He's stuck a union flag on top of Number 10 and told ITN, "I think it's important that we say, look what we have in common as a country, what unites us, the values that we hold dear - liberty, a sense of civic responsibility each to one another, a belief in fairness to all." Unfortunately, for many - including me - the union flag has come to symbolise neither those values nor a sense of unity. Margaret Thatcher saw to that. And if The Sun is in favour, I'm almost certainly against. Perhaps if we dug a bit below Gordon's granite surface, we might find that he's seeking to reclaim it for the left-of-centre (or whatever label he deems acceptable; can't wait to find that out). Whatever, nurturing liberty, civic responsibility and universal fairness is going to take a bit more than running a few colours up your mast.
What else has he been up to today? Visiting a sixth form college down the road from me in Newham along with John Denham the newly appoint secretary of state for - hold on, while I look it up - Innovation, Universities and Skills. I like the accompanying announcement about better grants and easier loan repayments for less wealthy families, though I'm not yet sure exactly what it's worth. Not much, if interest rates keep rising. Gordon might not be too happy about that either. As Anatole Kaletsky argued in this morning's Times, "Maintaining [economic] growth is now the indispensable condition for his success as Prime Minister." Kalestsky also drew attention to an interview the new chancellor Alastair Darling gave to the FT, in which he "repeatedly emphasised the importance of the City and of liberal financial markets as 'absolutely critical' to the prosperity of the whole British economy."
It's all part of the attempt to outflank the Tories as the party of business - as is the controversial recruitment of Digby Jones - and muscle young Cameron's gang back to the political margins from which they've lately shown signs of re-emerging. Clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk...
There's nothing less likely to unite Scottish people into a sense of Britishness than waving a Union Jack about. It's associations are of 1970s pre-Diana Brit Nationalism, Ulster Loyalism and Thatcher's last grunt of imperial slaughter. His party dismantlewd the last civic elements of Britishness that could conceivably have held it together - unifying forces like the NHS, which he has helped privatise through PFI which really stands for - Pretty Fucking Ironic - you wait 18 years for aLabour govt then they do what the Tories wouldnt dare.
Posted by: Gus Abraham | July 05, 2007 at 10:53 PM