Bigotry

Gillian Duffy is a bigot. It's probably going to be the most truthful statement from Brown in this campaign and he's being vilified for it.

Of course the Labour party was built on exactly that sort of bigot. But, you know, we've always looked away and mumbled something about it being for the greater good. Every so often a Julian Baggini will show up in Rotherham, or somewhere very much like it, and attempt to explain away racism in Labour industrial heartlands and, with some hand waving, insult everybody's intelligence in the process.

There's no apologies for it or any disembling you can do to get round it. The same sort of self-interest that has someone voting for Labour, that is a belief that the Labour of old that had some interest in protecting the working man from the machinations of capitalism still has some vestges in the new party, is the sort of self-interest that spills into lazy racism and quite a few other "isms" too.

What these bigots aren't, though, is what's wrong with Labour. What's wrong with Labour is that it has forgot how to keep these bigots happy while actively seeking to change society for the better, Labour hasn't bothered to do any of that in years. Instead it has been trying to keep businesses happy while taking away the rights of the voters bit by bit.