Blairite blogger Hopi Sen has a confession:
This sets him apart from other leftwing writers like Sunny Hundal who thinks we’re “evil” and Owen Jones who merely considers us to be “cruel” and “unforgivable”.
Mr Sen, however, is a grown-up:
So what is it that makes him a Labour supporter?
That’s an interesting answer because it suggests that there is at least a sliver of intelligent Labour support that could be won over if we could prove that the Conservative Party is the best bet for social innovation in the public interest. And that means being as tough on rent-seeking corporate interests – for instance, among the utility companies – as we are on backward-looking public sector unions.
Hopi Sen’s conclusion is just as interesting:
But perhaps they’re not confused at all. Rather, they may well be preoccupied with the following question: ‘If this chap is the most rightwing person is the Labour Party, then who’s the most leftwing person in the Conservative Party?’ And the answer to that, for a certain kind of rightwinger, is none other than David Cameron himself.
Which is, of course, nonsense. David Cameron is not on the left of the Conservative Party at all. The first ever Conservative leader to promise a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union is no ‘wet’. Nor is the head of a government which has already enacted radical reform on welfare, education, immigration, local government and the police.
That doesn’t mean that rightwingers have had it all their own way. Quite clearly, they haven’t – nor should they. The Conservative Party is itself a broad-based coalition – and, so, as well as being polite to our opponents in the Labour Party we should try to be more understanding of one another too.