"Should you wish to give yourself the most despairing of laughs, do consider that Hazel Blears probably regards herself heir to Barbara Castle.For more than a decade, people have cringed at the chasm in ability between those towering political figures who sat in Harold Wilson's cabinet and the pygmies who clustered like competition winners around Blair's table on the odd occasion he needed their rubber stamp. It was a contrast that has been endlessly underlined, most recently this week when Blears was pictured smirking knowingly while sporting a "Rocking the boat" brooch. What an absolute card she is. Doubtless Hazel will now claim back the cost of the brooch on her expenses, on the basis that it was necessary for her to perform her public duties.
We are witnessing the final self-destruction of what those who created New Labour were given to calling "the Project", apparently oblivious to the Orwellian overtones of the phrase. Then again, perhaps they weren't oblivious – after all, the Project appeared to be closely modelled on the Party, which, you will recall, "seeks power entirely for its own sake".
The peculiar irony of New Labour's endgame is that it was all foretold by an accidental prophet named Tony Blair. "My project will be complete," he once declared, "when the Labour party learns to love Peter Mandelson."
And lo, it has come to pass. As the Hazel Blearses of this world appear to be communicating messages of infinite fatuity via their accessories, virtually the only senior politician of any stature is Peter Mandelson. And yes, just typing those words is such a dementedly surreal feeling that I'm shaking my head in laughter as I do so."
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