Recently returned from slaying the US Senate, the charismatic left wing MP George Galloway was in Copeland this month, appearing at the Rosehill Theatre with his mother of all one man shows and promoting his so called "new political alternative to the Labour Party", Respect. Enjoying his superstar status, he gave a familiar barnstorming performance, no auto-queue or prompts required, and no apologies given, as he launched into an assault of New Labour's policies. He was a long way from his constituents in Bethnall Green and Bow, and even further from principles of the late Robin Cook, who resigned from the Cabinet over Iraq but warned that if voters shunned the Labour Party they would not be punishing Tony Blair but his constituents. Declaring that the Labour Party was no longer trusted because of Iraq and no longer representative of the working class and the most vulnerable in our society, he could not agree with his own hero of the left, Tony Benn, for saying that those who wanted to defend the rights of the poor should fight from within the Labour Party. He chewed up and spat out a claim from the audience that the Government had achievements to be proud of and to the concern of a seventeen year old student sitting beside me, he even poured scorn on the national minimum wage "an insult to the British workforce", forgetting that in Tory years employers were boasting of paying their workers less than £2 an hour, at Tory Party conferences.

Having caught on that after three defeats at the polls they will not win an election with a manifesto of hard right wing policies, a hopeful candidate for the Tory Party leadership with the X Factor was a doing a star turn at Blackpool. He sang a different tune from Mr Galloway but still dreamt of solving the nation's problems with "compassionate Conservatism" - the catch phrase that George W. Bush used to con American voters. No mention now of the threat from asylum seekers and cuts in Government spending.

However, the Labour Party Conference in Brighton will be remembered for only one incident. It managed to make both these enemies look credible by throwing out veteran Party member, Walter Wolfgang, and having him charged under anti-terrorist laws. It showed the unacceptable, authoritarian face of New Labour and no apologies can wipe that out. Sounding more like Mrs Thatcher than a Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair confirmed in his speech that his reforms "had not gone far enough". It upset not only left wing delegates at Conference but millions of people who are not political at all who feel that care and service in health and education are more important than profit.
It is time for Labour leaders to start listening, and not just to the things they want to hear. The political tide is on the turn. Labour had better start swimming or we will sink like a stone, "for the times are a-changing."

Sam Pollen