hypocrite

brian sedgemore was a long standing labour party backbencher. now after 27 years as an mp he is defecting to the liberal democrats.
why is he doing this?
because he wants to give blair “a bloody nose” at the polls and this was because sedgemore has had enough of blair’s “stomach turning lies”. (here)
as part of the story over sedgemore’s defection was the implication that more labour mps would defect before polling day. as reported in the independent “declaring that "enough is enough", mr sedgemore also reveals that a small group of unnamed fellow mps who are standing down are secretly planning to leave the labour party in protest at mr blair's leadership after the election.” (april 26th edition - here)


now my mate nick thinks that is a principled move and it sends a message to blair that he cannot get away with what he has done with regards to iraq.
i can see his point, but in all honesty what sedgemore (and perhaps some of his colleagues are doing) is so shallow and so hypocritical you wonder why he isn’t joining the conservative party.
true sedgemore has voted against the government on the subject of iraq (and several other key policies), but he has remained in the party and as part of the government. the timing of his defection is cynical – done to get as much publicity for himself as possible (perhaps he should be joining respect?) but also done at a time which does not disturb his career too much, because sedgemore is not fighting for his seat he is standing down at the end of this parliament.
so for all his criticisms of blair he managed to hold out as a labour politician long enough to retire.
if he felt that strongly he could have defect during the parliament and gone to the liberal democrats and called a bye election to allow the people to give blair “the bloody nose” that sedgemore believes he deserves.
the same go for all the others who are planning to defect once they have stood down at the end of this parliament….

with that kind of backbone in the labour party is it any wonder that blair and campbell got their way over iraq.

for me sedgemore comes out of this as a bit of cynical hypocrite who claims to be carrying out his actions for the noblest of reasons. not sure who he reminds me of most tony blair or george galloway.