The Blair 'legacy'
- Thread starter Warbler
- Start date
Colin Phillips
At the Start
Bush's plaything!
K
Kathy
Guest
Last day as PM the 27th June. Just made his farewell speech in Sedgefield.
cricketfan
At the Start
Making the Labour Party electable by getting rid of socialist ideology and replacing it with centrist policies.
Oh yes, and Iraq.
Oh yes, and Iraq.
Colin Phillips
At the Start
...................putting a nail in the coffin of socialism?
Euronymous
Senior Jockey
Yeah, it should be those Gareth but the press are determined to make it Iraq. Do people really care that much about it?
Nick Robinsons appraisal, taken from the BBC web site (I'll attempt my own in due course 
)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/20...g_goodby_1.html
)http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/20...g_goodby_1.html
Pretty well..overall
think of ten years of else it could have been.....
from labour's point of view, i suspect that Brown's aversion to all things "lundun" would have alienated the SE and not led to a re-election. And hes scottish....very scottish
No other labour possibility really convinced during this period... Robin Cook at a push
As for the tories. Hague? IDS ? Howard? Not really....
Lib dems. ....no
Its a rotten job he has and i think one that is best got out of when stock is high. 10 years is enoiugh for anyone. But the achievements, economically and socially..stand up
think of ten years of else it could have been.....
from labour's point of view, i suspect that Brown's aversion to all things "lundun" would have alienated the SE and not led to a re-election. And hes scottish....very scottish
No other labour possibility really convinced during this period... Robin Cook at a push
As for the tories. Hague? IDS ? Howard? Not really....
Lib dems. ....no
Its a rotten job he has and i think one that is best got out of when stock is high. 10 years is enoiugh for anyone. But the achievements, economically and socially..stand up
Pretty well..overall
think of ten years of else it could have been.....
from labour's point of view, i suspect that Brown's aversion to all things "lundun" would have alienated the SE and not led to a re-election. And hes scottish....very scottish
No other labour possibility really convinced during this period... Robin Cook at a push
As for the tories. Hague? IDS ? Howard? Not really....
Lib dems. ....no
Its a rotten job he has and i think one that is best got out of when stock is high. 10 years is enoiugh for anyone. But the achievements, economically and socially..stand up
think of ten years of else it could have been.....
from labour's point of view, i suspect that Brown's aversion to all things "lundun" would have alienated the SE and not led to a re-election. And hes scottish....very scottish
No other labour possibility really convinced during this period... Robin Cook at a push
As for the tories. Hague? IDS ? Howard? Not really....
Lib dems. ....no
Its a rotten job he has and i think one that is best got out of when stock is high. 10 years is enoiugh for anyone. But the achievements, economically and socially..stand up
Hutchy
At the Start
Of course people care about Iraq.
Merlin the Magician
At the Start
Taxing the disabled and letting fat cats keep their pile.........just so unbelievable :angy: :angy: :angy:not many people know of this as it was swept under the carpet...again....
Letting in so called immigrants into this country and them bleeding the system/pot dry, that people born into this country had contributed too, in the form of taxation and national insurance & now the debacle over private pensions....
If the boot was on the other foot, you try getting help in monetary form or accommodation in the countries from where they came from.............or any other country in the western world, for that matter, you would be turned down as you had never ever contributed to the funds :angy: ............
Masquerading under the wrong coloured flag should have been blue, as one can't associate this guy as a labour man he done everything MAGGIE wanted to do, a complete and utter arsehole in my eyes, speaking as an ex member of the Labour party member of over 30yrs ............. :angy:
many more I could add too (IRAQ would take a huge slice of this) but I doubt I'll waste any of my time on this ta.......... :shy:
Euronymous
Senior Jockey
^^I didn`t read any of that, i just figured 5x :angy: equals angry rant from Merlin.
Who makes you more :angy: Mer Big Tone or Wayne Rooney?
Who makes you more :angy: Mer Big Tone or Wayne Rooney?
betsmate
At the Start
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2004
- Messages
- 5,752
<!--QuoteBegin-PDJ@May 10 2007, 07:34 PM
I think history will judge him fairly well.[/quote]
Agree with the above sentiments. I don't think he will be fully appreciated until he has gone.
