I don’t disagree- the timing was lousy. Anyway, panic over, move on, focus on the real battle in hand….campaigning as effectively as possible in the election….

A

My query is with your intro and the view that Hoon and Hewitt should not be vilified for giving their opinions.

The reason for the anger is not because they are giving their opinions – that is entirely legitimate. It is the timing of it, a few weeks before the General Election. It smacks of vindictiveness and putting personal animosity before the interests of the Party.

That’s why I was angry, Gordon Brown has been Leader for two and a half years, ample time for this sort of challenge to be made don’t you think?

Guido, don’t you meet loads of Tories who grumpily assert that they don’t think much of Cameron, he’s too soft etc? Ungrateful b*ggers

I notice we haven’t yet had anyone on here arguing that the Conservatives are not divided in the ways I’ve outlined above. Look forward to those comments.

The Labour Party – united in despair.

Academies: Not much dissent at all now- mainly because people are seeing the benefits e.g. the performance of Mossbourne Academy in Hackney.
Health: I don’t think further choice is the major problem, but private commissioning absolutely is a split- you are right.
Iraq War: PLP are split you are right. Party not so split (mostly against).
Independence of B of E? Not much- even since the crisis (in fact, can’t remember ever seeing it raised as an issue. I’m sure you can find instances if you hard enough but not significant.)
Free trade? Again, strangely the left in the UK has traditionally been largely for free trade (equally strangely, it is the right who seem to have had more of an issue with it.) Unions, eg preferential contracting from the state, are in a slightly different place but not massively.
Open borders? Few argue for this. Almost all believe in managed immigration. A couple believe in immigration caps but relatively few.

Compare that, to the way the Conservative party is split in fundamental ways. Actually, your questions kind of underline the point I was making. Think back to early fifties when you have Bevan and Wilson leaving the government in protest at NHS policy and the Bevanites v Gaitskellites throughout the decade and compare to now…..very different thing. And compare that to the Conservatives now as argued above.

In current curcumstances, I can see why the headline and argument jar a little but when the smoke clears….in realistic terms, in fundamental terms, it is the Conservatives who are more divided.

But ‘Actually, the Labour party, in ideological and policy terms, is more united now than at anytime since the (mid) 1940s.’ is the most surprising sentence I have read ALL day. And I read a lot of sentences.

What proportion of the Labour Party like Academies?
Futher choice in health?
the Iraq War?
Giving independence to the Bank of England?
Free trade in general?
Open borders for immigrants?

I suspect there could be a few divisions. I would, seriously, be interested in a post on that