Tony Blair keep your nose out

[billysboy]

When will this odious individual just clear off

I thought he was supposed to be sorting out the middle east ?

He thinks we have forgotten his illegal war , selling our gold , creating millions of jobs and then giving them all away , his little twist on the Good Friday Agreement allowing immunity for IRA bombers, his millions of pounds and multiple homes , I could go on

I would love him to just Feck off and stay in oblivion !

unreasonable ?

A big issue in Blair's first win in 1997 was that he committed to the same financial constraints (spending, borrowing, taxes etc) as the Tories for the duration of the 97-02 term. By giving that commitment, he neutralised the worry of them ruining the economy. Compare that with Corbyn's "freebies for everyone" which just took people's thoughts back to the 70s' of having to go cap in hand to the IMF for loans etc when the country was nearly bankrupt. If the next Labour leader is serious about wanting to win a future GE, they need to take heed of that and take the country's finances more seriously with sensible financial planning, not just trying to bribe the electorate with freebies. Most of the electorate aren't naive enough to think that "the rich" can be shafted enough to pay for free tuition, free broadband, doubling/trebling NHS spending, unicorns for all, etc.

Blair was on radio 4 yesterday, He rightly said that Labour had forgotten that a lot of its working class, working voters are very pro law and order, keen on the army etc and that Labour had forgotten some of the things that are important for a lot of voters.

There is something I still can’t make sense of about theBlair era . Somewhere upthread has listed all the things he/Labour achieved but personally, I felt we all got poorer. That money came from somewhere and as a family we were definitely affected. I think an older generation (my parents) felt hounded out of London as it became increasingly hostile for older people and although I had just graduated, was perfectly lined up to benefit from housing market taking off, etc I struggled to get a job. I saw first hand what happens to people in poorer areas when govt/European money comes in- it really was never going to trickle down or was always going to go into housing/supporting lifestyles at the expense of basic needs. Sometimes I feel like it has all been ahugenightmare we have yet to wake up from. Violent crime escalated in our area as the borough became gentrified and people were absolutely lost. I body saw or acknowledged this but there have always been huge pockets of poverty in London. For working adults who didn’t get a secure job it was far harder as all support mechanisms disappeared and you had nothing to cling on to. The future women with no or little pension for these years will testify to this and I do think it was designed to exclude some people (why I do t know).

There is an incredible naivety at how Blair’s initiates were achieved - there were casualties and they tended to be the old working class. I am not sure how much we can forgive.

Initiatives - apologies for typos

Labour voter here btw because I can’t be anything else. Just recasted at the turn things took from John Smith.

Helping some, by excluding others is no victory.

Recasted? Disappointed

As much as I detest Balir. The Iraq war was not illegal and reginafelangee is quite right. Until Blair came along, the Labour party hadn't won a majority since 1974 -- and that was by just 3 seats. Labour hasn't won an actual working majority since 1966!

And seen as their currently showing but the slightest intention of examining the causes of their recent General election massacre, but instead blaming everybody and everything else. They'd do well to listen to the best electoral asset they've had for well over 50 years.

Well I do think a centrist approach is the only thing that would work now and maybe pick up the people who got left behind. Again, I cannot emphasise enough how it felt to see everyone move forward and be included in the shared sense of social euphoria and happiness whilst we felt deliberately excluded. That has caused huge hurt.

With momentum running Labour there's no chance of them becoming electable for at least a decade. Possibly a generation.

Even if eventually Corbyn relinquishes power, they'll just replace him with another superstitious, anti-Semitic, commie nutter who'll no doubt believe that - this time socialism will produce a different result to every single other time it's been tried. Someone who'll be equally reprehensible to the decent majority of voters.

Just look at how they're acting now. 'Smears' they claim. 'Bad publicity from the Zionist media', poor implementation. Everything but the truth.

I'm 54 and I can foresee the Tories having no credible opposition party for the rest of my lifetime. .

I'm 54 and I can foresee the Tories having no credible opposition party for the rest of my lifetime

I sincerely hope you’re wrong or I might as well swallow the reds now. I’m pleased to say I think you are.

Yabu. He’s a highly experienced intelligent and articulate individual, he’s entitled to voice his opinions as you do yours. I wasn’t particularly a fan of his at the time but our current crop of politicians in all parties make Blair look like a flipping genius. I’d rather have him around than Corbyn or BJ any day!

The new labour team had so much talent - Blunkett, Alan Johnson, Jack Straw, Gordon Brown - that labour team had so much talent. The way Blair et am managed to keep Corbyn and the loony left to the sidelines and not damage labour’s ability to win elections. It’s a funny farce when momentum etc blame Blair for the reason they have done so badly.

We’re scraping the barrel now on all sides.

Ha managed to repeat myself there!

Alsohuman As a former advocate of all of the absurd juvenile myths of Marxism, I too hope I'm right.

That said - I believe most of us want the gov' to have to face a decent credible force on the opposition benches. What chance that, now !

The biggest problem for Labour and democracy, is that no one member of that party, [those who survived the mass deselections], who sat quietly and propped up their deceitful, jew hating, terrorism-enabling moronic leader in parliament will ever be credible to the electorate. Not Philips, Starmer, Wrong-Daily etc etc... Not any of them.
This lot could have, long ago, formed a new party and had four years to establish and build a reputation before the last general election. What did they do instead? Sat on their hands, kept that insane, throwback Corbyn on the frontbench, and occasionally moaned about him on social media behind his back.

I find it hard to blame Corbyn being who he is. He is after all, an overgrown sixth former, a toxic mix of arrested development, stupidity, vanity and stubbornness. But this lot, the so called "moderates" who pretended to be concerned, who claimed to know what was wrong, are ultimately the most immoral, sinecure-seeking cowards one could imagine. I blame them even more than the Trotskyite nutters that have driven Labour into the dust. And I'm certain I'm not alone in that.

A lot of vitriol and unsubstantiated comments in your posts, minisdriver.

Do you have any concerns about the credibility and integrity of the Tory party/government?

I’m 56. I also feel l will never see another Labour government in my time.

I have so many English friends and colleagues who are leaving and planning on leaving the Uk. One’s gone, one’s just resigned to go to Spain, another is moving to Eire amongst many others.

Feels a bit like peacetime refugees. Not on a big scale, but leaving because the situation is so horrid

www.change.org/p/jeremy-corbyn-mp-campaign-to-keep-jeremy-corbyn-as-leader?recruiter=false&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=share_petition&recruited_by_id=c40cc790-2809-11ea-964b-515229fba044&share_bandit_exp=initial-19670681-en-GB&share_bandit_var=v0