Will New Labour learn their toughest lesson yet?

In Brighton in 2009 the Labour Party convened for their last Party conference before the General Election.

Currently, the Labour Party are woefully behind the Conservative Party in every poll imaginable and in some polls they can be found languishing third behind the Liberal Democrats. It is clear they are not in an enviable position.

Given that that is the case would it not be prudent to get your message across of what it is you are actually doing as leaders of the country, what it is you are actually achieving as the Party that has been in office for 12 years?

The Labour Party, headed up by Tony Blair did do some good in the early days, they did have a few successes.

Within 10 years they had halved the average standards achieved in both maths and English for primary schoolchildren, although there are some reports that the grading has changed accordingly. There was the minimum wage and the abolition of hereditary Peers though Tony Blair saw to it that the seats did not remain empty for long.

Conversely though there was the pensions crisis, the sale of our gold reserves whilst at their historic lowest (a quarter of the market value of today), and the continued issue of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Under Gordon Brown the Labour Party, the Government and indeed this country has gone from bad to worse.

The world economic crisis has affected every country but some are weathering the storm better than others.

We may all appear at the other side of the recession at roughly the same time but Britain will be in a worse position financially than most other countries in the world courtesy of Alistair Darling and his decision to emulate Viv Nicholson and Spend Spend Spend.

The mood of the Cabinet has changed since Gordon Brown took power too, whilst there was always the spin and perceived underhanded tactics from a Blair Cabinet there seems to be a survive at any cost attitude within a Brown Cabinet.

All this only serves to undermine the Government and to further weaken their credibility.

Another Brownism that has been allowed to come forth of late is the constant rants of the Leader of the House of Commons, Harriet Harman MP. In the past she has been known to be quite literate but of late and possibly as the mood darkens within the Party this veil has slipped.

Well known for her feminist views she seems to have taken a new stream of late with the following choice quote

the Tories are arrogant for believing it is their time to lead this country

Sorry Ms Harman, you cannot apportion this claim to anyone other than yourself, it was made up by you and you used the same line of attack in the local elections in June.

We are expectant of nothing, everything has to be earnt, a victory has to be fought for.

The British public are aware of what is and is not said, the British public are not ignorant of daily events, the British public are educated to the degree that they can make their own minds up without negative campaigning and untruths.

This is a warning: If you continue with the negativity it will be the undoing of any real chance you have at the General Election.

Here is another instance of the input of Harriet Harman being way-off track when as the Equalities Minister she made the following statement

If you have got two equally qualified candidates, you might actually want to have the woman because she is a woman

Ms Harman, by virtue of positive discrimination you are by default discriminating. There are no two ways about it and no flowery language can get away from it.

Only when the Labour Party move away from the 1970’s style of negative campaigning will they find themselves in a position to challenge for a seat at the table of a hung Parliament which currently is the best deal on the table for the Labour Party.

#Labourlost the right to preach to the British public about standards and ethics after the debacle which began the day that Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary first resigned from the Cabinet when he was still an MP.

In 1998, whilst working as Trade Secretary and in the days without his peerage Peter Mandelson resigned over the interest-free loan of £373,000 from the Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson who later accused Lord Mandelson of lying to the Commons about the home loan affair that cost both of them their Government jobs.

In his resignation letter Peter Mandelson was obviously both embarrassed and humbled

I should not, with all candour, have entered into the arrangement.

I should, having done so, have told you and other colleagues whose advice I value and I should have told my permanent secretary on learning of the inquiry into Geoffrey Robinson, although I entirely stood aside from this.

The second resignation came in 2001 over a passport row for the Hinduja family amid their sponsorship of the Faith Zone in the Millennium Dome.

After a number of years in the wilderness Mandelson became a European Commissioner For Trade in 2004 until 2008 when during a particularly rough time for Gordon Brown there was a shock ‘call-up’ for Peter Mandelson who was said to be

surprised but proud

…to be offered the role as Business Secretary.

How is it all to end for Lord Mandelson third time around? Only time will tell but you can rest assured that the British public are less susceptible to his wily ways since his own fallibility was exposed.