I dont even think its aimed at the heartlands, there are plenty of areas across the country that have shifted away from traditional Labour since the 80’s. The decline in the red wall didnt happen overnight.
However, it will probably help in the Tory heartlands and mean the Tories will have to spread their resources over a much wider area to defend its seats. It also adds fuel to the fire within the Tory party itself over which direction to go in…
There was an interesting tweet i saw yesterday on the Braverman sacking where most Conservative party members thought it wrong - but most Conservative voters thought it right!
I do wonder if Starmer’s team are deliberately reading from the Blair playbook…
Baroness Thatcher apparently once joked that her greatest achievement was Tony Blair and Labour’s longest serving PM acknowledged how he retained some of the changes she had made in Britain.
But not only did he talk glowingly of her political legacy, Mr Blair also praised her “kind and generous” spirit.
“Margaret Thatcher was a towering political figure,” he said. "Very few leaders get to change not only the political landscape of their country but of the world.
"Margaret was such a leader. Her global impact was vast. And some of the changes she made in Britain were, in certain respects at least, retained by the 1997 Labour Government, and came to be implemented by governments around the world.
"As a person she was kind and generous spirited and was always immensely supportive to me as Prime Minister although we came from opposite sides of politics.
“Even if you disagreed with her as I did on certain issues and occasionally strongly, you could not disrespect her character or her contribution to Britain’s national life. She will be sadly missed.”
Except that it wasn’t a joke. It wasn’t all Thatcher’s doing (more to do with her and Raegan’s neoliberal puppet masters), but the shifting of the entire political landscape to the right meant that parties of the left had to move rightward in order to become electable.
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Yes, far from a joke. Blair was a terrible PM, why would you want to emulate him?
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Because he consistently won elections.
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But that doesn’t mean it’s the only way to win elections.
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Remember: this is supposed to be the party of economic responsibility, that allegedly puts “hard-working Britons” first.
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That’s only really half the story. There is a lag in income but, at the same time, the purchasing power of that money has dropped significantly. The real gap tends to be between home owners and renters.
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What do you think then Billy Bragg?
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A human rights lawyer who supports war crimes in Gaza. A Labour leader who expels socialists and praises the Witch.
Sir Kier is a snake that will do anything for power. He’s symptomatic of the poison that has infected British politics…that we need to get rid of, not hold our noses and tolerate
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Amazes me that anybody could or would who’s even vaguely linked to Labour.
Yet, given the archaic FPTP system, it’s either him or the Tories.
And I know which one I detest less.
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He wasn’t just bad. He had the balls to actually negotiate with the IRA through Sinn Fein, ending the long armed conflict in a negotated settlement. Not every Labour leader would have, and no Tory ever would have (even if they wanted to, and some probably did, politically too difficult for them I think). Terror attacks after have been minor and from just fringe elements without real support. Unfortunate, but more an after effect of the long conflict really.
But sure, he eroded the Social Democratic aspect of the party, regarding economic policies and later he followed the evangelism of the Americans, to spread peace and stability through force of arms, into the disaster that become Iraq with a shoddy almost non existant Casus Belli.
But nothern Ireland should count. It was important. Very important I would argue.
I agree he was terrible though of course. Just that I sometimes see people forgetting the Good Friday Pact because of Iraq. That was significant.
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Wasn’t it a NI politician (forgot his name, passed away recently) who was the architect of the Good Friday agreement?
Sure, more than one. But Blair and his cabinet was very much needed. I would need to read up again for the various names. I am just writing from memory now, haven’t looked anything up in years. But I used to read a lot about this some years ago.
There are quite a lot of quite decent documentaries around too, not just papers or newspaper articles. There is a lot on Youtube too.
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Totally agree that the goodwill of the British government was essential. But Blair simply wasn’t the leader who would have stick his neck out for such a courageous initiative.
Maybe you are talking about McGuinnes (Martin i think) ? He used to be on the military council of the IRA. He passed away relatively recently.
Well, he actually kind of did though arguably and that was probably my point in the first place.
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I honestly wonder what your alternatives are. A truly horrible Tory party which has shown to be governed by greed, lies and disrespect. And on the other side, you have this opportunistic idiot now heaping praise on Thatcher, of all people!
As us all, I’ve seen many mediocre politicians be elected during my lifetime, but honestly, this situation is stunning, and I don’t envy you.
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