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# Beyond Blairites and Brownites
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-blairites-and-brownites/
- Published: 2008-09-06T11:09:06.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:41:35.000Z
- Author: Tom Griffin
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:41

**Tom Griffin (London,** [**OK**](https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom)**):** Charles Clarke may not have won much overt support for his [attack on Gordon Brown](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk%5Fpolitics/7597464.stm?ref=opendemocracy.net) this week, but [his thesis](http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/09/labour-blair-british-current?ref=opendemocracy.net) that the future of the Labour Party cannot be understood in terms of Blairite and Brownite cliques seems to have won more general assent.

At [Comment is Free](http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/09/labour-blair-british-current?ref=opendemocracy.net), the Fabian Society's Sunder Katwala has pointed out that many of Clarke's own policy prescriptions don't fit the Blair/Brown New Labour template. In another piece on the Fabians' new [Next Left](http://nextleft2.blogspot.com/2008/09/so-what-is-uber-blairite.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) blog (also at [Liberal Conspiracy](http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/2008/09/05/what-is-uber-blairism-anyway/?ref=opendemocracy.net)), Katwala suggests the same is true of many younger members of the Cabinet:

*the generation of 40 and 30-somethings in the Labour Party have no interest at all in carrying the personal allegiances of 1997 around for the next twenty years. Which is lucky – as I doubt Ed Miliband wants to lead a rival army to take on his brother.*

If there is one thing a ‘Next Left’ is about, it has to be about coming up with new answers, not thinking the work was done a generation ago.