ONE of my favourite tunes of the 90s was the D:Ream classic "Things can only get better" – sadly "was" is the key word, for once Blair and Brown's new model Labour Party adopted the catchy chorus as its 1997 general election signature tune, I gave my CD single to the kids.
How long ago that time of great expectations now seems, and how empty and hollow the claim of a better tomorrow has become.
It was Blair and Brown plc that told us the NHS had only 24 hours to live, only for the UK's National Health Service to los
e its "National" status so that it is now different in Scotland, Wales and England. It wasn't so much saved as dissected.
It was Blair and Brown plc that uttered the mantra "education, education, education", only for Labour MPs to do what they always do, start sending their kids to selective schools that Tories had fought to keep open.
It was Blair and Brown plc that, agreeing with Lord Robertson that devolution would stop independence in its tracks, ushered in a parliament that was designed to make an SNP government unlikely – but has achieved that notable feat, putting the Union in peril.
I could go on, but if Blair and Brown plc were indeed a company it would have gone the way of other high street classics such as Goldbergs, Safeway or Colourall.
Despite the golden economic legacy that Blair and Brown inherited (economic growth and living standards rising, unemployment and inflation falling) many economic and social statistics have not just got worse than when John Major was prime minister, some are the worst for a generation or since records began.
Already, businesses associated with property, from construction to sales, are laying of staff by the shed-load. It won't be long before growing unemployment figures join the litany of economic catastrophes facing Blair and Brown plc.
Whether or not Tony Blair saw what was coming and got out while he had some reputation to defend or whether it was just sheer luck matters not.
The Labour backbenchers who were making noises that their fortunes would only get better if Brown were leader are now looking especially foolish.
Brown, now left to his own devices, has at every turn avoided any possibility of a humiliating rebuff in the hope that things will indeed get better. But they haven't, and for a long time they won't.
He ducked out of a general election that his backroom staff had prepared for and he dodged the referendum on the EU's new constitution he had promised.
He cannot, however, dodge the electors and the result at Glasgow East risks, at best, being a humiliating bloody nose or another catastrophic defeat.
No matter how Gordon Brown tries, he cannot avoid the day of reckoning with his customers to whom "things can only get better" will mean removing him from office.
Reid to the rescue?Despite the fact that the SNP believes it possible to have a leader in Holyrood who also has time to be a Westminster MP, Margaret Curran has ruled herself out of Scottish Labour's leadership race following her decision to stand in the Glasgow East by-election. Looking at the remaining field I cannot say I am impressed, especially as none of them looks up to the task of taking on His Royal Smugness in hand-to-hand combat.
There is, however, one man in the Labour Party who could do it, with genuine gladiatorial experience, an excellent debater, a keen intellect but retaining the common touch – step forward John Reid MP. He would, of course, need to get into Holyrood first, but surely Margaret Curran or Jack McConnell could resign – giving Reid the opportunity to win a by-election?
How sweetly ironic it would be were the chairman of Celtic to ride to the rescue of the Union.
Docs need examinedThis week Nicola Sturgeon had her own epiphany when she told Scottish doctors she would close the "loophole" that allows a private company to bid to our health boards for the provision of GP services. The doctors lapped it up, and no wonder: it removed the only hope of any competition that they might face to meet the unmet demand that we patients have the cheek to make of them.
How hypocritical of Nicola Sturgeon to ignore the fact that doctors are themselves private contractors to the health boards. How self-serving of the doctors to deny themselves the test that other professions face on a daily basis. And how dare we patients ask to be seen when we are ill.
If our GPs (working as a partnership) are as good as they think they are, I fail to see what they have to fear from other GPs (working for a company). If doctors made such poor diagnoses as they do political arguments they'd deserve to be struck off.
The full article contains 827 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
