Tony Blair warns Labour to avoid identity politics

[womaninblue]

I canvassed for Labour during the run-up to the election and I lost count of the number of former Labour voters who told me they'd consider returning when someone like Tony Blair, someone they deemed 'sensible' and not dogmatically ideological, was running the party. Blair does seem to understand people in a way that Corbyn and Momentum don't.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/20/tony-blair-only-a-complete-renewal-of-labour-will-do

I bloody love him. It's my most controversial opinion (as a Labour party member) and I've got a few

Well, if you read the article he's not arguing against the fundamentals of transgender ideology, which is what I would have hoped he'd do – but he's too experienced to do that, he knows he'd just be shot down.

Having just filled in the Labour questionnaire, in which I mentioned that lots of former Labour voters on the doorstep said they hated Corbyn and wanted someone more moderate like Blair in charge, it seemed apposite that Blair has spoken out.

I can't imagine Cherie Blair to be a fan of the TRAs. She knows what a woman is.

His clear comment that he would not have signed the pledge because'there are other things that need to be resolved first '
I have little time for Tony Blair but a simple comment illustrating the lack of political nous with all the leadership candidates

I picked that up too mimi

These awful pledges have at least brought this out of hiding and into mainstream discussion.

The more exposure to this destructive regime, the better.

Read the article, wondered about this:

"In his speech opening the event, Blair said Labour should examine trying to “correct the defect from our birth” that separated Liberal and Labour traditions on the left." (my bolding)

What on earth does that mean? That Labour should never have been born, they should all have joined the Liberals instead?

Blair is a more skilled politician than anyone Labour has at the moment. If they actually listened to him, Johnson would be very worried indeed.

No surely he means the exact opposite. The difference between Blair and the current crop is that he wanted to be elected.

Until he went berserk and supported the Iraq War Tony Blair did do many good things. He also understood how to get into power.

I've just written pretty much that on another thread and was coming on here to say it again Langsdestiny

I love TB. And say it often. It’s made me an unpopular in the Labour Party as well. We need another Tony desperately

Just listening to them discuss this on World at 1 and they played a bit of his speech. It does like he’s come out with an awful lot of common sense.

With the 'defect from birth' bit, I guess he's referring to the way the Labour party, when it came along, split the non-Tory vote, when it might have been more effective to have worked with New Liberals to make a sustainable progressive alliance from the outset.

I love that pledge. I absolutely bloody love it. It proves everything we've been saying is one hundred per cent, copper bottomed true. They can no longer wriggle out and say we're crazy and of course not. They signed a fucking pledge with every last scrap in glorious technicolour.

It works wonders when discussing this with ordinary, decent, sensible people. As does Julia Long's getting Nandy to agree that she thinks male rapists belong in women's prisons, self-ID. So solely and purely if they want to be in one.

Hard for people to ignore that sort of clarity, when what is being sought is the most eyewateringly women-hating actions it is possible to imagine - to anyone not drenched in Kool Aid, at least.

That pledge, and these hustings, have done so much for the gender critical cause. All we needed was people to know what was happening, and now that genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

No pledge wouldn't alter the direction of travel. It would just have disguised it. And disguise only benefits regulatory capture.

Iraq is the deal breaker I expect (& I was 100% Not In My Name) but aside from that, why do current Labour members dislike TB so much? He is the only living person to have won a general election for Labour.

Oh sorry it’s not World at 1, it’s LBC Shelagh Fogarty

Blair said Labour had always won when it had broadened British politics, secured the centre ground and looked to the future. “And yet despite this obviously being true, we have exhibited an extraordinary attachment to retreating into a narrow part of the left which has always ended in defeat,” he added

Not a Blair fan, but here the man is speaking sense here.

Does anyone know where we can watch/listen to/read the whole speech?

Today I'm rooting for Michael Portillo and Tony Blair.

Cue cognitive dissonance...

Agree this is what a professional grown up experienced Labour politician sounds like.
I am so gutted that Labour doesn’t reflect this any more. Are they more comfortable being out of power? It’s shameful.

Morning Star reporting Mark Serwotka (General Secretary of the PCS -civil service union) :

"The drive to expel feminists from Labour is creating a hostile environment for women
Leaders, and prospective leaders, must take a firm stand in support of open and respectful discussion regarding sex and gender'
(extract)
Sadly, the pledges on trans rights supported by some of the Labour leadership contenders have weaponised solidarity with trans people and targeted feminist groups. This is the antithesis of the socialist tradition of solidarity and of respecting different viewpoints within our movement.

It should go without saying that there is still a need for a strong feminist movement.

A recent report has found that one woman or girl is killed every 36 hours by male domestic violence, the highest rate in 14 years.

And despite the Equal Pay Act of 1977, pay disparity remains, particularly for working class and BAME women.

In the last few years we’ve seen the rise of new and vibrant women’s movements, including the powerful solidarity displayed by the #metoo movement.

As with women’s movements in the past, there is an angry, anti-feminist backlash occurring around the world.

We are seeing a rise in violence against women, sexist hate speech and online abuse. But, at a time when socialist feminists need unwavering solidarity, some on the left are retreating from sex-based rights, including the commitments in Labour’s 2019 manifesto.

There have been attacks on gatherings of women, such as at the last Labour Party conference where Woman’s Place UK had to call the police in the face of aggression by some Labour activists." (continues)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3827907-Front-Page-Morning-Star-20-02-by-Mark-Serwotka-The-drive-to-expel-feminists-from-Labour-is-creating-a-hostile-environment-for-women

Well said Tony Blair. Despite his faults we need him around and people like him, who no longer have elections to lose and can stand up for common sense. He could have gone further, and I hope he will.

They needed to shut him up for Brexit. So they demonised him.

Tony Blair should be in prison for war crimes. Let’s not forget what he did.

It’s sad though that it’s only male voices are being listened to in this time but if that’s what it takes...

There have been FOUR female labour leadership candidates with platforms and voices that they could have used to address this issue and actually stand up for women. I was listening!

Yes what Tony Blair did was appalling and unforgivable and I will never forget it. However as PPs have said, the other stuff he did was important - he got labour elected and used that to bring in a range of socialist policies, like the minimum wage which everyone was bleating couldn't be done. As an elder statesman of Labour he should stand up as a voice of reason now, if he can. It's the least he can do.