Labour Party Scandals Under Blair/Brown

[RowlingStone]

I was only a teenager in the early naughties and yet I remember so many Labour scandals so I often feel surprised that they never get mentioned here in the political threads.

The ones I remember are David Kelly, weapons of mass destruction/Iraq war generally, A-level results falsely marked down to prevent grade inflation (Estelle Morris took the fall for that), PFI, extensive hospital waiting lists, cash for honours, something to do with Peter Mandelson, Carole Caplin and some dodgy flats, Labour offspring getting into fee paying or selective schools, Two Jags Prescott and lots of sex scandals (Blunkett, Prescott, maybe more).

I suppose it’s always given me this sense that regardless of the colour of their rosettes all politicians are ultimately the same (self-serving hypocrites).

I was curious whether everyone else just had very short term memories or those scandals weren’t as big a deal at the time as some of the current ones.

You've never seen the Iraq war be brought up?

Tory HQ out to reinforce the good press Sunak's had on here today 🙄 So blatant.

Probably because many MNers are so blinded by tory hatred they are in denial that Labour are every bit as bad.
I will add that I have always been a fan of David Blunkett ( naughty boy that he was 😉)imo he would have made a great prime minister.He pops up sometimes in the papers giving interviews on current affairs and he talks a lot of sense x

And no, the labour scandals were nowhere near the same magnitude and more than 12 years ago.

@Georgeskitchen so if they are every bit as bad, maybe time to give Labour a chance then no ?

And no, the labour scandals were nowhere near the same magnitude and more than 12 years ago

Not a Tory but I'd imagine the dead Iraqis would beg to differ, if they could.

Well if Sir Kier can come up with some sensible policies besides making a criminal offence out of calling a man he/him, then yes, let's go for it!!

@noblegiraffe honestly don’t think I’ve seen the Iraq war brought up before, or at least not very regularly. But either way my point was that while I was growing up it felt like there was a political scandal every week, much as it must feel to teenagers now, but no one ever seems to remember most of them.

@FixundFoxi Damn, you’ve rumbled me. But when you say the current scandals are worse, I remember being truly horrified by the David Kelly story - the rumour/suggestion was he was murdered on government orders rather than committed suicide. I truly don’t think any recent scandal could be as bad as that if that was actually true. I mean, that’s some really House of Cards shit. And the A-level scandal impacted me and a lot of my friends, some of whom lost university places, although I appreciate that is minor in the grand scheme of things.

Agree. I was only thinking the other day what would’ve happened if it wasn’t for the Iraq war - we’d probably still have Blair now. Ironically though, I think the left actually care more about Iraq than the right. The right bring up the 2008 global crash as an argument against a labour government even now, but very rarely is Iraq mentioned.

Not that it’s really relevant to this but I’ve seen Blair speak twice btw (once as a teen and once a few years ago) and he is probably the most charismatic public speaker I’ve ever seen. So I guess I can see how he rode out a lot of them.

The right bring up the 2008 global crash as an argument against a labour government even now, but very rarely is Iraq mentioned

Yes and I find that a bit of an unfair accusation given that it was global and the rot started in the US.
The Iraq war I cannot forgive though. I'm not saying I'll blame all of Labour forevermore but Blair I will never forgive. There is no scandal from any other politician of any political flavour that can top what he did, the amount of blood on his hands.

If memory serves it was Tory MPs that voted the invasion through.

The Iraq war and ‘weapons of mass destruction’ was brought up endlessly, including within the Labour Party. It ended Blair. You’ve seriously never heard it discussed before?!

I think it was more than his charisma though, (ironic given he was a liar over Iraq) but I think he seemed honest when he spoke. Recently saw an old video of him being questioned on GP waiting times and he said “I didn’t know that was happening, I’ll look into it”. When was the last time we had honesty from a politician, particularly a PM? To just admit they weren’t aware of something. He was likeable and trustworthy, maybe that was down to his charisma. And he always seemed to know what he was talking about, he just seemed sensible and competent.

I think Alastair Campbell is a deeply sinister and a bully.
An actual murderer? Hmmm……..well maybe.

“so I often feel surprised that they never get mentioned here in the political threads.”

I agree - it was a global recession and I think it was actually handled reasonably well at the time, a global economic crash is going to be bad whether you go for cuts or spending of public money. Iraq completely finished Blair, even though as you say it was voted through in parliament, and most of the MPs who voted against were labour MPs - the tories were all for it. He’s a war criminal though really, probably should be in jail.

Definitely he gave an air of competency, and Brown too although I never really warmed to him. When you think about it, we haven’t had a PM that felt competent (regardless of whether or not they were) or someone with real gravitas/statesmanship since. Or maybe that’s because I’m just getting older.

Bollocks were you. No teenager would recall that much. And you would never remember Carole Caplin, let alone spell her name correctly with an 'e' if you did.

You are a 50 year old Tory voter with selective memory.

You are brave to mention Labour scandals on this site ….

I agree with you op < grabs hard hat… legs it >

Some of the things you mention were scandals, some were not really anything and many were just stuff that happened. We have long NHS waiting lists now, the ‘grade inflation’ arguments come round again and again, you’re too young to remember the Tory ‘family values’ sex scandals of the early 90s (David Mellor shagging in a Chelsea shirt), we’ve had cash for questions and we still have cash for honours (look at Tory donor lists and the next few honours lists). You’ve missed the more recent MP’s expenses scandal , sex scandals and the government whipping their MPs to vote against the censure of a Tory MP who broke parliamentary standards.

The most recent and relevant scandal would be then Chancellor now PM Rishi Sunak writing off over £4billion in government covid loans that they handed out without adequate scrutiny.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60145909

I have a soft spot for Brown (although I probably shouldn’t) - he was left with Blair’s mess and did the best he could. I also don’t think Blair could’ve done half of what he did without Brown. I agree that they both seemed like they knew what they were doing. Now politics seems like a game.

Apparently Blair had what he called the 'masochism strategy' where he'd put himself up for an absolutely pulverising public appearance so people didn't think he was hiding from difficult questions, or that he wasn't listening. Whether his humility was real or genuine, apparently it worked because polls would always bounce back in his favour afterwards because people felt he was able to accept criticism.

I think it certainly helped that he had a certain type of charisma, but you can't imagine many high profile MPs putting themselves forward for it now, or admitting to not being aware of things.

Wow you’re very angry aren’t you. Believe what you like but I was very much an angsty teen in 2000s (and have plenty of cringey pics of me wearing nu-metal band shirts and spiky chokers to prove it). But I was always quite interested in politics and did it for A-level. I have mostly lost interest in it now, mostly because it seems to be the same shit every decade.

You remember all that as a teenager? Blimey, I was a teenager at the same time and I was interested in Blur and Oasis and whether Britney and Justin should be wearing matching denim outfits. Sounds like you trawled through the Daily Heil back catalogue for kicks.