It's rained non-stop now for almost 48 hours here in Prague. I am beginning to wonder whether it will ever stop. I hope so, because there was a famous flood here in 2002 when the river burst its banks and flooded much of the historic centre of this great city. Weather has an intriguing power to dent one's imagination, don't you find? When the sun shines, I find it almost impossible to imagine it raining. And now that it is raining so heavily, I can't envisage it being sunny again.
Over in the UK, today was the first official day of the British Labour Party conference. It's shiny new leader, Ed Miliband who won by a hair breadth against his brother, David, for the coveted position, entered the hall to grand applause. He looked proud but humbled.
I've been a lifelong supporter of the Labour Party and can remember previous new leaders being greeted by delates with equal enthusaism. As I get older, it seems to me that politics slowly erodes the intial attraction that one has in our statesmen. I can so vividly recall celebrating Michael Foot's leadership victory, now more than 20 years ago. He sadly turned out to be one of the pary's least effective leaders.
My vote would have gone to Ed Miliband, I like his type of politics. I would describe it as slighly left of centre. And I would strongly fend off the ridiculous suggestion that he will be too left wing because his victory was predominantly due to gaining significant support from the trade unions.
It was during the John Major Conservative government back in the 1990s that Labour worked out that if it was going to win an election it would have to be more attractive to the middle class. That meant losening its ties with the trade unions and being more supportive of the free markets. This did not mean turning away from the basic socialist values of providing care for all, and striving to reduce the gap between rich and poor. But the focus changed from bashing the rich, to enriching the less well off. This was called New Labour.
Many commentators would credit the name change to New Labour as central to the party's election success, when Tony Blair came to power in a landslide victory in 1997.
Amusingly for me, I am now hearing Ed Miliband saying that this is the end of New Labour. Funny how positions change when success hits the bumpers. Just because the party lost the election, the new leader immediately discards Old Labour.
So I now wonder what Labour is, Is it New New Labour, or Old New Labour, or new Old Labour or maybe its just plain Labour? It will be for the media to decide in the end, but it sounds like New Labour is has become old hat. Interesting times in British politics as it truly enters a new era for me. An era when political leaders are younger than me. And they are going to get younger still.
Hard to imagine that by the time you, my darling Yael, are politically conscious, Ed Miliband will be in the twilight years of his political career. That's far more certain than the eradication of poverty and inequality in Britain.
Grandpa Jonathan
Prague, Czech Republic