Without him, Labour can regress to Socialism and regress to opposition.
Iraq was a mistake but as much as I disagree with and despise the premise behind it, once it started, we had to carry it on. It's what we should do so he did it. The economy is in fine shape (despite interest rates rising lately) and he made Labour electable.
archie
Senior Jockey
He's tried to do what he thought was best for the country. While I haven't agreed with everything over the last 10 years, my country is certainly a better place now than it was when he came to power.
cricketfan
At the Start
When Blair came to power he had a lot of the nation behind him. He was the scourge of corruption and pledged to be whiter than white.
As much as the bouyant global economy has made this a very good period of the economic cycle to be in Government for the last ten years, this administration have sewn the seeds of woe for anyone conscientious to have put their money into pensions and created a burden for future generations with their over-sized civil service which is likely to vote on the side of their bread that is buttered.
Add to the mix David Kelly, the unfit for service Home Office, the cash for loans scandal and it makes the Tory's sale of council houses and cash for questions look very run of the mill.
Tony Blair is an extremely clever man, but he is a total fraud.
As much as the bouyant global economy has made this a very good period of the economic cycle to be in Government for the last ten years, this administration have sewn the seeds of woe for anyone conscientious to have put their money into pensions and created a burden for future generations with their over-sized civil service which is likely to vote on the side of their bread that is buttered.
Add to the mix David Kelly, the unfit for service Home Office, the cash for loans scandal and it makes the Tory's sale of council houses and cash for questions look very run of the mill.
Tony Blair is an extremely clever man, but he is a total fraud.
I'm with cricketfan's summary. I was enthusiastic when New Labour started out, believing that Blair really meant to be a plain dealer and that, for once, government would listen to the people who elected it. It hasn't. It's closed hospitals galore in the mad rush to centralise everything. A ridiculous example of how that's costing much MORE to run some health services was when my mother broke her wrist, Brighton A&E attended to it, but when the cast had to come off and the wrist be examined, she had to hire a wheelchair-enabled vehicle from a local charity to take her to Haywards Heath for that. The cost was £30 and I learned today that the cost would've been met by the NHS if we'd actually KNOWN about it. How can it be cost-effective to be paying for special taxi fares for the disabled to travel miles out of their counties, when they had the support right on their doorstep?
The Home Office, once mostly seen as bureaucratic pen-pushers and bumptious officials, has been shown to not even have a figleaf to cover its embarrassments, over and over, and over again. From its inability to work with other agencies to register legal entrants into the country, to losing data, losing illegal entrants by the thousand, burdening the police with futile paper-pushing and generally losing all public trust in the institution. In and out management, hurried decisions to paper over the cracks - it's been disastrous and made us look like a country of 'Yes, Minister' buffoons.
On the upside: community policing (doing what ye olde bobby of yesteryear did).
Downside, ASBOs, guaranteed to flush recipients with pride.
Downside: a full-out anti-car driver campaign, loads more toll systems, no new significant roadbuilding (par a new bit on the M25 near Heathrow), while Two Jags flaunted his cars and Blair was driven around in an urban 4x4 today. Good role modelling, guys!
Downside: piggybacking terrorism in order to install more and more surveillance systems EVERYWHERE.
Downside: Iraq. It shouldn't take a Ph.D to realise that it's caused a huge upswing in radicalising British Muslims already feeling disenfranchised, and that the London bombings were extremely unlikely to ever have happened without Britain barging into a country, bombing and shooting, killing thousands of civilians (including children and babies), based on a pack of lies and self-serving propaganda. Yes, I think people did, and DO care about Iraq - especially the families and friends of dead servicemen and women, the maimed survivors of 7/7, and about the continuing haemmorhaging of billions of pounds to shore up our military adventurism. At a time when we don't 'have the money' for new, safer roads, for cleaner, safer hospitals, for cleaning up sink estates and a host of other social ills, we've still got the dosh for rushing around Iraq, shooting people and getting blown up in return.
