From black Wednesday to dark Thursday for Labour

Last Wednesday was labeled as a black Wednesday for the Labour party.

It was the day when the Home Secretary revealed that his office had allowed foreign prisoners to escape deportation. Some of them have since reoffended, putting the community at risk.

Then the Health Secretary was roundly booed and heckled at a nurses’ conference after she said that NHS was at its best. This just after she had announced that the health system was burdened by a mountain of debt and that many nurses will have to be laid off.

To top it off, the Deputy Prime Minister revealed that he had a two-year affair with his diary secretary.

All three apologized and refused to resign.

The Labour party is fast turning into controversy magnet. Its popularity is rocketing down.

Just before these three revelations, the PM himself was embroiled in a ‘cash for peerages’ scandal. That is still unsolved. Then his wife got into the act when it was revealed that she had charged the party for her hairstyle during the last elections. As it is she had been roundly criticized for abusing her position as the wife of the PM in getting speaking assignments around the world.

And other ministers too have been tainted by controversies.

The Environment Secretary is accused of hypocrisy for lecturing on green issues but in turn continues to be the minister who most uses the Queen’s Flight for her travels.

The Education Secretary came under fire for not knowing how many child abusers were still working in schools. And the Culture Secretary was within a heartbeat of a financial scandal.

In the midst of all these, we have the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown camps being involved in continuous back-biting, power plays and constant undermining.

No wonder the public is confused as to what the Labour government has become. Next Thursday’s council elections could still prove to be a darker Thursday for Labour when the public sentiments are translated into votes.