Ten Years On

I was reminded that today is the tenth anniversary of the Labour Party's landslide victory in the 1997 General Election. A lot has happened in that period, but I want to concentrate on the changes in my personal and political life.

In 1997 I was a member of the Labour Party - had been for 32 years - a personal friend of Robin Cook and an activist. I was a member of his Constituency Executive and I worked hard for his re-election in several campaigns, and between elections too. I supported him in his efforts to marginalise the local 'Militant Tendency' Trots. Remember them? Always more mouth than trousers. I still hold them in contempt for what they tried to do to the Party.

So that morning of the 1st of May, having stayed up all night to share in the joy of the victory, I was full of hope for the positive things a Labour Government could do for the people of Britain and beyond. Who could forget the sight of Michael Portillo's face in defeat? And that of Michael Forsyth, many of whose senior civil servants nick-named him as The Prince of Darkness?

I thought that the new Government would get rid of sleaze, clean up foreign policy, cut unemployment and save the National Health Service. Well, the first one didn't last long - I've come to believe that sleaze is endemic in our society. Robin tried to change the ethos of the Foreign Office, but failed and was sidelined as Blair took over foreign policy himself. Unemployment was cut, and that's largely down to Gordon Brown's economic policies IMHO. The National Health Service is in an abysmal state.

I began to feel uneasy over the direction the Government was going under Blair, with a few notable exceptions. Scottish devolution is a positive change for the better. We're a more confident nation now, although tied too closely to the Westminster purse- and power-strings. I'd like to see us freer in several policy areas, like immigration and defence.

I moved from Midcalder to Sunny Dunny in 2000, and snipped some of my political connections. Where it got critical for me was over Iraq. The day of the invasion I resigned from the Party, after being a loyal member for 37 years. I said in my resignation letter that I didn't feel I was leaving the party - it was leaving me. Then Robin died, and it was Tommy Sheridan who broke the news to me at a poetry reading in Glasgow.

Now, a couple of days before the election, I will not be voting Labour. I want to see them out on their arses. The administration in East Lothian is a byword for incompetence, nepotism and corruption, and I trust that a new Council will address some of these issues.

Ten years on, eh? Time to dust off the broom again.