Oath Of Allegiance

[Skeddan]

Are NuLiebour doing this because:

E: it fits with their political philosophy.

 

Question then is what is their political philosophy? 'Third Way' (!), combining corporate values with socialism and nationalism. It also has a few of these features:

 

A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.

see Robert Paxton

 

Also New Labour and Tony Blair introduced a 'new socialism' and collectivism with:

 

a new concept of presidential leadership, one emphasizing legitimacy and righteousness above all else.

...

informational control and ideological flimflam to get lower and middle-class support for plans to expand the capital and power of the oligarchy

 

Consider Constitutional Reform Bill, centralisation of power, nanny state, erosion of civil liberties etc. It's not exactly fascism which has all sorts of connotations - but has similarities, and is more akin to what has been called 'friendly fascism' (from which the last quote was taken).

 

I'm still undecided about Gordon Brown - I certainly don't find him as repugnant as Tony Blair and his 'charismatic leadership' - and I don't think he will carry on the New Labour philosophy to the same degree as Blair. I'm also undecided about the Conservatives at the moment - they don't seem to have the same Thatcherist philosophy that was almost a precursor to New Labour. However this type of political philosophy is also found in various guises of 'neo-liberalism' in various European countries.

 

It is also worth noting comments such as one made by Jeremy Paxman - that as Prime Minister Tony Blair was above the law (good grief!) Swearing allegiance is perhaps a step away to swearing allegiance to what has become the effective head of state - the PM.

 

Just a thought.

[bluemonday]

A good cartoon by Peter Brookes in todays Times