If there is such a thing as laying down covering fire in politics then Peter Hain is an expert in it. He is constantly making headlines with apparently radical ideas for reform which distract from the wider troubles of the government of which he is a part.
He rarely gets into trouble because in reality that is why Gordon Brown brought him back into the cabinet but also because on closer examination the initiatives Mr. Hain associates himself with are just reheated versions of previous ideas thrown up by the Prime Minister or his associates as long term aspirations when, in reality they have no intention of following through on them.
The latest headline in this morning’s Western Mail is a case in point. Mr. Hain tells the paper that Ministers must press ahead with radical reforms of the House of Lords or risk losing credibility, reflecting an earlier announcement from the Prime Minister. Yet the Labour Party has already had several abortive attempts at fundamental reform and botched them.
More importantly, the latest initiative is so vague and ill-defined that even if Labour got back in at the next election the Prime Minister has get-out clauses that will excuse him from actually doing something. All that is really on offer in the short-term is the removal of the 92 hereditary peers and the timetable for that may well be too long to get it done before voters are asked to give their verdict on this government and its record.
Peter Hain is already getting the excuses in place for failure whilst urging the Prime Minister to make the effort anyway, just to show that Labour are serious: “We just don’t have the votes to deliver it in the Lords. I think the Tory Party will pull the rug on us. If not David Cameron in the Commons, then his Tory members in the Lords with a bit of help from others.
“But I think we just need to go for it. After all, the Commons voted [in 2007] for a 100% elected House of Lords.”
The Neath MP added: “What I am very clear about is that – and I think there is an overwhelming view in the Cabinet about this – is that we need to be on high ground.
“We need to say where we stand as a Labour Party. This is now, what is it now, we are in the 13th year of government. We need to settle this matter.”
It is masterly obfuscation which, when tied in with a plea for limited electoral reform, seeks to paint Labour as constitutional reformers when in reality they are nothing of the sort.
Mr. Hain is like the schoolboy who starts a fight knowing that the teacher will intervene and break it up before he gets hurt. He is setting the tone without having to commit himself or the government to any real change. In that regard he has a willing and able pupil in the Prime Minister.
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