Has Tony Blair shifted far right?

[WildEnergySupplier]

Tony Blair was always a warmonger with Iraq, but he seems to have gone full on far right / Reform now, criticising Starmer for not jumping in with Trump and the US on Iran.

He's saying we should have let them use our bases straight away and "show up" for America no matter what.

He also said Labour has made mistakes by spending more on welfare, focussing on Net Zero, increasing taxes on businesses..

Has he completely lost the plot? This sounds like proper far right policy to me.

I used to think Blair was centre-ground New Labour, but this feels like he's shifted hard right. In fact it's giving me proper far right / racist vibes.

I asked this and the answer was that starting wars with Islamic countries is apparently considered inherently racist.

Yes.

I'm anti racist and anti fascist, if that's what you mean

Yet people are voting for the extremes, Greens on side, Reform/Restore on the other.
By enlarge, they ve had enough of the so called centre ground, someone like Starmer would have fitted in brilliantly in the Blair Govt, equally in Cameron's one too.

I was just thinking the opposite @WildEnergySupplier !

I do not believe Reeves had any choice, too many unfunded spending commitments to deal with.
She couldn't increase income, vat or NI, so what was left? & until Iran, gilt yields were falling fast, so markets have faith in her/the Govt.

Unemployment is still way below the highs we had under the Tories and is around the historic average.

AI, as Blair says, will transform everything inc unemployment.

By and large ... yes many of us feel that we've had enough of politicians and their lies & manipulations.

But what the new lot are offering (outside of the centre ground) is even worse! I wouldn't vote for a party I thought was racist/antisemitic - even if that meant not voting at all.

Me too.

If you ever want to experience stupidity masquerading as learned thought, go to a meeting of any group with the word ‘socialist’ or ‘workers’ or ‘revolutionary’ in the title. Or any branch Labour Party meeting. Or look at posts agreeing with the OP on threads like this one.

100% Twiglets, for people like you and me, the extremes hold no appeal, trouble is, for many more, these parties are attracting more and more voters.

I'd always vote or i hope there is always someone decent on the ballot paper but i hope before too long we get PR, it will be the only way to stop the next Govt being formed with a huge (MP) majority but on just 25% of those who vote, if thats Reform, we are in deep trouble.

We had 1 O'Clock clubs for kids when the Tories were in.

It’s a basic misunderstanding of anyone to think that increasing the cost of employment leads to anything other than price increases and loss of employment for the lowest paid. This disproportionately affects those at the lowest income levels.

UK unemployment has been rising for the last 6 months and it is rising fastest for 16-24 year olds - it is absolutely imperative for the economy that people enter the workforce at the end of education. At the time where there are uncontrollable pressures, for the government to increase the cost of employment with a double whammy of NI and MW was a huge and absolutely foreseeable error.

I’m afraid Reeves is a weak and incompetent Chancellor.

And conversely they have U turned on addressing welfare spending at every possible turn.

Sure Start was completely different. This is the IFS view. Killing it off was one of the most heinous things the Cameron government did.

https://ifs.org.uk/articles/sure-start-achieved-its-aims-then-we-threw-it-away

Been to many Labour meetings?

Last one i went too was all about Dentistry, Roads and the Tamar Bridge crossing.... the Labour MPs and councillors were all very normal...

Funnily enough, so called left wing policies like re nationalisation, more funding for councils, better NHS/better pay, more sure start, closing tax loopholes, even workers rights (heaven forbid) are all popular among voters.

The vast majority of posts on here do not agree with the OP.... but i guess you know that too.

And pro tax & increased welfare spending, yes?

Really? I think I'll file that idea under the complete nonsense section 😂

You don’t sound very bright yourself to be fair.

Oooooh! Check you out 🤣

No they have not, they have put in place a few changes that will lead to lower Welfare but the vast majority is pensions... and no party is planning on cutting this... tightening PIP wont bring about huge savings but triple lock would and free childcare..... any takers?

On youth unemployment, it has been on an upward trend since 2023, over 12%, in 2024 (before GE) it was 14.2%, its 16% now.

How would you have funded these un-costed spending commitments Reeves faced?
Pay rises, compensation scandals, Hunts NI cut of £11 billion each and every year???

Tony Blair is not far right. Jesus Christ, we have to stop calling everyone and everything far right or it has no meaning anymore.

💯

Tony Blair is very very far from far right. Op do you know what far right means because you don't sound like you do.

The OP rightly has had a couple of posts removed.

It’s not correct to label many of us ‘far right’.

haven’t rtft but if anyone wants to read what he actually wrote:
https://institute.global/insights/politics-and-governance/the-labour-party-is-playing-with-fire-over-its-future-and-the-future-of-the-country

He is sniffing for an opportunity. A consultant, or a contract for his son. Whose business isn’t going too well.
So is betting Starmer is toast and pitching on a Reform win. But equally talking about the need for a plan. Eg. I can help with that… for any new Labour leader.

Self serving is what he is. His family have made a mint.

By quoting Jesus Christ you are clearly far right and also a Christian fundamentalist!