Choice of two evils

Although, considering the disdain in which the noble lord's political mentor is held by the majority of people in the country, it is hard to see what damage Mr Blair's criticism could do.

Whether it is for his warmongering as Prime Minister or his blatant rush to cash in immediately after stepping down, there is hardly a person in the country who doesn't despise Mr Brown's predecessor.

That is not to say, however, that Mr Brown is going to waltz through the local elections at the head of a triumphant party. He isn't.

But it isn't Mr Blair's poor opinion of him that will cause the Labour Party massive electoral damage.

Rather, it is new Labour's ridiculous habit of handing smoking guns to anyone with the wit to fire them.
Even a little research and foresight could have predicted the problems that would arise, but that reseach wasn't done and that foresight wasn't apparent.

New Labour's insensitivity to the problems of the poor was previously demonstrated by Mr Brown's refusal to relink pensions to earnings before 2012.

And the battle to extend the period of detention without trial, a battle that Mr Blair fought and lost but one that Mr Brown is determined to continue to prosecute, is not going to do Labour any favours.

Mr Brown said at the weekend that "Labour is always ready to listen to people's concerns and take action on them." Not strictly true, unfortunately. Labour will take action, but only when it is forced to do so by public outrage, when it has no option.

And that leaves trade unionists with a dilemma.

For the Tory alternative is by no means as people-friendly as Mr Blair believes it to be, which says as much about Mr Blair as it does about the Tories.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne let the right-wing cat out of the Tory bag yesterday in his address to the British Chambers of Commerce conference.

Claiming that there was a need to confront workers' readiness to go on strike "at the drop of a hat," in reference to both Grangemouth and the teachers' disputes, Mr Osborne reverted to union-bashing type.

If corporate raids on workers' pensions and confronting real wage cuts are the "drop of a hat," then Mr Osborne has clearly got priorities which are not admitted by the new, cuddly Mr Cameron.

It shows the Tories for what they really are, just old-style Thatcherites in disguise.

And that brings us to the horns of the working people's dilemma. It leaves us voting for the least bad and not the greater good.

And until Labour gets its house in order and gets rid of the new Labour parasites that are infesting the party, that is the choice that we are left with.

In the long term, something must change and, if it isn't the Labour Party that changes, then it will have to be shed like an old coat.

But in the short term, we are left with Labour and a fight for its election, rather than the Tories who, unlike Mr Blair, we dare not countenance.

And a fight for socialism, which again, unlike Mr Blair, we dare not neglect.