My first TUC conference was in Brighton, in 1978, when ‘Sunny Jim’ Callaghan reneged on a promise to his union paymasters to call a snap General Election.
asserted
Callaghan → renege → Election
Having banked their cheques for his campaign war-chest, he mocked them in his keynote speech with a clumsy rendition of the old music hall song Waiting At The Church, about a jilted bride.
asserted
he → bank → bride
He left them in the lurch.
asserted
He → leave → lurch
That night in the hotel bars all hell broke loose, as the unions plotted their revenge.
asserted
unions → break → revenge
Callaghan’s refusal to go to the country provoked the notorious Winter of Discontent wave of strikes against his attempts to peg pay rises at five per cent.
asserted
refusal → go → cent
Rubbish piled up in the streets and the dead went unburied.
asserted
dead → pile → streets
The resultant public disgust ushered in the Thatcher revolution and an unbroken 18 years of Tory rule.
asserted
disgust → resultant → rule
I was there, too, at the Labour conference in Bournemouth in 1985 when Neil Kinnock finally summoned up the backbone to tackle Derek Hatton’s Militant Tendency head-on.
And also in Blackpool in 1994 when Tony Blair launched ‘New Labour’ with a pledge to scrap the sacred Clause 4 commitment to the ‘common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange’.
asserted
Blair → summon → production
They have gone down in Labour history as transformative or treachery, depending on your point of view.
asserted
They → go → view
Callaghan’s cowardice in postponing an election he‘d probably have won condemned Labour to almost two decades in the wilderness.
asserted
cowardice → postpone → wilderness
Kinnochio’s crusade against Militant didn’t pay off, either.
asserted
crusade → pay → Militant
He crashed to defeat by Thatcher in 1987 and to John Major five years later.
asserted
He → crash → Major
The only truly transformative address was Blair’s decision to shed Labour’s socialist baggage, in the teeth of entrenched far-Left opposition.
asserted
address → shed → opposition
He modernised the party and delivered three stunning election victories.
asserted
He → modernise → victories
Andy Burnham poses as a ‘straight kinda guy’ to borrow from Blair’s self-estimation, writes Richard Littlejohn
So where will Andy Burnham’s ‘Back To The Future’ speech in Liverpool this week figure when the dust settles?
asserted
dust → pose → Liverpool
It was received rapturously in the hall.
asserted
It → receive → hall
The Boys In The Bubble showered him with praise, but much of the media has a tendency to get swept up in the contagious conference hysteria.
asserted
much → shower → hysteria
A sort of Stockholm Syndrome sets in, a sense of proportion can be lost.
asserted
sense → set → proportion
I admit, certainly in the early days, I wasn’t immune to conference fever.
asserted
I → admit → fever
But by the time my nightly Sky News show ended in 2004, I concluded that the best way to cover any of these gatherings was from as far away as possible.
asserted
way → end → gatherings
Inside the hermetically sealed conference centre, the politicians, delegates and pundits may feel they are at the epicentre of the universe.
uncertain
they → seal → universe
Outside, more people are watching Bargain Hunt.
asserted
people → watch → Hunt
Blair’s genius was to go over the heads of the activists and appeal directly to the voters beyond.
asserted
genius → go → voters
Whatever you think of Blair, Kinnock or even Callaghan, they at least had the courage to go against the grain, to tackle the vested interests in their party.
asserted
they → think → party
Burnham chose cheap applause.
asserted
Burnham → choose → applause
He was preaching to the choir, telling them what they wanted to hear, and to the Green and Lib Dem supporters he’ll need to stand any chance of remaining in Downing Street.
asserted
he → preach → Street
I thought the way in which he milked his family background and exploited his father’s death was mawkish and distasteful.
We’ve all got a backstory we could peddle.
uncertain
we → think → backstory
Burnham told us his grandad worked on Liverpool docks and bought the house in which he was born.
asserted
he → tell → which
My grandad worked on London docks and bought a similar home by the sound of it.
asserted
grandad → work → it
I was born in my grandparents’ front bedroom, but that doesn’t qualify me to be PM.
asserted
that → bear → me
Burnham’s dad was Labour through and through, as he kept reminding us.
asserted
he → keep → us
My grandad, despite belonging to the stevedores’ union, voted Tory all his life and was so disgusted at the state of Labour’s Britain in the Sixties that he emigrated to Australia as a Ten Pound Pom.
asserted
he → belong → Pom
Call me callous, and anyone who loses a parent deserves our sympathy.
asserted
who → call → sympathy
But the place to grieve is in private, not to parade your grief onstage for political gain.
asserted
place → grieve → gain
As the late columnist John Junor, formerly of this parish, used to remark: Pass the sick bag, Alice.
asserted
columnist → use → bag
Burnham poses as a ‘straight kinda guy’ to borrow from Blair’s self-estimation.
asserted
Burnham → pose → estimation
But his brief tribute to Starmer – ‘Thank you, Keir’ – was nauseating, especially when you consider he spent over a year scheming to stab him in the back and succeed him as PM.
asserted
he → thank → PM
Britpop Burnham likes to sing along with the Common People.
asserted
Burnham → like → People
He came from Wigan with a thirst for knowledge,
asserted
He → come → knowledge
He studied English at a Cambridge College...
asserted
He → study → College
…and 27 more, not listed.
The Aporia
