What Tony Blair has taught us
April 05, 2002 ~ 1:11 a.m.
For those unaccustomed to British politics and the Labour Party of old, you may not appreciate what a breath of fresh air Tony Blair has brought to the party during his five years in power as Prime Minister. Old Labour-style backbenchers (Parliament�s version of Congressmen) don�t like the Center-Right direction in which Blair has steered the party, and are crying and foolishly plotting to take back the party. The following column from columnist George Pascoe-Watson of The Sun explains it all in vivid detail:
Blair today and gone tomorrowby George Pascoe-Watson, published by The Sun, March 27, 2002
�Talk about biting the hand that feeds.
Tony Blair�s restless troops have never had it so good and still don�t know how lucky they are.
The PM [Prime Minister] has been Labour�s most potent electoral weapon since 1994 and without him the party would be powerless.
Scores of Labour backbenchers owe their �100,000-a-year livelihoods to Mr. Blair.
But still they wallow in their left-wing love of nationalisation, stronger union power, mistrust of America and loathing of profit-making, job-creating business.
They just do not get it.
For years, Labour was totally unelectable as a political force.
It saddled itself with ludicrous policies and put itself at serious odds with the voters on key issues.
It elected Michael Foot, then replaced him with the Welsh windbag Neil Kinnock and failed to see neither man was fit to set foot in Downing Street.
Mr. Blair woke up and smelled the coffee.
Sitting in his Sedgefield sitting room, he witnessed Neil Kinnock lose the 1992 election�then went to bed at 2 a.m.
Aides who were with him that night awoke the following morning at 8 a.m. to the strains of Mr. Blair�s voice on the same television.
Furious at Kinnock for throwing away the election, Blair had driven through the night to London to help start rebuilding Labour.
And after taking over as party leader following the death of Kinnock�s successor John Smith, Blair has engaged in a tireless struggle to bring the Labour Party with him.
He systematically ripped up Labour�s outdated marriage to state control, its immature loathing of the City [London Stock Market] and its mistrust of the military.
He stressed the war on crime was vital and promised to make education his number one priority. He declared it was no longer good enough to take the creaking NHS for granted.
He vowed to seize control of the economy and run it for the good of the country�not the union barons.
Now he has vowed to defend the country from the evil in the world who would destroy us.
Yet even now, after five years in power, Labour backbenchers do not understand that without wealth-creating entrepreneurs, there would be no cash to plough into hospitals and schools.
Without Tony Blair, businesses would never have allowed Labour to sweep to power with two landslide majorities.
Public services like health, education, the police, town halls and transport are crying out for radical change. Without Tony Blair�s determination to let private firms manage these services, they will fail.
And without Tony Blair, who would be standing with the United States in the protection of democracy and a civilised way of life?
Would the mealy-mouthed leaders of the European Union truly be Washington�s biggest allies? Don�t kid yourselves. [emphasis mine]
Hundreds of Labour MPs owe their cushy jobs to Mr. Blair. Too many of them are still wildly out of touch with society and heed the predictably unrealistic demands of their grassroots activists.
It�s easy to dabble with a mini-revolt when your leader has delivered a second landslide election victory.
Without Tony Blair, the Labour Party would be cast off into obscurity for another 20 years.�
Neatly put. There is no equivalent to Tony Blair within America�s Democratic Party, and if one were to arise, he would not make it past the primaries. The party itself would see to that. America�s political life would be much the richer if Democrats could put together a cohesive Center-Right strategy the way Tony Blair has done for Labour. But in the meantime, Americans are faced with only two choices: Republicans and far left nimrods. No contest really. Time to take a lesson from British politics post-1997!
Once I�m back from Spain, I�ll post the book review column from The Times. Back on Monday ...
� M.E.M.
|
[Sign My Guestbook]
[View My Guestbook]
|
Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
AMERICA FOR TRUE AMERICANS!