spinoff

Government defeated? I must have heard you wrong.. Did somebody lock Hilary in a cupboard or something? Yey for that person!

Regular Spinoff readers will be concerned that nothing has so far appeared concerning the (second) demise of Blunkett D, former Education, Work & Pensions and Home Secretary, father of a famous child, former company director and shareholder and well known dog owner. A blog with its finger on the faintly beating pulse of national and international politics should have something to say about the departure of a cabinet minister, let alone one who left under a cloud and was then brought back by a prime minister for whom forgiving his mates (Mandelson P, now possessor of a nice little European sinecure) is second nature.

Well, gentle reader, we have a little confession to share with you. We don’t give a toss. Not a brass farthing. Nada, nothing, zippo – the departure of Mr Blunkett has left us as unmoved as a very solid thing sitting on the middle of a particularly stable tectonic plate. On a clear day. With no wind.

It’s not that our critical faculties, about this government or British politics in general, have somehow been numbed by the technocratic and somewhat tedious nature of Blair’s third term. Far from it – we continue to be incensed by the various stupidities of this administration, overwhelmed by the nonsense masquerading as Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, and frankly bemused by that bunch who have the yellow pigeon as their logo.

No, it’s not boredom with politics that makes Mr Blunkett’s resignation less interesting than the fact that Star Wars Episode II was on telly tonight (and there’s an analogy we could pursue, probably far beyond its logical conclusion or your patience). It’s not even the fact that Work and Pensions is a somewhat tedious portfolio, because Mr Blunkett himself is far from a tedious man. It’s the sheer grinding inevitability of it. Man loses cabinet seat because private life gets in way. Man’s boss feels the loss, gives him job when fuss has barely died down. Man cocks up again, man resigns. Boss has egg on face.

We’ve been here before, haven’t we? Unless the scriptwriters have something unexpected planned (‘Oh, Peter, you’re still in the cabinet! And so are you David! It must have all been a dream’. Visual of clock going backwards at high speed. Cue ‘Things can only get better’) then this is simply a rerun of the same plot, albeit with a mildly more sympathetic leading character.

This Spinoffite still likes you, Tony. You may have taken us into an un-necessary war; you may have failed to live up to many of your promises, or at least our hopes (the postcard ‘New Labour: I can’t believe it’s not better’ springs to mind) but at least you’re superior to the alternatives. We’re a bit scared of Gordon, to be honest – he’s a bit too puritan for us; and there’s no-one else to lead the party or the country (Prime Minister Prescott?). The opposition’s a mess, the economy is still working well, for the moment, and – bombs going off in London as a direct result of a trip to Arslikhan with George Bush aside – things are generally sort of alright.

But I won’t continue to like you if your judgement looks like it’s failing. Reappointing Blunkett was inevitable, everyone knew that, so we weren’t surprised when it happened; we just thought it was croneyistic. But when he has to go again, we see the same lack of judgement that gave Peter Mandelson so much rope he didn’t just hang himself but could have opened a rope shop with the remainder. Good political judgement is not standing by your allies. It’s about doing the right thing, and keeping the public’s confidence. Reappointing Blunkett was the wrong thing, and lost public confidence. His going is the right thing, and lost public confidence. A cleft stick of your own making, we feel.

Less cock-ups like this, please, prime minister – otherwise your final term is going to be remembered as your worst, when, if you pushed the Africa agenda, climate change, northern Irish peace and got us out of Iraq, it could be seen as your best.