Gordon Brown gave his keynote address to the UK Labour conference today, and with the party now coming third in the polls, he retreated into New Labour's favoured ground: authoritarianism. If Labour wins, he promises a crackdown on anti-social behaviour (again) and compulsory internment of teenage mothers (yes, really). Plus the usual array of soundbite policy props, all so he could fight the election for the "squeezed middle classes". Pardon me, but I didn't think the middle classes (which most UKanians don't identify themselves as anyway) were who a labour party was supposed to fight for.
The good news is that this conference will almost certainly be Brown's last as Prime Minister. And hopefully the wretched New Labour project of authoritarianism, triangulation, and abandoning their base will go with him.
