Tom Watson and Tony Blair

Tom Watson has resigned rather than remove his name from a letter calling for Tony Blair to step down. I have never taken that much notice of such letters or other moves by certain quarters of the Labour party to oust Blair. It has always been impossible from here to tell whether the Westminster media was exaggerating the importance, quality or quantity of those who think Blair should be saying his goodbyes. And the Is This The End For Blair? question has been asked so many times it's become apropos of nothing.

I admit though to be shocked by this news when I heard it on the lunchtime news. I Like Tom, I follow his blog, and he's my mom and dad's MP and a damn good one at that. That he has decided to nail his colours to the flag despite the loss of his newly acquired governmental job, says to me that he is acting on conscience. That he fully believes, for the sake of the party and the country, that Blair must leave soon. And I respect him for being prepared to pay a personal cost for his beliefs.

But I have my doubts, now as always, about forcing Blair to announce a leaving date or otherwise make a decision contrary to his own instincts. And I have my doubts about the reasoning behind why Blair should announce his resignation soon.

Tom's letter states:

"I share the view of the overwhelming majority of the party and the country that the only way the Party and the Government can renew itself in office is urgently to renew its leadership."

Well, first of all, I can't say what the overwhelming majority of the party thinks about the need to "renew its leadership", but I doubt that anybody can state that an "overwhelming majority" of the country want this too. How could anybody know this with any certainty? The country elected the Labour party with Tony Blair at its helm just 14 months ago. And whilst we all agree that every leader of every party must eventually step down, I doubt that if it weren't for the media and certain sections of the Labour party making such a fuss over this issue, that most people would be giving it much thought at the moment.

The second thing I'd query is this need for the party to "renew itself". I'd like a bit more clarification as to what is meant by this. What exactly needs to renew? What change is needed? How is this to be done? For what purpose? How, at the moment, is a lack of renewal damaging the country or the party? I ask simply because I don't know.

My worry about this desire to refresh is that it is a panic reaction to the all-dancing-all-singing flipflopper Mr Cameron. He's sticking bells and whistles all over his party, and surely we must do the same. No. This would be entirely the wrong thing to do. Cameron is only dressing his party up because he has a lot to distract from and cover up. Whatever the failings in the Labour party, it has a proven track record in office, and is sitting atop a country that has fared very well under its efficient hand. Labour doesn't need to dress itself up when it looks fine as it is.

It might of course be that having the same man at the top for nearly ten years is stagnating the party within. It happens. People get stuck in their ways. Long time servers who transgressed are still out in the cold, despite perhaps having long since paid their dues. New people can't get through because their mentors don't have the King's ear. Some quarters of the Labour party are perhaps impatient for change because they're stuck and change at the top might bring new opportunity.

But if we are all agreed that Blair will go, and given the briefings in the press today, go within the year, then why risk damage to the party by pushing for it to happen now?

I have to say that the greatest reason for Tony Blair to announce his resignation at the moment is because the MPs calling for it are growing so bold as to and risk causing great damage. The danger they pose to the party and its chances of re-election is greater, it seems to me, than anything Cameron and his party poses at the moment.

Blair must go, but let's afford the man some dignity and try not to trash the party in the meantime.

One final word for Tom. Blair apparently said that Tom's actions were "disloyal, discourteous, and wrong". I find this an inappropriately scathing response considering Tom's record in the Labour party.

Update:

Seven Labour MPs quit