(no subject)

[mrph]

Tony Blair appears to have accepted the inevitable and is expected to finally announce a timetable for his resignation within hours

I know that some of you will disagree, but I have to believe this is a good thing. Blair's been there too long, he's lost his credibility and he needs to go.

I don't want to see Labour disintegrate completely - it's not healthy for British democracy when one party is unelectable - but they have to face the future and start fixing the things that the Blair years have broken.

Personally, I reckon he'll be gone before the end of January. Perhaps sooner.

Comments

[zarbi.livejournal.com]

Personally, I am glad that the party that labelled my relationship a 'pretend family', and nearly wrecked my father's business through its mismanagement of the economy, and empowered policemen to beat up miners, is out of power, and I would rather things stayed that way! No matter how friendly Cameron may seem, there are plenty like Tebbit and Widdecome behind the scenes.

If you honestly think that things that make life better for millions, such as the minimum wage, maternity and paternity rights and benefits and equal rights are 'minor social tweaks', or that things really haven't changed for the better in 12 years, all I can say is that we have simply going to have to disagree and leave it at that.

As vaguely mentioned below...

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Things change.

Governments can steer events to some extent - fight against progress or ride the wave - but they aren't solely responsible for them.

Equal rights, minimum wage, maternity and paternity... these ideas are not patented by Tony Blair.

The Conservatives didn't like them in the 1980s, but that doesn't mean that Labour deserves all the credit.

To pick one example:

Edwina Currie introduced the first (defeated) bill to equalise the age of consent. A certain William Hague voted for that, too (unlike David Blunkett, who voted against...).

Re: As vaguely mentioned below...

[zarbi.livejournal.com]

I was not implying it was Tony Blair that drove these things - quite the contrary. But the fact is they happened under labour - we knew that when Labour was elected that many of these things would happen. For a while the tone of politics changed.

Those who proposed such things under the Tories were considered extreme. Those who proposed such things in the Labour party were mainstream. For example, the minimum wage was in the Labour manifesto.

I am not saying Labour deserves all the credit, what I object to strongly to is simplistic catch-all statements that the entire Labour term has been a disaster... I would not even say that about previous Tory governments!