Tony Blair Must Be Forced From Power

In the book that arguably created modern Conservatism, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke criticised those who would fundamentally change society by means of revolution. He argued society was an organic construct to a large extent, and that those who tried to build or rebuild a society based on an artificial blueprint would destroy that society, and the end result would be anarchy and/or despotism. The French Revolution proved him to be correct, as has the descent of all revolutions since into brutal dictatorships.

However this is no longer a relevant analysis for modern Britain. No-one with any credibility seriously calls for revolution anymore, and the Labour party - the supposed party of the left - is a centrist party with very little to link it to the party of Clement Attlee, Nye Bevan or even Tony Benn. The problems with this Labour government lies not in their desire to fundamentally change the state - put simply, they do not have their desire. The real problem lies in their approach to the law.

Ignoring (for this post anyway) the apparent feeling amongst the ruling Nu Labour elite that the law does not apply to them, the relationship between Nu Labour and the law has always been concerning. They have a tendency to ignore the existing laws in this country when a problem arises, and throw new legislation at it in the desperate hope that more and more laws will make everything better. This is, of course, utter bollocks, as the ID card legslation proves. ID cards apparently save us from identity fraud and terrorism. We actually already have legislation against identity fraud and terrorism, and it would make more sense for Nu Labour to try to implement those laws. But this is government by headline, government by gimmick. For Nu Labour, the real point of government is to appear to be doing something rather than actually doing it.

Which is bad enough, until you consider the events of the past few weeks within the Home Office. The scandal around sentencing in the UK shows an unprecedented event in our history - our government actually stopping the laws of the land being implemented. We now have judges unable to give the custodial sentences they would normally give to the likes of paedophiles because of the failings of the Home Office. We have the Home Secretary writing to judges and asking them not to sentence people to prison unless they absolutely have to. Judges cannot implement the law because the Home Secretary has asked them not to. Nu Labour is no longer over-legislating, it is preventing the implementation of existing legislation. The law is ceasing to exist under Nu Labour.

It is now clear to most right thinking people that Reid should resign, and if he won't resign, he should be sacked. However Blair won't do this - he can't risk further instability in his cabinet. Which brings us to the other major area in which Nu Labour is currently destroying our country. In today's Times Matthew Parris sees 2005-2007 as an odd twilight time in British Politics - a time beween two leaders, and a time of government paralysis. This is the key problem British politics has today. We don't have a leader, we don't have a Prime Minister, we have a dead man walking. Someone should be in charge of the country. Someone should be sacking Reid, and trying to put someone capable in his place. But whilst Blair clings on, there is no-one to do that.

President Truman famously had a plague on his desk saying "The Buck Stops Here". The buck doesn't stop anywhere in Britain today. There is a void in Number 10, a vacancy at the very top of the British government. Whilst Blair sleepwalks his way to retirement, nothing will get done. And as the Home Office crisis so vividly shows, we need someone to be in charge.

So it falls to the Labour party to take action and remove this lame duck Prime Minister. It has to be done, so we can have some sort of actual government - even a flawed and idiotic government - back. We have to have someone who is going to try to sort the problems of this country out. The only way for this to happen is to force Blair out of Number 10. Now.

As they approach their tenth anniversary in power, the message for the MPs that make up the Labour government is simple: for fuck's sake, govern.