New Labour and the Politics of Insanity

I suppose we all feel that we are being driven mad by politics and politicians but look at the Labour government, look closely: it’s having a collective nervous breakdown! Are you surprised, is anyone surprised? I’m certainly not, though I’ve just read a good article in last week’s Spectator, which has helped me focus my thoughts. It’s by Martin Bright, the magazines’ blogger, and the piece is headed Insanity has always been integral to New Labour.

There are signs of personal insanity, yes, insanity, or forms of mental instability that some cabinet members, former cabinet ministers and key advisors have admitted to: John Prescott suffers from bulimia; David Blunket from depression, as does Alister Campbell, the former press supremo and one of the architects of the New Labour house of horrors. Lord alone knows what Joker Brown suffers from, apart from his well-publicised ‘psychological flaws’ and grim terminal Presbyterianism!

Now, there’s an interesting point on which to proceed, the Joker’s moral and religious convictions, the lie behind the whole thing, the lie behind him. The altogether loathsome Damian McBride served as a special advisor on Brown’s staff until he was caught trying to disseminate lies about opposition politicians, lies that did not stop short of embracing one MP’s wife. The emails in question were issued from Downing Street. What was the favoured poison? Perhaps you have already guessed? It was to be leaked that she suffered from a breakdown!

No surprise, really, that aspersions about mental health are this government’s favoured form of character assassination. I note that the ‘line’ on Hazel Blears is that she ‘could not handle it’, that she was ‘cracking’ under the pressure. It’s classic Freud, a process known by psychiatrists as ‘projection’-attributing to others one’s own feelings of disgust, inadequacy and self-loathing.

So, remember, the next time you hear one of the hydra heads of this government-possibly Lord Rumba- talking about the mental state of others, of opponents and ‘outsiders’, pay particular attention to the expressions used, to the width of the spin and the depth of the shaft. It will give you a better insight into the mental health of Joker Brown, “The Best Man for the Job”, and New Labour than I ever could. :-))