LABOUR - WHAT DIRECTION ?

 1945 LABOUR GOVERNMENT = great, but short of women. Ignoring those who acted as temporary leaders of the Labour Party for short transitional periods, there have been 12 full-time leaders of the Labour Party in my lifetime.

Below I place the first eleven of these in what I judge to be their order of merit. As Starmer has only held this post for a short while I have excluded him from my list. I am very disappointed with him to date but will wait to see if he developes any redeeming features - although I doubt it.

1. Top of my list of Labour Leaders is Clem Attlee. He became the leader of the Labour Party the year before I was born. He  served as Labour leader from 1935 until 1955. He was war-time Deputy Prime Minister to Winston Churchill in the Coalition Government from 1940 to 1945, then Prime Minister of the Labour Governments from 1945 to 1951. His achievements included the development of the Welfare State including the establishment of the National Health Service, the move from the British Empire to the Commonwealth, the development of a mixed economy with a significant role for public ownership,  relative full employment and further Council housing developments.

2. Next in order of merit is Michael Foot, who was opposition leader from 1980 to 1983. He was a clear and sensible democratic socialist. It is seldom appreciated that he was ahead of the Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the opinion polls just prior to the outbeak of the Falklands War in 1982. That conflict helped to change British politics opening the door to Thatcherism.

3. Then there was Harold Wilson who was leader from 1963 to 1979, with periods as Prime Minister from 1964 to 1970 and then 1974 to 1976. He had served in Attlee's post-war Labour Government including a period from 1947 as President of the Board of Trade. He pursued a number of progressive avenues especially over the 1964-70 period, including the establishment of the Open University and the outlawing of capital punishment. But he faced growing unemployment, devaluation in 1967 and Trade Union disputes. Then as Prime Minister from 1974 to 1976, Labour was dependent on support from the Liberal Party in difficult economic circumstances. So Wilson never fully delivered what had been hoped for.

4. In fourth position, John Smith had served in Government posts under Wilson and Callaghan and in Opposition positions under Foot and Kinnock. He finally became leader of the Labour Opposition from 1992-4 until his untimely death. I was then an MP and had known him since my entering parliament in 1987. Although I was on the left wing of the Party, I found him to be approachable. And felt that when he was a leader he did not just close the door on left-wingers such as myself. It was a big change from my experiences under the leaderships of Kinnock and Blair. 

5.  Ed Milband became an MP just after I resigned from parliament in 2005. Five years later I eventually supported him in his successful bid to become leader of the Labour Party. A position he held until 2010. My grounds for having supported Ed are reflected in his fine recent publication "Go Big : how to fix our world". Especially the first chapter on Climate Change. See - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTpYaFgRiAE

6. I supported Andy Burnham for the leadership of the Labour Party in 2005 instead of my 6th choice - Jeremy Corbyn. My reasoning being that the Parliamentary Party was not yet ready to be moved to the strong left stance Jeremy had always adopted and that a transitional stage was needed to move in such a direction, or we might be spilt assunder. Now left labourites seem to be in almost as bad a position as ever.

7. Jim Callaghan was Labour's Leader from 1976 to 1980. From 1976 to 1979 being Prime Minister. He was a big disappointment after Harold Wilson. He came from a working class background, but ended up in the 'Winter of Discontent" in direct opposition to the bulk of the trade union movement.

8.  Neil Kinnock led the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992, but only ever in opposition. Given his earlier involvement with Tribune and in other leftist activities, I became massively disappointed with his opposition leadership - especially when I became an MP myself in 1987. No effort came from his office at any time to draw me into anything.

9.  Gordon Brown took over a great deal of Tony Blair's inheritance when he was leader from 2007 to 2010. And Blair finishes at the bottom of my list. Gordon did, however, finally move in the direction of a matter I had campaigned on for some time on the Tobin Tax. See here - http://threescoreyearsandten.blogspot.com/2009/11/tobin-or-not-tobin.html

10. Hugh Gaitskell followed Attlee as leader of the Labour Party from 1955 to 1963. He led it dramatically away from the Clem Attlee position. I used to join Aldermastin Marches alongside the New Left and we sang "Gaitskell is our leader. He should be removed". I also went to a get-together on one of the marches which was attended by number 2 on this list - Michael Foot. Some 64 years ago.

11. Bottom of my list is Tony Blair who moved the Labour Party entirely away from its traditions. I accept that he finalised esssential arrangements for the Northern Ireland peace process. A matter I had devoted a great deal of time to. And that he finally came up with a weak version of a Civil Rights for Disabled People Bill which was something I had pushed more fully. But his 'third way' now hangs fully around the necks of the Parliamentary Labour Party.  However, Starmer has just given his backing to Blair's record ! See - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58113968

The higher the Labour Party moves up my list (adding key issues such as climate change, tacking covid and world wide social deprevation] the better. It has been a 76 year journey since I witnessed the 1945 General Election.