(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]

There was a lot more pain in the 80s than was necessary.

All that matters as a measure good economy are three factors: inflation, unemployment and growth. These started to get out of control (without all three being simultaneously under control by government) at the start of the 1970s. I remember the awfulness of the 70s. Britain was indeed the 'poor man of Europe' as a result of both Tory and Labour failings (who can forget Ted Heath's failures?) - neither managed to control the excesses of either management or unions during that decade. But the 80s were also a mess, as shown by the repeated recessions. We had phenomenal income from the 80s from North Sea oil, and it was wasted on tax cuts. Subsequent Tory governments attempted to gain income from privatisations, many of which have been recognised (even by Tory ministers) as major mistakes, such as that of the railways.

No lessons on politics or economics are needed here. I worked in university departments that were decimated because the conservatives failed to meet their promises of matching industry funding for research. I worked in companies that were slowly and painfully shedding employees while Norman Lamont was talking month after month about the "green shoots of recovery".

The only time for over a century when inflation and unemployment and growth have been well managed and stable has been under this Labour administration. Some may say it was started under the Tories, but this is irrelevant - they had 18 years to prove that they could do this, and they failed.