Once New Labour began dumping its promises as they became inconvenient or impossible to enact, their relevance as a bright new political beacon faded, and right now, as far as I can see, there's no going back to the beginning, or making the surely to be proclaimed 'fresh start' with gloomy Gordoon Broon. Dreadfully, I don't see the Cons or the LibDems as a real alternative, either.
The Home Office, once mostly seen as bureaucratic pen-pushers and bumptious officials, has been shown to not even have a figleaf to cover its embarrassments, over and over, and over again. From its inability to work with other agencies to register legal entrants into the country, to losing data, losing illegal entrants by the thousand, burdening the police with futile paper-pushing and generally losing all public trust in the institution. In and out management, hurried decisions to paper over the cracks - it's been disastrous and made us look like a country of 'Yes, Minister' buffoons.
On the upside: community policing (doing what ye olde bobby of yesteryear did).
Downside, ASBOs, guaranteed to flush recipients with pride.
Downside: a full-out anti-car driver campaign, loads more toll systems, no new significant roadbuilding (par a new bit on the M25 near Heathrow), while Two Jags flaunted his cars and Blair was driven around in an urban 4x4 today. Good role modelling, guys!
Downside: piggybacking terrorism in order to install more and more surveillance systems EVERYWHERE.
Downside: Iraq. It shouldn't take a Ph.D to realise that it's caused a huge upswing in radicalising British Muslims already feeling disenfranchised, and that the London bombings were extremely unlikely to ever have happened without Britain barging into a country, bombing and shooting, killing thousands of civilians (including children and babies), based on a pack of lies and self-serving propaganda. Yes, I think people did, and DO care about Iraq - especially the families and friends of dead servicemen and women, the maimed survivors of 7/7, and about the continuing haemmorhaging of billions of pounds to shore up our military adventurism. At a time when we don't 'have the money' for new, safer roads, for cleaner, safer hospitals, for cleaning up sink estates and a host of other social ills, we've still got the dosh for rushing around Iraq, shooting people and getting blown up in return.
Once New Labour began dumping its promises as they became inconvenient or impossible to enact, their relevance as a bright new political beacon faded, and right now, as far as I can see, there's no going back to the beginning, or making the surely to be proclaimed 'fresh start' with gloomy Gordoon Broon. Dreadfully, I don't see the Cons or the LibDems as a real alternative, either.
K
Kathy
Guest
OK, this is clearly the Conservatives view, but some of it makes for interesting reading. Did ayone catch Question Time last night. Excellent viewing.
Blair and Brown: a decade of promises
24 hours to save the NHS?
Blair promise: ‘The very simple choice that people have in this next 24 hours is this. It is 24 hours to save our National Health Service’ (Tony Blair, Speech to Trimdon Labour Club, 30 April 1997).
Brown promise: ‘from today a campaign must begin – not just to renationalise the National Health Service but to save the National Health Service for the people of Britain’ (Speech to the Scottish Labour Conference, 12 March 1995).
What’s happened:
In 2005-06, the NHS was over £1.3 billion in the red;
Over 20,000 job losses have been announced by NHS hospitals in England in the last year;
17 Accident and Emergency Departments, 105 community hospitals and 43 maternity units are under threat of cutbacks and closure;
And almost one million people in the UK are still waiting for treatment on the NHS.
Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime?
Blair promise: ‘There must be a comprehensive attack on crime and its causes instead of a search for easy headlines’ (Tony Blair, The Times, 4 November 1996).
Brown promise: ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ (The Guardian, 27 May 1995).
What’s happened: Since 1997:
Violent crime has more than doubled;
Gun crime has doubled;
Almost 450,000 more crimes were committed in 2005-06 than in 1998-9;
But just one in four crimes is now cleared up by the police.
Fairness for pensioners?
Blair promise: ‘Will Labour tax pension funds? Our public expenditure plans require no extra taxation. Labour has made clear our central tax announcements’ (Evening Standard, 14 April 1997).
Brown promise: ‘I can give this pledge – fairness to the pensioners under Labour’ (Speech to Labour Party Conference, 2 October 1996).
