t measure X or Y means that Frank Dobson might take umbrage and go off into the No lobbies alongside Respect groupies like Diane Abbott.
And people such as Mr Dobson now have an inability to look beyond Blair. If Blair says education, they see Blair. If Blair says health, they see Blair. If Blair says terrorism, they see Blair. Somehow Labour has got to get back to the position where the Labour leader says “We need to do this” and his or her MPs see the thing that needs to be done. What we have now is the prospect of paralysis and drift. If it continues, Labour will revert to being a reactive, backward-looking and fragmented political force, and will be smashed at the next election.
There is, it seems to me, only one way in which there can be a renewal of the internal mandate and, therefore, of a sense of purpose and discipline. And it is highly risky. There needs to be a change of leadership accompanied by the clearest possible programme for radical reform. […]
This is what I think has to happen. Tony Blair must decide to depart next year. Not because he isn’t the most talented centre-left politician in the Western world — I think he is — but because his luck, his time and his mandate have run out.
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