Sorry seems to be the hardest word
Posted on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 at 9:57am
7 responses
I read this article by Simon Jenkins a while ago, and thought that others should read it too, especially in the context of the recent ‘Brown Bounce’. I gasped at the rise in popularity of Brown in the polls today. The lead that the Tories had over Labour has now fallen from 19 to 8 points in the last two months.
This surge in support for Brown is being associated with the way Brown has dealt with the economic crisis that his party effectively helped to shape. Yes, we all know that the Tories played their part during the Thatcher era, but when I hear Labour politicians trying to blame this situation solely on the Tories, then one does get very annoyed. After all, where is their humility? Labour in London has encouraged people to borrow larger sums of money for mortgages that they can ill afford, has facilitated the desperation of the ‘ipod generation’ (that’s ‘insecure, pressured, overtaxed and debt-ridden’ for those who didn’t know) and the culture of debt that they will be consigned to for years to come. I don’t even want to mention the way in which Labour under Blair saw fit to reward Bankers for their risk taking, only for the government to announce so boldly of late that they will in fact limit excessive bonuses in the Banking sector. Why did it take so long?
Its hard to imagine why Brown has been rewarded for such past actions. Perhaps apologising for their part in this mess would go a little way in ensuring that people have faith in politicians, but we all know their track record on saying ’sorry’- it doesn’t come easy!
The news that there will be more job losses, mass unemployment is very worrying indeed, but then there are individuals in the Labour party and in the Conservative party- namely Mandelson and Osbourne, who are so far removed from reality that its laughable. They are socialising with the rich and the famous while others can hardly dream of such things. Yes, a degree of humility would not go amiss.
And please don’t come back to me with the one about it being a ‘global’ recession. We all know the part that the Labour government has played in creating this mess. Its their duty to get people out of it, and rewarding them or praising them for it should not even come in to the equation.