What’s happened:
The abolition of tax credits on pension dividends has cost pension funds £5 billion a year and £100 billion over the long term;
Since 1997, around 125,000 people have lost part of their pension;
Tony Blair’s first Welfare Reform Minister, Frank Field, has said that as a result, ‘we have some of the weakest pensions provisions in Europe.
No plans to increase tax?
Blair promise: ‘We have no plans to increase tax at all’ (Tony Blair, Financial Times, 21 September 1995).
Brown promise: ‘there are no public expenditure commitments that require us to raise taxes’ (Gordon Brown, BBC Newsnight, 20 January 1997).
What’s happened: According to independent experts, taxes have risen by £1,300 for every family in the UK as a direct result of Gordon Brown’s decisions at Budgets and Pre-Budget Reports since 1997.
Since 1997, Gordon Brown has introduced 111 stealth tax rises (HM Treasury, Budgets and Pre-Budget Reports), including:
Pensions Tax – Gordon Brown’s first and worst stealth tax has taken £5bn a year from pension funds. Treasury documents released recently show that Gordon Brown was warned of the damage this would do to pensions but went ahead anyway.
Stamp Duty - Gordon Brown now gets £10 billion a year in stamp duty – four times the level when he became Chancellor. The average home-buyer is paying almost £1,000 more in stamp duty under Labour.
Inheritance Tax - The number of households paying inheritance tax has doubled under Gordon Brown. The average price of a semi-detached property in London is now above the inheritance tax threshold of £300,000.
Council Tax - The average Band D bill in England has risen from £688 in 1997-8 to £1,321 in 2007-8 under Gordon Brown – over 90 per cent.
Business Tax - The CBI estimates that British businesses have been hit by a massive £50 billion increase in tax under Labour. Under Gordon Brown, Britain has dropped from fourth to tenth in the international competitiveness league.
Education, Education, Education?
Blair promise: ‘Ask me my three main priorities for Government and I tell you: education, education, education…There should be zero tolerance of failure in Britain’s schools’ (Tony Blair, Speech to the Labour Party Conference speech, 1 October 1996).
Brown promise: ‘Britain to be a world skills superpower by raising standards in our schools, colleges and universities’ (Daily Record, 10 October 1996).
What’s happened:
Almost half of all 11 year-olds cannot read, write and add up properly when they leave primary school;
Fewer than half of school leavers obtain five or more good GCSEs (grades A*-C) including English and Maths;
Over one in eight secondary schools has been judged ‘inadequate’;
And over one third of adults in the UK do not have a basic school-leaving qualification.
Welfare reform?
Blair promise: ‘By the end of a 5 year term of a Labour Government: I vow that we will have reduced the proportion [of national income] we spend on the welfare bills of social failure… This is my covenant with the British people. Judge me upon it. The buck stops with me’ (Tony Blair, Speech to Labour Party Conference, 1 October 1996).
Blair promise: ‘the reform of welfare to make it, as it should be, a platform of opportunity, not a recipe for dependency’ (Tony Blair, Renewal, Vol.3, No.4, 4 October 1995).
Brown promise: ‘The New Deal is the most ambitious programme of employment opportunities our country has seen’ (Hansard, 17 March 1998, Col. 1102).
What’s happened:
There are two million economically inactive people who want to work;
Nearly half of young job- seekers who leave the New Deal for Young People end up back on benefits within a year;
And almost 2.7 million people of working age are claiming incapacity benefits - nearly three times more than the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance.
Social Justice?
Blair promise: ‘[We are] the Party of compassion; of social justice; of the struggle against poverty and inequality (Speech to Labour Party Conference, 30 September 1997).
Brown promise: ‘We will reverse the gap between rich and poor that has affected our society’ (BBC Radio 4, Today, 26 September 1993).
What’s happened:
According to a recent report by UNICEF, the UK is rated the lowest out of 21 OECD countries for child well-being;
The UK has a higher proportion of children living in workless households than any other EU country;
Child poverty rose last year by 100,000 before housing costs ( the Government’s preferred measure) and 200,000 after housing costs;
The incomes of the poorest 20 per cent of households fell in real terms last year, from £182 a week (before housing costs) to £181, while the real incomes of the top 20 per cent went up from £722 a week to £733.
Purer than purer, white than white?
Blair promise: ‘We have to be very careful…that we are purer than pure’ (Tony Blair, The Guardian, 8 July 1998).
Blair promise: ‘We have got to be whiter than white if we are to rebuild trust in government' (Tony Blair, cited by Piers Morgan, 27 March 1997).
What’s happened:
Bernie Ecclestone gave the Labour Party £1million to persuade the Government to exempt Formula One from the ban on tobacco advertising;
Peter Mandelson was forced to resign (again) after trying to help a potential donor, Srichand Hinduja, to get a British passport;
David Blunkett was forced to resign after trying to fast-track a visa application from his then lover’s nanny;
Tony Blair is the first serving Prime Minister to be interviewed as part of a criminal investigation;
And the Metropolitan Police has just handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service thought to recommend the prosecution of five members of Labour’s inner circle over ‘cash for peerages’ allegations.
Tony Blair: a decade of soundbites
Pretty straight sort of guy. ‘I think most people who have dealt with me think I'm a pretty straight sort of guy’ (Tony Blair, BBC R4, On The Record, 16 November 1997).
The hand of history. ‘A day like today is not a day for soundbites, really – we can leave those at home – but I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders’ (Tony Blair, Speech at the signing of Good Friday Agreement, Belfast, 10 April 1998).
Post-euphoria, pre-delivery. ‘Our government is entering the post-euphoria, pre-delivery stage’ (Tony Blair, Financial Times, 12 January 1998).
An end to spin? ‘The spin has got to stop’ (Tony Blair, after Labour Special Adviser attempted to bury bad news, The Sun, 15 October 2001).
Hiding the truth. ‘I'm not obfuscating, I'm just telling you I'm not saying anything’ (Tony Blair, BBC TV, The Politics Show, 15 April 2007).
Doing the ‘right thing’. ‘I was determined to do the right thing, but for a political leader “doing the right thing” in reality is only ever “doing what I think is the right thing”. And if you're not careful, “doing the right thing” becomes “I know best”’ (Tony Blair, The Times, 14 February 2005).
Straight answers. ‘When you asked me that question, my first instinct was: how can I avoid answering it?’ (Tony Blair, Press conference at Downing Street, 17 April 2007).
Master of bluff. ‘I wing it all the time’ (Tony Blair, Channel 4, T4, 30 January 2005).
Mr Popular. ‘Any politician can do the popular things. I know, I used to do a few of them’ (Tony Blair, Labour Party Conference speech, 30 September 2003).
Master philosopher. ‘I kind of feel, having done three elections, and gone through so much...well, you know que sera sera’ (Tony Blair, The Daily Telegraph, 6 November 2005).
Gordon Brown – a new beginning?
Absolute disaster. ‘It would be an absolute f*cking disaster if Gordon Brown was Prime Minister’ (A Government Minister, reported to be John Hutton, BBC Radio 4, Today, 8 September 2006).
Psychological flaws. ‘You know Gordon, he feels so vulnerable and insecure. He has these psychological flaws’ (‘Blair aide’, quoted in Andrew Rawnsley, Servants of The People, Hamish Hamilton, 2000).
Stalinist ruthlessness. ‘you cannot help admire the sheer Stalinist ruthlessness of it all’ (Andrew Turnbull, former Cabinet Secretary, Financial Times, 20 March 2007).
Macavity quality. ‘The Chancellor has a Macavity quality. He is not there when there is dirty work to be done’ (Andrew Turnbull, former Cabinet Secretary, Financial Times, 20 March 2007).
Control freak. ‘It's a controlling thing – [Brown] thinks he has to control everything’ (Charles Clarke, former Home Secretary, The Daily Telegraph, 9 September 2006).
Meaningless soundbites. ‘[Brown] is the master of the meaningless soundbite, an initiative a day… They are gathering eye-catching policies for the first 100 days, though he will also want to keep some back for the General Election’ (Brown supporter, The Guardian, 8 September 2006).
Team player? ‘The idea that he's a team player is utterly ludicrous’ (A former Permanent Secretary who has worked closely with Brown, The Daily Telegraph, 22 September 2006).
Lacks honesty and integrity. ‘Gordon is his own worst enemy. Brown’s behaviour showed he lacked the honesty, integrity and trustworthiness required’ (Unnamed Minister, The Observer, 9 September 2006).
Very cynical. ‘[Brown has] a very cynical view of mankind and his colleagues’ (Andrew Turnbull, former Cabinet Secretary, Financial Times, 20 March 2007).
Everything’s a struggle. ‘You can't understand Gordon unless you realise he sees everything as a struggle against a hostile world’ (An MP close to Mr Brown, The Daily Telegraph, 25 September 2006).
Blair and Brown: a decade of promises
24 hours to save the NHS?
Blair promise: ‘The very simple choice that people have in this next 24 hours is this. It is 24 hours to save our National Health Service’ (Tony Blair, Speech to Trimdon Labour Club, 30 April 1997).
Brown promise: ‘from today a campaign must begin – not just to renationalise the National Health Service but to save the National Health Service for the people of Britain’ (Speech to the Scottish Labour Conference, 12 March 1995).
What’s happened:
In 2005-06, the NHS was over £1.3 billion in the red;
Over 20,000 job losses have been announced by NHS hospitals in England in the last year;
17 Accident and Emergency Departments, 105 community hospitals and 43 maternity units are under threat of cutbacks and closure;
And almost one million people in the UK are still waiting for treatment on the NHS.
Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime?
Blair promise: ‘There must be a comprehensive attack on crime and its causes instead of a search for easy headlines’ (Tony Blair, The Times, 4 November 1996).
Brown promise: ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ (The Guardian, 27 May 1995).
What’s happened: Since 1997:
Violent crime has more than doubled;
Gun crime has doubled;
Almost 450,000 more crimes were committed in 2005-06 than in 1998-9;
But just one in four crimes is now cleared up by the police.
Fairness for pensioners?
Blair promise: ‘Will Labour tax pension funds? Our public expenditure plans require no extra taxation. Labour has made clear our central tax announcements’ (Evening Standard, 14 April 1997).
Brown promise: ‘I can give this pledge – fairness to the pensioners under Labour’ (Speech to Labour Party Conference, 2 October 1996).
What’s happened:
The abolition of tax credits on pension dividends has cost pension funds £5 billion a year and £100 billion over the long term;
Since 1997, around 125,000 people have lost part of their pension;
Tony Blair’s first Welfare Reform Minister, Frank Field, has said that as a result, ‘we have some of the weakest pensions provisions in Europe.
No plans to increase tax?
Blair promise: ‘We have no plans to increase tax at all’ (Tony Blair, Financial Times, 21 September 1995).
Brown promise: ‘there are no public expenditure commitments that require us to raise taxes’ (Gordon Brown, BBC Newsnight, 20 January 1997).
What’s happened: According to independent experts, taxes have risen by £1,300 for every family in the UK as a direct result of Gordon Brown’s decisions at Budgets and Pre-Budget Reports since 1997.
Since 1997, Gordon Brown has introduced 111 stealth tax rises (HM Treasury, Budgets and Pre-Budget Reports), including:
Pensions Tax – Gordon Brown’s first and worst stealth tax has taken £5bn a year from pension funds. Treasury documents released recently show that Gordon Brown was warned of the damage this would do to pensions but went ahead anyway.
Stamp Duty - Gordon Brown now gets £10 billion a year in stamp duty – four times the level when he became Chancellor. The average home-buyer is paying almost £1,000 more in stamp duty under Labour.
Inheritance Tax - The number of households paying inheritance tax has doubled under Gordon Brown. The average price of a semi-detached property in London is now above the inheritance tax threshold of £300,000.
Council Tax - The average Band D bill in England has risen from £688 in 1997-8 to £1,321 in 2007-8 under Gordon Brown – over 90 per cent.
