At the risk of chewing over old hat, the incident has ramifications way beyond the sensational headlines of the last few days.
One interesting aspect of the alarming degree to which Prescott has received support for his disgraceful act is the personalisation of the matter: "Go on, mate, I'd do the same" is a prevailing attitude. Some of you would, of course, but then most Indy readers are not public figures, accountable to the electorate, and on duty, indeed, on the campaign trail. In short, Prescott's actions are political, not personal, and will have reverberations far beyond his poor hard- done- by personality. As D Green of The Institute for the Study Of Civil Society succintly puts it: "...I might well react in the same way. I ended up having a sneaking respect for him..." Very civil, Mr Green, so Perhaps you should resign too. And this attitude has permeated, by magic, vast sections of the public, carefully shaped by BBC "personalities" such as found on alleged comedy sketch shows like "Have I got News...", (who also "spontaneously" condemned Mayday oddly enough).
What Prescott has done is to declare "Open Season" on protesters, who have across the range of opinion, been making life a little diffcult for Labour and its neo- capitalist plans, which is why none of the Labour powerbrokers have condemned his actions; indeed, they've rather praised it with faint damnation- Blair jokes about his servant's "great strengths" and Blunkett waves his own fists about in triumphant glee. Still more worrying is the public's failure to overwhelmningly condemn Prescott ;"Disapproval" seems to be about 50/50. Not strong enough. He did not bash the director of the IMF, or a commander of NATO, merely a Welsh farm worker who gave him an egg-surprise and had the temerity to laugh about it. I cannot imagine what, if anything, was in the politician's mind.
But there is a deeper question: why, with such a large electoral majority, unparallelled popularity over the last four years and a massive poll victory imminent, why is Labour so damn jumpy, edgy, nervous and now thuggish ? With one punch, Labour's National Moral Purpose has inverted itself to the law of the pub, of the fist... the only explanation seems to be that Labour has just about exhausted its capabilities, yet is about to embark on an unprercedented attack on the working class and all remaining independent sections of society, to literally liquidate it, and establish a corporate state in the service of neo-capitalism, which will require plenty of thuggery and Blairite vigilance.
We can only hope that Labour party members do not start to emulate their deputy leader. That is the most alarming prospect of all...


* A pun on works by Nietzsche and Wagner. The concept of the "Twilight" played a significant role in intellectual thinking of the late 19th century, when the entire edifice of moral confidence was beginning to decay. So then, so now.