VOFDTALK COMMENT: WHERE HAS the Labour Party gone? Well, yes – into Government. And ministers don't need the Labour Party website so much, as their press releases can now appear on ministerial press sites. But have they forgotten about the actual Party that they are supposed to represent?

The Labour Party website has a page entitled “press releases”, and for years that has been where the Party has spelled out its views on what the Government is doing and what is happening in the world. Today, 25th October, there hasn’t been a press release sing 25th September – and that was Liz Kendall MP’s speech to Labour Party Conference. The previous eleven press releases are all speeches by Labour frontbenchers to the party conference.

"That's what we need to do with the Party - just keep it down and out the way."

Perhaps Labour is concentrating on communicating via social media? Let’s look.

Most of the posts on “the official Instagram account of the UK Labour Party” are soundbites about what the Labour Government is doing, interspersed with the occasional comment about what the Tory Government did. At least some civilians have got into the comment box. By and large they are asking for public services to be funded properly. “Whole load of words for a whole lot of nothing,” says _sh4y.

Many of these posts are also posted on @UKLabour on X. “Labour is the party of working people” it says, but again the posts concentrate on the government, not the Party, so problems with government policy go unanswered. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson says that “schools must be inclusive for every child” as if schools were on some drive to be exclusive. In fact, schools are starved of funds to meet special needs.

It’s the same on Facebook: “The Labour Party” page is government, government, government. Again, the comments make the more interesting reading. Addressing government plans to legislate on the governance of football, the clubs and the game, Graeme Cheek suggests that MPs could take the lead on transparency and accountability by listing their sponsors on the back of their shirts. Silly boy, Graeme: that will only work if one of their sponsors has given them a shirt  to wear.

So far, the Labour Government has done some good things. You can see the influece of the affiliated trade unions on their programme in government. It’s just a shame, though, that the joy of Government seems to have eclipsed the Party that won them the election victory.

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