Business Tax - The CBI estimates that British businesses have been hit by a massive £50 billion increase in tax under Labour. Under Gordon Brown, Britain has dropped from fourth to tenth in the international competitiveness league.
Education, Education, Education?
Blair promise: ‘Ask me my three main priorities for Government and I tell you: education, education, education…There should be zero tolerance of failure in Britain’s schools’ (Tony Blair, Speech to the Labour Party Conference speech, 1 October 1996).
Brown promise: ‘Britain to be a world skills superpower by raising standards in our schools, colleges and universities’ (Daily Record, 10 October 1996).
What’s happened:
Almost half of all 11 year-olds cannot read, write and add up properly when they leave primary school;
Fewer than half of school leavers obtain five or more good GCSEs (grades A*-C) including English and Maths;
Over one in eight secondary schools has been judged ‘inadequate’;
And over one third of adults in the UK do not have a basic school-leaving qualification.
Welfare reform?
Blair promise: ‘By the end of a 5 year term of a Labour Government: I vow that we will have reduced the proportion [of national income] we spend on the welfare bills of social failure… This is my covenant with the British people. Judge me upon it. The buck stops with me’ (Tony Blair, Speech to Labour Party Conference, 1 October 1996).
Blair promise: ‘the reform of welfare to make it, as it should be, a platform of opportunity, not a recipe for dependency’ (Tony Blair, Renewal, Vol.3, No.4, 4 October 1995).
Brown promise: ‘The New Deal is the most ambitious programme of employment opportunities our country has seen’ (Hansard, 17 March 1998, Col. 1102).
What’s happened:
There are two million economically inactive people who want to work;
Nearly half of young job- seekers who leave the New Deal for Young People end up back on benefits within a year;
And almost 2.7 million people of working age are claiming incapacity benefits - nearly three times more than the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance.
Social Justice?
Blair promise: ‘[We are] the Party of compassion; of social justice; of the struggle against poverty and inequality (Speech to Labour Party Conference, 30 September 1997).
Brown promise: ‘We will reverse the gap between rich and poor that has affected our society’ (BBC Radio 4, Today, 26 September 1993).
What’s happened:
According to a recent report by UNICEF, the UK is rated the lowest out of 21 OECD countries for child well-being;
The UK has a higher proportion of children living in workless households than any other EU country;
Child poverty rose last year by 100,000 before housing costs ( the Government’s preferred measure) and 200,000 after housing costs;
The incomes of the poorest 20 per cent of households fell in real terms last year, from £182 a week (before housing costs) to £181, while the real incomes of the top 20 per cent went up from £722 a week to £733.
Purer than purer, white than white?
Blair promise: ‘We have to be very careful…that we are purer than pure’ (Tony Blair, The Guardian, 8 July 1998).
Blair promise: ‘We have got to be whiter than white if we are to rebuild trust in government' (Tony Blair, cited by Piers Morgan, 27 March 1997).
What’s happened:
Bernie Ecclestone gave the Labour Party £1million to persuade the Government to exempt Formula One from the ban on tobacco advertising;
Peter Mandelson was forced to resign (again) after trying to help a potential donor, Srichand Hinduja, to get a British passport;
David Blunkett was forced to resign after trying to fast-track a visa application from his then lover’s nanny;
Tony Blair is the first serving Prime Minister to be interviewed as part of a criminal investigation;
And the Metropolitan Police has just handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service thought to recommend the prosecution of five members of Labour’s inner circle over ‘cash for peerages’ allegations.
Tony Blair: a decade of soundbites
Pretty straight sort of guy. ‘I think most people who have dealt with me think I'm a pretty straight sort of guy’ (Tony Blair, BBC R4, On The Record, 16 November 1997).
The hand of history. ‘A day like today is not a day for soundbites, really – we can leave those at home – but I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders’ (Tony Blair, Speech at the signing of Good Friday Agreement, Belfast, 10 April 1998).
Post-euphoria, pre-delivery. ‘Our government is entering the post-euphoria, pre-delivery stage’ (Tony Blair, Financial Times, 12 January 1998).
