Labour is dropping the word “New” in its email addresses, according to a story by Craig Woodhouse at the Evening Standard*.
It’s an interesting development. I had thought that Ed Miliband’s promise to end “New Labour” was a rush of blood to the head after he won the leadership; especially as he then tried to tack back towards the centre ground in the ensuing months. (Refusing to go on a TUC rally, failing to speak out about high executive pay, etc).
But no – he really is dropping the most successful political slogan of the last two decades. Miliband and his team will insist that they are not replacing “New” with “Old”; but others will be tempted to fill in the missing three letters on their behalf. Including the Tories, who told the Standard - rather dramatically - that Mili-E ‘now wants to take Labour back to the Dark Ages (pictured).’”
Incidentally, I’m told that the word “New” was stripped from the Labour website after the last general election, on the approval of Ray Collins, general secretary. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to wonder if it was a co-incidence that Lord Mandelson – co-architect of New Labour – had just left the building.
Labour are insisting that none of this is a big deal: “We have got other things on our minds, the health service, the cuts, that is taking up our time rather than worrying about email addresses,” says a spokesman.
* Technically it may be Dan Hodges at the New Statesman who got their first
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey