Jack Straw maintains delusions of victory

Commentators have been calling it the 'May Day Massacre', and it isn't hard to see why: nationwide elections have officially thrust a stake into the heart of the New Labour dream. Like a child burying a deceased pet gerbil, it's time to close the lid of the shoebox, assemble a hastily-made cross out of ice lolly sticks, and start digging a hole in the garden.

There's one person who wouldn't agree with that assessment, however. Despite his party hauling in the lowest level of support for decades - and the increasing number of vultures circling the PM's head - Justice Secretary Jack Straw still believes that Labour can pull a fourth general election out of the bag.

Claiming that the next election would be 'very different', Straw believes that the entire plethora of voter discontent can be boiled down to one thing: the bickering over the 10p tax fiasco. Now, Westmonster has no doubt that was a contributing factor, but surely to label that the root cause of the ballot-box collapse is a slight simplification, no?

Here's what Jackie-boy had to say:

"Being on the doorstep over the last four weeks across the country I understand what is making people angry with the government. There's no question that the 10p tax has affected some people, not as many as the newspapers suggest, but those who it has affected it has affected adversely.
"Those people are understandably very upset about why it is that a government which has cared and continues to care very much about lower-paid people should be doing this. We're putting that right."

'Putting that right', eh? Not so much a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, but more an example of hopping onto a motorbike, chasing the bewildered animal onto the M25 fast lane, and then watching in dismay as it gets hit a bus before being scraped off the tarmac and delivered to the glue factory.

Still. Those Pritt-Stick sales might help the economy. A bit.

Written by C J Davies on 3 May 2008 8:05 PM. Permalink