Alan Milburn markets Pepsi, George Osborne favours Coke

Posted on Wednesday 30 May, 2007
Filed Under New Labour

 


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A speech from George Osborne today will officially confirm that the Tories regard themselves as the heirs to Blairism. Lots of commentators have been making the point for some time, but it is still slightly surprising to hear a leading Conservative spell it out as bluntly as that.

The shadow chancellor will then proceed to make a complete fool of himself with the charge that under Gordon Brown, Labour will “lurch to the left”, as if this were the early eighties revisited.

It plainly isn’t. New Labourism remains completely hegemonic, as the Newsnight debate between the six Labour deputy leadership contenders last night made perfectly plain. The dirty half dozen reportedly struggled to differentiate themselves.

Within the narrow spectrum that makes up mainstream politics, it would probably be impossible for them to come up with six distinctive platforms.

Yes, there are still differences both within and between the major parties. But these are differences of emphasis rather than differences of substance. The electorate is certainly not being presented with coherent alternative directions for the country.

With that in mind, I was not surprised to read that former New Labour health secretary Alan Milburn has taken a £25,000-a-year part-time job to help PepsiCo build a healthier image for its particular brand of sugar-laden soft drinks, which tastes all but identical to all the other brands of sugar-laden soft drinks on the market.

Welcome to a world where political choice reduces to New Labour’s taste for Pepsi and the Tory taste for Coke.


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Comments

9 Responses to “Alan Milburn markets Pepsi, George Osborne favours Coke”

  1. John Angliss
    on May 30th, 2007 at 12:04

    A soft drink marketed by former Health Secretary Alan Milburn? I’d buy that… As long as they put his picture on the cans.

  2. Geoffrey
    on May 30th, 2007 at 12:52

    “New Labourism remains completely hegemonic, as the Newsnight debate between the six Labour deputy leadership contenders last night made perfectly plain. The dirty half dozen reportedly struggled to differentiate themselves.”

    Well, I don’t know who reported that to you, but anyone who can’t tell the difference between Hazel Blears and Jon Cruddas should give up on politics.

    Perhaps it might be worth actually watching the debate before passing judgement on the candidates?

    BBC video here: http://tinyurl.com/2hbdmy

    Entertaining report by Edward Pearce here: http://tinyurl.com/2y38os

  3. Dan
    on May 30th, 2007 at 14:13

    Careful, Dave! Anything that could be construed as even a mild criticism of Cruddas and you’ll have lots of people with made-up names appearing on the blog to savage you!

  4. Geoffrey
    on May 30th, 2007 at 15:09

    And, having watched the Newsnight debate, you can vote for Jon Cruddas here: http://tinyurl.com/yu3cs

  5. modernityblog
    on May 30th, 2007 at 15:57

    wasn’t Alan Milburn a Trot once?

    could him taking a job with Pepsi be part of a wider deep, deep (almost subterranean) entryist scheme?

    you never know, those ex-Trots are a cunning bunch!

  6. Alan Inkpin
    on May 30th, 2007 at 16:13

    Alan Milburn was a member of the Revolutionary Socialist League (aka Militant Tendency) in Newcastle during the late 1970s / early 1980s.

    At the time he ran a left-wing bookshop in Newcastle.

    By the way the Daily Mail recently did an expose on Jon Cruddas’ two houses in London, one of which was bought to get his son into a top RC comprehensive school in the capital.

    So much for Jon Cruddas’ campaign to build new council houses in Dagenham. Like all so-called left-wing Labour MPs he is just another bourgeois politician with his snout in the trough!

  7. James
    on May 30th, 2007 at 18:43

    ANY CRITICISM OF THE GREAT LEADER WILL NOT BE TOLERATED

    ANY PERCEIVED SLIGHT AGAINST CRUDDAS ON A BLOG WILL BE PUNISHED WITH THOUSANDS OF HOSTILE COMMENTS FROM HIS CAMPAIGN WORKERS WITHIN A MATTER OF SECONDS

    WE WILL NOT ENGAGE IN RATIONAL DEBATE WITH ANY OF OUR CRITICS. NO CRITICISM OF CRUDDAS CAN HAVE ANY SOLID FOUNDATION

    ALL CRITICS OF CRUDDAS ARE ULTRA-BLAIRITES AND ULTRA-LEFTISTS.

    EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!

  8. Benjamin
    on May 31st, 2007 at 11:17

    I don’t agree with Dave when he says New Labour appears completely hegemonic on the evidence of the Newsnight devate.

    Ostensively, there were significant differences between Cruddas (and to a lesser extent Harman) and the rest.

    But whilst some difference did emerge, whether they are real or not remains an open question.

  9. Benjamin
    on May 31st, 2007 at 11:40

    At the time he ran a left-wing bookshop in Newcastle.

    I don’t think he actually ran it.

    Days of Hope, or Haze of Dope, as it was amusingly nicknamed.