An end to spin? ‘The spin has got to stop’ (Tony Blair, after Labour Special Adviser attempted to bury bad news, The Sun, 15 October 2001).
Hiding the truth. ‘I'm not obfuscating, I'm just telling you I'm not saying anything’ (Tony Blair, BBC TV, The Politics Show, 15 April 2007).
Doing the ‘right thing’. ‘I was determined to do the right thing, but for a political leader “doing the right thing” in reality is only ever “doing what I think is the right thing”. And if you're not careful, “doing the right thing” becomes “I know best”’ (Tony Blair, The Times, 14 February 2005).
Straight answers. ‘When you asked me that question, my first instinct was: how can I avoid answering it?’ (Tony Blair, Press conference at Downing Street, 17 April 2007).
Master of bluff. ‘I wing it all the time’ (Tony Blair, Channel 4, T4, 30 January 2005).
Mr Popular. ‘Any politician can do the popular things. I know, I used to do a few of them’ (Tony Blair, Labour Party Conference speech, 30 September 2003).
Master philosopher. ‘I kind of feel, having done three elections, and gone through so much...well, you know que sera sera’ (Tony Blair, The Daily Telegraph, 6 November 2005).
Gordon Brown – a new beginning?
Absolute disaster. ‘It would be an absolute f*cking disaster if Gordon Brown was Prime Minister’ (A Government Minister, reported to be John Hutton, BBC Radio 4, Today, 8 September 2006).
Psychological flaws. ‘You know Gordon, he feels so vulnerable and insecure. He has these psychological flaws’ (‘Blair aide’, quoted in Andrew Rawnsley, Servants of The People, Hamish Hamilton, 2000).
Stalinist ruthlessness. ‘you cannot help admire the sheer Stalinist ruthlessness of it all’ (Andrew Turnbull, former Cabinet Secretary, Financial Times, 20 March 2007).
Macavity quality. ‘The Chancellor has a Macavity quality. He is not there when there is dirty work to be done’ (Andrew Turnbull, former Cabinet Secretary, Financial Times, 20 March 2007).
Control freak. ‘It's a controlling thing – [Brown] thinks he has to control everything’ (Charles Clarke, former Home Secretary, The Daily Telegraph, 9 September 2006).
Meaningless soundbites. ‘[Brown] is the master of the meaningless soundbite, an initiative a day… They are gathering eye-catching policies for the first 100 days, though he will also want to keep some back for the General Election’ (Brown supporter, The Guardian, 8 September 2006).
Team player? ‘The idea that he's a team player is utterly ludicrous’ (A former Permanent Secretary who has worked closely with Brown, The Daily Telegraph, 22 September 2006).
Lacks honesty and integrity. ‘Gordon is his own worst enemy. Brown’s behaviour showed he lacked the honesty, integrity and trustworthiness required’ (Unnamed Minister, The Observer, 9 September 2006).
Very cynical. ‘[Brown has] a very cynical view of mankind and his colleagues’ (Andrew Turnbull, former Cabinet Secretary, Financial Times, 20 March 2007).
Everything’s a struggle. ‘You can't understand Gordon unless you realise he sees everything as a struggle against a hostile world’ (An MP close to Mr Brown, The Daily Telegraph, 25 September 2006).
Colin Phillips
At the Start
I must say I have become totally disillusioned with politics during the Blair years. Sure, I am not sure I was "illusioned before them, but from a position of drumming into my daughters that they must use their vote, that women had died in order that they had that vote, I found myself a couple of weeks back considering "spoiling my vote" or not even voting as some sort of protest against the blatant lying that this government has done.
They are probaly not the first to do this and certainly will not be the last but it is the contempt that they show for the electorate's intelligence that angers me.
They are probaly not the first to do this and certainly will not be the last but it is the contempt that they show for the electorate's intelligence that angers me.
Desert Orchid
Senior Jockey
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2005
- Messages
- 24,880
I think history will end up rating him very highly. Well over 130.
(Thatcher will be 118§)
(Thatcher will be 118§)
