Ten years since Tony Blair secured the Labour leadership

[RFKHumphreyObama]

Special feature on the BBC Website

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3827555.stm

I am unable to believe that it has been that long -it seems like only yesterday that he became Labour leader

[supernova]

1. I have never understood Tony's

attachment to *. That left me quite frankly dumbfounded seeing as how they are (or should be?) at opposite ends politically. :shrug:

[Brian Morans]

2. He is first and foremost a politician...

I know some say politics is the art of compromise, but he has spent his career abandoning his so-called heartfelt ideals and deeply-held beliefs whenever it was politically expedient. It's a complete mystery why he continues to bend over, allowing Bush to violate and humiliate him as he has. He should walk away. He should resign, too.

[D-Notice]

3. Not sure if I've said this before, but

I honestly think he's being blackmailed. I fail to see what he's gained from the last 3 yrs:

Destroyed the public's trust in himself

Destyoed his own credibility

Destroyed the public's trust in labour

Made the Tories more popular

Made the LibDems to main left-wing party

Not sure how reliable these are but:

IndyMedia Melbourne

IndyMedia UK

[Djinn]

4. John Smith dies

Tony Blair lives...always the way, although who knows what would have happened had John Smith lived, sometmies I think he was far too decent to be a pollie

[StandUpGuy]

5. John Smith

My Mum lives in Scotland and swears John Smith was murdered by the corporate elite that new Labor was about to sweep to power on an Anyone But Major vote. Paving the way for Blair, Brown and the New Labor hijack.

Any comments ?

[Djinn]

6. His family was a friend of my family's

when we stilled lived in Scotland and my sister still keeps in touch with one of his daughter sporadically, while I guess it's possible that someone caused either of both of his two heart attacks I think it's unlikely

[StandUpGuy]

7. It is and will remain one of the great...

What ifs.

He would have been a great PM.

I was living in Edinburgh when it happened and the nation did mourn.

[Djinn]

8. I could be really parochial

and say something along the lines of Blair being English and Scot's making better lefties....:evilgrin:

[LondonAmerican]

9. Why do I keep hearing that Blair is from Scotland?

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. He was born there

though his family is English; and he did go to school in Edinburgh for a bit.

http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/page4.asp

[Djinn]

11. that SO doesn't count

that's just trying to appeal to Scots who can be pretty territorial, a friend of mine spent a year at school in Japan, doesn't make her Japanese.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. And I don't think he ever calls himself Scottish

to be fair, or plays it up in any way. I was just explaining why sometimes some people say he's from Scotland. His birth would, for instance, qualify him to play sport for Scotland, as well as England.

[LeftishBrit]

13. I really regret John Smith too!

I'm sure he died of natural causes, but it's so sad anyway! While no doubt he'd have had his faults as PM, he would never have been the spin-loving right-winger that Blair is!

[sweetheart]

14. It does count, however, that Brown IS scottish

THe heir appearant is scottish, john reid, and several other cabinet
members are audibly scottish when they speak.

Methinks blair's heart is closer to the catholic irish than scottish.
Either way, his government has seen scotland the laggard of the
economic regions.

[T_i_B]

15. What do you make of this then sweetheart?

From an old but very good article by Boris Johnson which I may well post as a thread in its own right in the near future.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/04/29/do2902.xml

And the third reason why Blair will stay and fight is of course that there is no one to take his place. He is New Labour, for better or worse. Straw? Pshaw. Blunkett? Junk it. As for Gordon Brown, and the idea that the baton could be smoothly passed to the Chancellor - cheated of his birthright for a mess of seared tuna at Granita - it is fanciful. Even if it were possible, technically, to effect such a transition, it would be an insult to democracy, not least because Brown, like so many other Labour members, sits for a Scottish seat, and is currently passing laws for England when English MPs have no say over those questions in Scotland, and above all when he, Gordon, has no say over those questions in Scotland. I would go so far as to say that the West Lothian question is now so acute that no sitting Scottish MP has a hope of becoming prime minister.

[limeyrose]

16. Blackmail? Or a stooge?

>>I honestly think he's being blackmailed. I fail to see what he's gained from the last 3 yrs:

It's not possible that he was planted in the first place, was it? Funded from outside the UK? It's the way he so suddenly emerged as front-runner for the leadership when John Smith died. I wonder who is pulling his strings?

Or am I just a disillusioned old cynic?

Rosie

[newyawker99]

18. Hi limeyrose!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[billyskank]

17. There's something of the neocon about Blair

I feel. He's always been keen on military interventions. True, he always does it for humanitarian reasons (apart from Iraq - I think that was different) rather than the reasons of the Machiavellians in the Bush administration. But these humanitarian reasons are why so many others support the warmongers in the White House and give them the cover they need.