THE ESTRANGEMENT that Tony Blair's reforms brought to Labour's relationship with the trade unions moved closer towards divorce today. The Left-wing secretary of the Fire Brigades' Union called at the TUC conference for the movement to break its 100-year-old link with the party and deny it the millions of pounds that members contribute.
Several union leaders feel that they are getting insufficient in return from a Labour government. But the split perhaps needs to come about anyway for the sake of better government - so that the party can clearly show it is not the hireling of any interest group.
New Labour seems already to have convinced the electorate that it has junked many of its traditional ties but it seems that some sectors of Old Labour have yet to catch up.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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