Labour Party members should be wary, very wary. Sixteen years ago the Party was suckered (in a manner of speaking) into believing that just one person, and only one could lead it to victory in a General Election, defeating the Tories. His name was Tony Blair.
These sagas of New Labour were being retold just this morning by fabled spinmeister, Peter Mandelson. He recounted how under New Labour the Labour Party had been rebuilt, won three elections, and everything in the the world was just so, until that nasty Mr Brown agitated and plotted against the Saviour eventually replaced him.
Us Labour Party members, well we all had to go along with this. Ten years had passed. Then an elected one by the name of Gordon Brown was hailed by over 300 Labour Members of Parliament as the only one.
For it was writ on the tablets of Labourism that only the elected ones could name a Saviour, and so it proved. A cry went up: "The Saviour is dead, long live the Saviour". A coronation was staged. And all was well. The Saviour managed fire and flood. Until the pestilence of the Account came to pass. The curse of the unelected Saviour descended. The New Labour cherubs murmered, "Saviour, it is time to allow the people a say." "Your powers will be greatly increased." "Your opponents will be overcome". But the Saviour was content. Another year passed and a plague of bankers descended in the land. All was not well. The Treasury was stripped bare. The Saviour was forced to visit the land of the lenders to feed the people. Then it was time for the Account. The curse of the Act descended and there was no escape. The people had to be reconciled. And they were - to ConDemNation.
So the house of the Labourites was without a Saviour. The elected ones in the shadows decreed an early coronation. But the brothers and sisters in the wilderness demanded time to reflect - 40 days became more than 80. And so it came to pass. The servants of the New Labour house continued to weave and spin. Suddenly, a cry went up for another Saviour - a Party chair. How can this be, one asked. Is it writ on the the tablets of Labourism? So the scribes busied themselves and it was writ. And all was well.