Whilst reading an article on New Labours plan for broadband over on the British Politics blog I was taken by acomment included in the post, not directly related to the subject, but it struck a chord with me. British Politics described New labour as the “say something, do nothing” party. At a time when Gordon Brown likes to continually accuse the conservative party of being the “do nothing party”, it crossed my mind about people in glass houses etc.

Now I don’t deny, as was stated by British Politics, that when it comes to spending our money, attacking our civil liberties or hiding their expenses from prying eyes, the Labour party is active, perhaps even enthusiastic. But, what about all of the other promises and commitments they have made over the years? This “say something, do nothing” party has, over the last 11 long years, consistently made promises and failed to deliver. They have enjoyed the publicity of one ‘policy initiative’ afetr the other, but conveniently forgotten to do anything many of them, or conveniently buried them when they couldn’t make it work.

New Labour ministers are for ever opening their mouths, before they have engaged their brains. The broadband promise is yet another example where Gordon Brown is trying to spin the subject matter for positive headlines, yet, all he has in the content of an interim report, there is little or no substance to it and no real financial figures. In fact, it is a perfect example of “say something, do nothing“.

After all, how can the government promise something that the commercial sector must deliver, how can the government determine a timescale with no commercial agreements, in fact, just what will the government be doing to deliver on this commitment, they won’t legislate for it? Well the the answer is simple…nothing. In other words, they are the ’say something, do nothing’ party.

This got me thinking, perhaps Gordon Brown should try a dose of his own medicine, after all, he started this whole thing didn’t he? I wonder how many other examples we could put together where Gordon Brown, Tony Blair or New Labour have said something and done nothing. One that immediately springs to mind, is the promise of a further 200,000 affordable homes by 2016. At this time, there are virtually no homes being built, much less, affordable homes.

But again, Gordon Brown basked in the glory of his own spin, promised 200,000 houses, even though his party were making a promise that only the private sector could deliver on. Remember, he did not promise social housing, just affordable housing. A perfect example of ’say something, do nothing’. I am certain that if we put our collective minds together, we could list dozens of other examples, please feel free! Perhaps we should also consider adding another tag to New Labour posts, ’say something do nothing’, it might even encourage David Cameron and the Conservatives to start highlighting just how many broken promises there have been under this government? Please feel free to post your responses below.