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Keep the home fires burning
by David Moss
Read Jackie Ashley in today's Guardian. "All Gordon can do is fight on – and hope his luck turns", she says, and "Gordon Brown's future is not in his own hands." Quite so. On 2 May 2008, a period of no government started, and it will persist until the next general election. If the government isn't in charge of the country, someone else will be. The US or the EU? Big business or the unions? The judiciary or the military? The religious left or the media? For some people, this period of no government will be a tremendous opportunity. But it is dangerous. It would be better if we weren't in this state. Something has gone wrong. And if something has gone wrong, then there must be someone to blame, someone must be guilty. We name the guilty men. Guilt is the Guardian's stock in trade. Its readers love it. We thrive on it. The more the better. All the carnage in the Middle East is my fault. I am to blame for the implosion of the Democrats in the US primaries. Me. Personally. Beat me, Daddy, eight to the bar. Please. And now the focus comes home. The Middle East and the US will continue to have their problems, but we've got our own ... TING – there is no government. And whose fault is that? There can only ever be one answer. The Guardian's. There is Seamus Milne and his Progressive Premium. (ProPrem is a tranquiliser available on prescription only.) He is not alone. All the Guardian's columnists with the exception of Simon Jenkins are now emerging for the first time in eleven years from the underground chambers where Guardian opinion is determined. Only to find that the outside world is quite different. It is nothing like the reality they have spent eleven years forging. Gordon is a strong man, they said, even as he demonstrated his weakness. Gordon will champion the poor, they said, even as he created more of them. It is sad to see a teenage boy trying desperately to convince himself that the girl who has told him in a hundred ways that she doesn't find him attractive, really loves him. Surely the "real" Gordon is "essentially" Labour, "deep down". Self – dear boy – deception, take another ProPrem. You, we, I have created dis TING. It is your, our, my fault. There's no getting away from it. Oops. You, we, I have brought about a situation in which power over the country is held by extra-parliamentary forces. We can hand out the ProPrem opium of the masses and continue to live in denial. Or we can do something practical. But, oh dear. What? Change the policies. Change the leader. Listen. Learn. Lead. Consult. Return to our roots. Re-discover our principles ... TIST – there is still time ... No, there isn't. It's over. For everyone's sake, the government must be brought down as soon as possible. Democratically. Whether by a vote of no confidence tabled by the opposition or a vote of confidence tabled by the other opposition. To be replaced with what? The Lib Dems? They must be congenial to most real, deep down essentially Labour supporters. Or the Conservatives? No policies? What policies do the government have? You don't trust them? You mean you still trust the present government? To be replaced with what? To be replaced with anything. A leap in the dark. Whatever ... but we can't keep going for long with no government. A pleasure though that would be for some people, it is dangerous. David Moss has spent five years campaigning against the Home Office's ID card scheme.
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