SPIRITUAL VACUUM
As Prime Minister Tony Blair assures the News of the World that he has no intention of standing down, the signs are that the Third Way has been mislaid. There are no less that 14 000 British Muslim converts and foremost among them are Joe Ahmed-Dobson and Yahya Birt - sons of former Labour Minister Frank and government advisor John respectively. Two government advisors, Joe Moore (who e-mailed government departments that September 11 would be a good day to slip out bad news) and Peter Hyman, have left to become classroom teachers. Amongst the loyal troops carrying out the government's war in Iraq, seven have committed suicide and scores more have been sent home with psychological problems. These are all symptoms of a demoralisation at the heart of British society under New Labour.
New Labour has had its problems with the vision thing in the past. The Prime Minister's crypto-Catholicism puts him at odds with conventional British agnosticism, and his wife's flirtation with New Age mysticism indicates a spiritual vacuum. This problem is intrinsic to a project that was defined negatively against the past movements of the conservative left and state socialism. It was always easier to state what it was not than what it was.
But adding to Blair's woes is the spectacular disintegration of the project in power. The depth of this problem has been disguised by the lack of a coherent opposition. But none the less, the difficult part for Blair to cope with has been the speed with which his former allies have abandoned him.
The vitriolic campaign against the BBC is coloured in large part by the fact that Director General Greg Dyke and even more so Chairman of the governors Gavin Davies were New Labour insiders before they became - by mistake - the government's most forceful critics. Blair is quoted advising ministers take an aspirin to prepare from the kicking they can expect in a new book by left wing Helena Kennedy - the feminist barrister that they put in the House of Lords.
The ins and outs of party politics give form to the problem that Britain's political culture faces. But the demoralisation that has taken hold at new Labour's heart is larger than them. It is the problem that the whole society faces when it dispenses with its old values without creating new ones to replace them.