Anthony Barnett (London, OK): Despite lots of things I have always had great admiration for Peter Hain. He proved himself to be a wonderful organiser and the young Hain helped make apartheid unacceptable. Few politicians have done anything like it, it was quite the opposite of the think-tank, special advisor, where are my cuff-links, career of today's younger MPs. Peter then fought notable court battles and was framed by the South African special branch and got himself acquitted - all before he started his Labour party career. And he has written a lot as well, Political Trials in Britain published by Penguins in 1984 was a serious contribution to civil rights literature.
He wanted to be a major political leader and he had the right skill set, so why couldn't he be Britain's Joschka Fisher, a street-fighting militant turned party leader? One answer is that we do not have PR and therefore no third party leader has - or had - much prospect of a national role in high office. Hain left the Liberals therefore and having committed himself to the Labour movement couldn't move back to the SDP, although a moderniser by temperament. His sheer ability and self-confidence was a threat to the New Labour crowd, because he had a record of achievement - something they didn't! But he wasn't someone they could simply toss to the back benches.
Doubtless he went for the deputy leadership because he wanted to be in a position to bid for the leadership itself if the opportunity arose. I think his fatal mistake was not to apologise for Iraq. In the Newsnight hustings I recall watching him say with his uncanny smile that it was then and this is now and we must all move on - as a Cabinet member he took responsibility for what he agreed at the time, but it was not a mistake he was willing to argue over any longer. This was shameful. Iraq will haunt all those who fail to make a reckoning. As he isn't a trusted machine man, so he had to get constituency and membership support and this answer lost it. After all, most party members not only opposed Iraq but knew they were wiser and more far-sighted for having done so.
I assume that, aware of the likelihood of a humiliating defeat, he threw as much money at it as he could, to no avail. Now reports like this from the BBC,
More than £25,000 in donations and a further loan of £25,000 were made by individuals through the Progressive Policy Forum (PPF), which does not have a website and whose registered address is a solicitor's office in London.
A third donor, Isaac Kaye, the former head of a company raided in 2002 by police investigating alleged price fixing of NHS drugs, gave nearly £15,000 through the PPF.
suggest money laundering and mean the end of his political career. Whether he survives or not, he can't be promoted. Interestingly one of the more intelligent and tactically astute unionists working on keeping Wales in the UK is now damaged goods. It is another example of the way the force is with the independence movements.
PS: And see Iain Dale's 'No ifs, no buts...'; and Ben Brogan who strolled over to the PPF office! He also makes the point that if Hain goes Wendy Alexander is put at risk, which reinforces the 'independence' aspect; the lib demish Sound of Gunfire calls for hain to go, hat tip for this to Liberal Democracy's useful Casting the Net by Aaron Heath who makes the point "there is very, very little coverage of the Hain story across the Labour blogosphere"; not so Dizzy who tries to find the Mc behind the Man. PSS and now Paul Linford on Conspiracy, signals Iraq from a different angle.
