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| You then see newsreader Trevor McDonald erupt in hysterics when Tony Benn makes his comparison of MP’s to Avon Ladies.
He also goes to Millbank Tower, and interviews Tom Sawyer, former Bennite then influential in New Labour. Sawyer does make the valid point that the party machine is now more professional. He also meets the young men and women who churn out the faxes that then get sent to MP’s with their own ‘quotes’ on them. He speaks to a young American intern who rather surprisingly states that politicians in the U.S are more independent in relation to policy from on high. Overall, the view of Mr Benn is confirmed, the American techniques of ‘managing’ a party were brought over and applied to New Labour. The subject then turns to the press and lobby correspondents. These members of the press often get the policy messages before parliament which Mr Benn calls a serious erosion of parliamentary democracy It is funny to see Alistair Campbell welcoming Benn into filming the press briefing, (I don’t think Tony expected that) which has never been seen before. It is amazing to see Campbell reading out slowly the government message, and the press sitting meekly, writing it down. You couldn’t make it up. The video also touches on the strict control New Labour attempted to hold over the picking of candidates, in effect ‘weeding out’ left wing candidates, even old Labour candidates. This occurred in the Scottish Elections, Welsh elections, London Mayor. Everyone must all be ‘on message’ or off the ballot paper. Other interviews are Anthony Giddens, a philosopher of the so-called ‘Third Way’. Alan Simpson MP, a managing director & shop steward of a Chesterfield glass making factory discussing the lack of help for manufacturing in the UK. Pensioners at the House of Commons wanting the link between pensions and earnings to be re-established. Ken Livingstone MP, Alice Mahon MP, Denis Canavan, a meeting of the Socialist Campaign Group with Eddie George as a guest speaker. Benn also looks at other campaigns; anti-foxhunting, campaigning against bombing Iraq, abolishing the House of Lords. Finally we end at the Durham Miners gala and the hope and optimism that such events provide. This is an interesting video, it seems a lifetime away since we celebrated the end of the Conservative government in 97. This video pretty much covers what has gone on since despite being filmed in 98. Since then, New Labour has carried on ditching Labour ideals and is now just starting to come unstuck. Perhaps the pendulam is swinging back. The final word from Tony Benn on the video is a central theme to Bennite Socialism in general, ‘We build our own futures, it isn’t built by people at the top’… There is too much brass band music in it though… |
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| NEW LABOUR IN FOCUS |
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| Reading Tony Benn’s diaries of making this film, two things struck me. One is that Benn is surprised at just how much access he was given with his camera to film this, the other is that upon seeing the rough edit Caroline Benn states there is too much brass band music on it. Being a Bennite but disliking brass bands, this could go either way…
The video starts off with a May Day rally in Chesterfield a year after the 97 election. It’s interesting to see Mr Benn list the positive achievements of the New Labour government a year in. He covers the minimum wage, the windfall tax (remember that?), and the progress to peace made in Northern Ireland. However, the subject then moves into what defines the film as a whole; just how fundamentally the Labour Party was changed. Roy Hattersley is one of the first interviewees and makes the bold statement that this is a new party, no longer a socialist party It then covers the control of MP’s by the party machine, MP’s receiving orders from the whips via a pager. He visits the chief whip at the time, Nick Brown' and films a meeting of the whips. It is surprising to see just how many whips there are for just one party. It’s also interesting to see the messages arriving on the pager, for example, don’t answer surveys as they can be damaging to the party. |
