The left-wing contender

The left-wing contender

As Tony Blair accelerates his desperate attempts to leave some kind of positive "legacy" (sorry Mr Blair, but the damage you've done in your first nine years in power will far outlive anything you do in the next few months), someone has at last stood up to challenge Gordon Brown (see here).

Michael Meacher is one of the few government ministers I have much time for. I should, of course, refer to him as ex-minister as he left office in 2003 under a cloud, undermined by the government over the whole GM debate. Whether or not he's a serious challenger - Labour MP Stephen Pound says, "It's a pity because, frankly, he's going to get humiliated." Thank you Mr Pound. Meacher has strong environmental credentials, but lets just focus on the personality shall we? After all, if we focussed on policies, your party would would laughed out of government. Well, it might have been 10 years ago before people became so docile in their opposition.

I find the whole of New Labour increasingly disgusting, if I'm brutally honest. It struck me this morning that that the comments made by Tony Sewell about today's parents can equally be levelled at this government. Blair and his cronies want to be seen to be "cool" and down with the kids, when it actual fact their job should be to govern this country to the best of their abilities, and be damned with being popular all of the time. Perhaps I'm being unfair, and perhaps they are governing to the best of their abilities, in which case God help us all if that kind of incompetence is all we have to look forward to in future.

Let us hope the next Prime Minister of this country - whoever it is - governs with a little more decency and with his or her finger on the pulse as opposed to checking the country's makeup and whether it feels "good" on the surface. Perhaps if Blair had spent less time pandering to people's base, selfish mores, we wouldn't now be standing on the edge of disaster with regards to lawlessness, climate change and terrorism. Oh for a leader who would have spent the last ten years encouraging people to be more responsible, to consume less and to look after themselves and their money better. Instead we have an economic "boom" paid for by increasing levels of debt (and that's just the government, never mind the rest of us!), a waste problem we simply export to China and a slow breakdown in the fabric of society as the "I'm alright Jack" brigade continue to prove that self-restraint is something nobody does anymore.

Yes, Blair's legacy is firmly in place. It doesn't matter how much sticky plaster he tries to apply to it over the next few months, the substance of his "achievements" won't be covered up by plaster covering more plaster disappearing over the gaping holes of his administration.