The Beginning - Boris and New Labour

As I write this post, the first of its kind mind you, I wonder at how the next few years will pan out...

A heavyweight politician has been upended - to say the least - by a man whom many in his own party found / find it difficult to support. Yes its true, Boris did beat Ken fair and square, and Labour did lose nine councils in addition to over three hundred seats, but these are not my concerns.

We have indeed turned a new corner, those in the Labour party may feel to have hit a dead end, whilst those in opposition are feel they finally walk on the yellow brick road - or have they?

Yes and no. Its time to see what Brown is made of, for how much longer will he continue Blairite policies, fumbling along - something we generally accuse Boris of - neither adding nor subtracting to New Labour in any sense?

What happened to the "change" imbued with "courage", that we were so enthusiastically promised as the man next door finally got his foot in the door at number 10? How quickly we forgot that it was Brown's industriousness that funded Blair's bombs. This is not cynicism, its the cold water after a deep slumber.

The romance which New Labour courted through the divorce of Toryism has finally blossomed, and we find students facing top-up fees in spite of "education, education, education," British troops still serving in Iraq in spite of entering an era where "we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war" and of course a party, most ashamedly failing miserably at being "purer then pure."

The road ahead one may wonder? Its certainly not bleak. Cameron is doing well to remove the perception of elitism and cronyism endemic to the Torys, whilst Boris graciously accepted the mayoral position with promises for better transport, lower crime and affordable housing.

For the Conservatives, life could not be better. For Labour, life could be worse. But this could be the impetus required for courage to differentiate and cast aside the (Blairite) shadows, and we may yet see a rejuvenated Brown in the weeks to come, and an emphatic Boris no doubt!

"The past is always a rebuke to the present" : Robert Penn Warren