Instapundit noted that we did not rush to comment on the announced departure of Tony Blair but speaking for myself, the reason I felt no need to dash off an article is that I do not really give a damn because it is actually not that important. Glenn expects us to be cheering, but why? About the prospect of Gordon Brown running our affairs? Sorry but that is nothing to cheer about and I cannot really see that this will make a great deal of difference to government policies.
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Tony Blair’s Big Announcement… yeah whateverMay 11th, 2007 |
 14 comments to Tony Blair’s Big Announcement… yeah whatever |
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If I was forced to choose between the two then Gordon ‘where’s your pension’ Brown looses out – No celebration here.
I don’t care about Tony Blair either. I overheard a conversation about it in the office and there was lots of talk about “left” this and “right” that, and Labour and Tories, and I found myself amazed that so many people still think in those terms, as if they haven’t «em»grown out of«/em» (two) party politics yet, and are unable to think in terms other than those dictated by the MSM.
Who is in power won’t make a difference until people who can make a difference become electable. The only way to make them electable is to change the way people think, which is why blogs like this are so important. But judging by the way people seem to (not) think, it will take a loooong time.
Before 9/11, Blair was just another statist FOB (Friend of Bill [Clinton]) and his wife was a typical leftist lawyer, a Labour prime minister pushing a pan-European and generally socialist agenda, along with not much of a foreign policy.
So, Blair’s strong support for the US after 9/11 and in connection with the war against the Islamists in Afghanistan and Iraq came as rather a surprise, albeit a pleasant one and one that accords with notions of how the Anglo-Saxon peoples are the only ones with any sand these days.
Now, having pretty much had his legs cut from under him by his own (still left wing, still anti-American) party, and with a Tory party that’s even more anti-American, and having pursued generally left-wing agendas except on the war (but responsible along with the Frogs and the Bosche for a limp-wristed policy toward Iranian nuclear weapons), Blair’s leaving.
It’s a pity, I suppose, and the replacements will be worse for American interests and for England.
The only thing really of note is the astonishing re-writing of history that happens at these “turning points”. It’s essentially a chance for the textbooks of received wisdom to be written.
In particular, it makes me laugh the way the Kosovo war is help up now as a Good Thing which everyone warmly supported (see today’s Guardian for examples). Hmmm – I was an Independent reader at the time, and as far as I remember only David Aaronovitch had anything positive to say; I also remember a host of staggering conspiracy theories claiming, inevitably, that it was All About Oil, peddled by the likes of Tony Benn. Obviously the irony that this (like the Bosnia intervention) was in defence of Muslims didn’t have quite the same strength as is does in retrospect.
That’s the good thing about being a rabid left-winger; you can be consistently wrong about all the biggest issues of your time, but no-one will ever remember.
There is one reason to be happy – the chance is pretty slim that Brown can hang onto what he’ll be handed.
The Tories will get in, and they’ll be… different. Not altogether a good thing, but their localist agenda at least opens the door to potential libertarian experimentation on the small scale.
blair has gone, great.
The one thing he did that i could have admired, steadfast support of the US in the recognition of the danger of Islamism abroad (but not at home) he accompanied with the same lies, spin and deceit that characterised all his other actions.
His poison has now spread through the entire political class. My favourite Latin phrase applies, whether the replacement be Brown or Cameron –
Ave! Duci novo, similis duci seneci!
Roughly translates as,”Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”.
“Out of the frying pan…” springs to mind. As does Belloc’s over-quoted couplet about always keeping hold of nurse. Still, as Julian says, the Broon Terror should be mercifully short.
I see he’s launched his “leadership bid”. Who’s he bidding against? At least in 1990 the Tories had a contest.
What depressed me most was the way the whole “announcement” was stage-managed and spun. The BBC was reporting before cabinet met that Blair would be telling the cabinet and then traveling to his constituency to make a public announcement.
Every move made by Blair’s government is “leaked” or “briefed” in advance. If government is to have any respect, its representatives should be able to stand up and make announcements that have not already been spun out to sympathetic journalists.
Just got to say that that header really perfectly sums it up for me. We all must know by now that the man is the most corrupt ‘politician’ this country has ever encountered (he beats David Lloyd George by about £13m so far, and counting) and for me Tony Blair’s ‘resignation’ speech was not so much of a ‘climb down’ from Prime Minister as a ‘climb out’ from the responsibility for his truly disgraceful actions over the past 13 years.
Unfortunately we appear to have at least 2 more years of the New Labour Experiment to endure before the New Conservative Experiment takes over. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”, as Roger Daltrey would have us learn …
If Gordon Brown was a man of the people, like he likes to think he is (unfortunatley never having seen the ordinary people for many years)
Then he would call a general election to check his credibility, the moment he is “Handed” power, which he will be.
What are the odds, do you think?
No. Me neither!!
Italian to English: Ancestors! Captains novo, similis captains seneci!
The point of the previous ridiculous post is that you’re going to need a sense of humour in the future and possibly a visa.
Actually I think it translates as ‘Same circus, Different clowns’
I see no real difference. Brown, for all his sulking about not getting the top job earlier, has been a major player, driving domestic policy and as a result of cuts to defence spending, has had a major bearing on foreign policy as well. His shafting of the corporate pension system is well known, as is his refusal to acknowledge that there is a problem; his desire to micro-manage human activity via the tax system has created one of the longest tax codes in the industrialised world. Brown has added 900,000+ jobs to the public payroll since 1997; the state gobbles nearly half of our wealth and regulates much of the rest of it. Brown has been behind most of the big decisions of the past decade and has blocked what half-decent reforms Blair might have tried, such as tuition fees or limited attempts to expand school choice.
But Brown might not be as corrupt as Blair; there are signs he understands that the corruption of the British civil service is a problem; he might even spare us some of the more nauseating aspects of Bairism, and Brown can at least claim he made the Bank of England independent and has presided over a long period of decent economic growth.
Not much will change, and even if the Tories win, I do not see much sign of change either. The Tories have given up on the notion of shrinking the state.