Benn on Blair

Tony Benn fires another salvo at New Labour in a review of Brian Brivati's biography of Hugh Gaitskell on page 24. He rejects perceptions of Gaitskell as an early Blairite moderniser, presenting him instead as a man of the traditional Labour left. He describes Gaitskell's draft for the failed reform of Clause Four in 1960, as "well to the left of anything that New Labour is offering" while Mr Blair's successful transformation of the famous clause two years ago is branded "ritual slaughter".