election. When I mentioned this to Douglas he pointed out that John Hutton too is present on the “at risk” list. This considered I can but hope that this list was pure Blairite fiction, as in hindsight it does appear to be anyway.

An email marked Stop Liberals on Campus - Get Involved! caught my eye today. Those who know me know that I’d do anything to stop a liberal.

Sign Up Today For A Free Newsletter From The College Republican National Committee!!
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This email is a commercial advertisement. If you wish to not receive information from us, please let us know and you will be excluded from future distributions immediatley [browser crashing URL removed again] Click Here Now to be removed or write us & be sure to include your email address.
Subscriber Requests: 4408 McLean Rd Haltom City TX 76117

I was relieved to find that this was really some mixture between social networking spam and a virus that fucks over Google Chrome (not too hard) rather than the Texan Republicans actually trying to contact me.

I rarely find myself outright trembling with rage and fear. This, though, managed it:

Could they have found a more unreconstructed example of steaming, greasy excrement? The idiocy on display is commonplace Republicanism; peace through violence, defence through bombing cities full of children to dust, the usual. But the boldness of the hypocrisy took my breath away. Just listen to the smug shitmouth:

Interviewer: Are you worried about the escalating costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, I mean, how would we pay for it?

Delegate: We should plant a flag, take the oil, take the money, we deserve reimbursement.

Reimbursement? Reimbursement for what, precisely? You invade a country citing your own country’s defence from weapons you claim an undemocratic dictator foisted on that people; you also claim you’ll shunt off that dictator. You mercilessly bungle that war, to the tune of some 85,000 civilian deaths and leave it with streets dominated by theocratic militias. In short, you do the job for yourself and you do it badly. You have no right to reimbursement.

And the flow of filth goes on unabated. Schwartz feels that it makes perfect sense to actively bomb Iran - that is, take a step past threatening to bomb - on the grounds that Iran might threaten Israel. Note that he doesn’t even try to frame his viciousness as a defence of the bombed, this time; there’s no mention of brutal theocracy as there is by anti-war projects such as HOPOI. He simply sees people he’s never met and likely doesn’t understand, who happen to have been born on the wrong side of the border, and decees they must be flattened. It’s naked, undisguised jingoism.

Politicians are often more restrained by their partisan supporters than by the electorate themselves. Those supporters put the politicians where they were. In McCain’s case, they nominated him. If not for their support, they wouldn’t even be before the electorate. They have to listen to them, day after day, month after month - a practise they only have to repeat for the voters every four years. So, when McCain’s supporters demand the outright obliteration of the Middle East, we know how little restraint he might face should he win the election; none. Isn’t that terrifying?

(Hat-tip: Mr. Eugenides.)

RedRooster picks up on something at LabourHome. To be fair to the NeoCons (a nicety I am sure that they would return to me) Putin did rig the last election so heavily that as many as a third of votes might have been lies. But the man who calculated that discovered that even with that taken into account Dmitry Medvedev and the UR still would have won even had he not bohered.

This should help the fightback. At this stage, though, the Labour Party would probably need help from her characters to win.