James Purnell’s announcement that he is standing down from his Stalybridge and Hyde constituency has led to much chatter on the Labour blogs and Twitter.

It’s sad that so much of it is the old, nasty politics of the early 90s and 80s. The divisive left/right idiocy that led Britain to endure 20 years of horror under the Tories.

One of the worst examples is Bob Piper, who when he originally started blogging came across as a fresh, interesting voice. He was from a different part of the party to the one I was from, but from a perspective that I could admire and respect.

Not so his ill thought out and damaging post on James Purnell’s decision. HIs political analysis is breath-taking in its naivety. He attacks Purnell’s decision to resign from the cabinet the day after the local election results. The emphasis on day after is mine, because its significance appears to have escaped Bob.

Regardless of whether I agree with them I want politicians with a conscience. I want politicians who’ll put their money where their mouth is and actually do something. That’s exactly what Purnell did. His conscious told him that Labour is moving in the wrong direction and rather than just keeping quiet for the sake of his career he did something about it. And he did it at the least possible damaging time, unlike Hazel Blears who caused the party real trouble.

If Purnell was from the same political spectrum as Bob I suspect we’d see his analysis of Purnell’s resignation and standing down to be entirely different.

Labour can win the General Election, but we won’t do so if you have the same old-fashioned, nasty politics of old. That is Labour’s Achilles’ heel.

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