Imagine that - told off by a Labour member

There's a woman who was at school with me who has not yet seen the light and is a member of the Labour party - no hissing at the back there. She's not elected to anything and has no interest in getting elected, nor is she an office-bearer in her local branch, nor anything of that nature, she's an ordinary member of the Labour party and a thoroughly decent person. I have tried to save her without success but the road to Damascus is very long. There is still hope - do not despair!

Anyway, after my recent posting about the vacuity of Wendy Alexander's future paper which doesn't look to the future and has no original thought nor any trace of a policy or a direction or a sense of vision or an outlining of what matters to her, I received a communication from my good friend back in the land of heroes.

I have to admit to having been told off by a member of the Labour party. Apparently I missed Wendy's greatest sin. The Labour party was founded to seek the righting of wrongs and the levelling of society and the seeking of power was a search to find the levers to effect that change. Traditionally, Labour members sought power for what they could do and for how they could change society.

Wendy Alexander has, apparently, cocked a snook (what a lovely phrase) at that tradition and argued that the Labour party should seek power for the sake of power. She has lionised Tony Blair who argued the same thing - that power was more important than principle - and she has betrayed the generations of Labour members who went before her.

Interestingly, this is also, apparently, why so many members of the Labour party are leaving the fold and why some are actually considering voting for the SNP (they're only considering it, don't get over-excited) - because the SNP has quite clearly stuck by its principles and its beliefs even when they stood between us and power and the SNP Government has sought to deliver on those principles in power. This, apparently, stands in marked contrast to the actions of MS Alexander.

Chastised and praised at the same time. Still not saved her though - not yet.