I think this was reported on during or after the elections, wasn’t it? I remember it being mentioned before, not least on here.
Just picked up on this. He was our local mayor…
About time…
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Source: Tony Blair’s climate crisis views ‘absolutely aligned’ with government policy, Starmer says – UK politics live | Politics | The Guardian
Coward strikes again. I don’t believe that Blair is anywhere near popular enough that just straight out disagreeing with him won’t win Starmer more positive sentiment.
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Spineless Starmer really is useless.
Still better than the Tories, though.
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That’s a low bar.
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There is a problem in the Labour Party, in the upper echelons that Tony Blair is revered. They don’t seem to understand that he is absolutely despised by the public. He is like a god to them.
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It’s the only reason they got in.
Their USP was “We’re slightly less shit than the Tories”
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I think the bigger issue is that Blair does often speak a lot of sense, for example, there is as he says a lot of resistance in the west to the idea of cutting fossil fuels usage. And, it isnt difficult to see a path in which governments like Labour are seen to lose the argument for pushing hard towards net zero because other parties exploit emotional arguments on what they say that has been prioritised over.
And we know especially from recent history that a lot of people are happy to believe someone else will be picking up the bill.
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I dont think he is being a coward, simply picking his battles carefully. This will be a non story within a day or two. Kick up a bigger fuss and it probably risks having bigger ramifications down the road.
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Feels like a thousand cuts at the moment though dont you think?
We’ve gone nowhere politically since 2010. We are still at the point where people are screaming for change and no one delivers.
But we’ll end up voting for a more extreme version of the same if we are not careful and Labour need to start delivering good stuff.
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Or perhaps, governments are going to lose the argument if they keep being craven about this?
No, it’s just kicking the can down the road. Not talking about suggests that Labour doesn’t really believe in it. Why on earth would anyone vote for Labour on that basis?
It goes back to my point of voting for change but getting more of the same shite. Incremental, infinitesimal differences may do it for you, you may have a lot more latitude for what you are willing to tolerate, but voters quite clearly don’t.
I think people would be a lot more forgiving if there was a consistent message, a clear vision, even if the circumstances are difficult. But this is emphatically not the case here.
This is the recipe for a Reform government in 2029.
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Sometimes governments need to respond to public opinion, and sometimes they need to shape it.
Unfortunately the last twenty or so years has seen public confidence in any kind of governance disappear, which makes it hard for any Government to do their ‘we know is is going to be hard, but we just have to do it’ card.
Blair shoulders a massive slice of the blame for that.
His input on this matter, or any matter, is profoundly unwelcome. I would be interested to know who is funding his foundation. He is going very big on unproven and dubious technology like CCS.
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It was proposed for Longannet power station to be converted to CCS but was deemed economically unviable. The solution there was a couple of windfarms and converting the power station to rubble.
CCS is a bit like hydrogen storage, in that it proposes an energy system that is identical to the existing system. Unfortunately, it tries to shoehorn in technologies that are not entirely practical.
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How are they being craven. They have highlighted where Blairs recommendations already fit with existing government policy, and got him to row back This hasnt led to a change in government policy, they are still clearly prioritising Net Zero.
No, its not. Again your post just feeds into the lazy narrative about this government. We’re still only 9 months into it. Labour have clearly prioritised Net Zero/ rolling out green energy and has shown no signs of backing down from that.
Reform and others like it flourish because people go along with that misinformation.
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Instead of confronting his remarks head-on and re-emphasising their support for their net zero goals, they decided to emphasise what Blair said.
Labour needs to win the argument, it’s not just about government policy.
Labour themselves are feeding the lazy narrative. What are you on about? They keep dropping lines that they know will be interpreted in that particular way. I’m not the one going onto press conferences and talking about benefit cheats. I’m not the one making the headline by saying “he’s absolutely aligned with what we’re doing here” when Blair was quite clear about abandoning net zero.
Labour burying their heads in the sand will only make things worse. There’s no getting around that.
I’m just a random person posting on the internet, whose personal views align with much of what Labour claimed to be for, and I’m worried about the fight that I quite clearly see them losing on this, just because they don’t have the guts to make that argument because they’re chasing to chase that mythical Reform voter who will vote for them.
It’s not as though it’s isolated to the UK either. You’ll see me having made the same criticisms of Scholz.
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Good night for Reform, the cunts.
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Great night, actually.
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But apparently Starmer isn’t a coward, this isn’t leading to disaster, etc.
I’d love to see a good take on why Reform winning Runcorn isn’t a massive warning for Labour.
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I don’t know what the Tories are gloating about either, because I think tonight shows that they’ve become an irrelevance.
A merseyside constituency returns a Reform MP. Wow…
Don’t worry though. It is only a protest vote.. 
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