Tony Blair/Tory or Labour?

POSTED BY: DallasFirefly
UPDATED: Thursday, June 8, 2006 19:12
VIEWED: 7573
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DALLASFIREFLY

Sunday, May 28, 2006 9:13 AM

I know which party Blair heads, but frankly he seems more and more like a moderate Tory to me with each passing month. It took Labour 18 years to regain power after the 1979 disaster and this is what they're rewarded with? Blair is both a closet Tory and a liar imo, the sooner Bush's poodle is out of No.10 the better. Can't wait for PM Brown! Speaking of Brown, does anyone think he'll be a better PM than Blair, and more importantly, will he be real Labour or another Tory light?

I wanna be Mr. Baccarin!

SIMONWHO

Sunday, May 28, 2006 11:14 AM

A moderate Tory? The Conservatives never proposed tuition fees or wars of aggression or anti-citizen laws such as those we have now.

I suspect Gordon Brown will be more traditional Labour, however matters are set up so that he'll have a marginal majority at the next election and everything for him will be a struggle so he'll probably have to go more middle of the road anyway.

MERCURY002

Sunday, May 28, 2006 11:22 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by DallasFirefly:
I know which party Blair heads, but frankly he seems more and more like a moderate Tory to me with each passing month. It took Labour 18 years to regain power after the 1979 disaster and this is what they're rewarded with? Blair is both a closet Tory and a liar imo, the sooner Bush's poodle is out of No.10 the better. Can't wait for PM Brown! Speaking of Brown, does anyone think he'll be a better PM than Blair, and more importantly, will he be real Labour or another Tory light?

I wanna be Mr. Baccarin!

well blair lives in number 11 (he moved cause number 11 is bigger) and what disaster in 1979 ? labour have only been in power since 1997 havent they? i thought that before them only the lib's and cons had the power in the uk.

Simon:"If the battle was so horrible, why did he name the ship after it?"
Zoe:"Once you've been in serenity you never leave"

MERCURY002

Sunday, May 28, 2006 11:27 AM

wait they were in power wernt they i was thinking of new labout in 74 then thatcher came in yeah labour suck, all of the benefits that we experienced first was from the conservative party the only good thing they have done was gordon brown and the monetary policy committee, thats really it.

Simon:"If the battle was so horrible, why did he name the ship after it?"
Zoe:"Once you've been in serenity you never leave"

DALLASFIREFLY

Sunday, May 28, 2006 11:47 AM

My knowledge of recent British history isn't as strong as I'd like, but here is what I know of Labour's electoral history:

Won with Ramsey MacDonald in the mid 1930's (I think 1936) and held power briefly.

Won with Clement Attlee in 1945 in a landslide and held power until 1951.

Won with Harold Wilson in 1964. Wilson was fond of calling frequent elections so I'm not sure of the dates of the General Elections during his time, but he won all but one. Labour held power most of the time between 1964-1979, including uninterrupted control between 1974-1979. In 1977 Wilson retired and was replaced as PM by Jim Callaghan. Callaghan was unable to rally Labour and in 1979 that toad Thatcher led the Tories to a huge win. After 1979 Thatcher led the Tories to victories in 1983 and 1987 and Major led them in 1992. Of course Blair led "New Labour" to victory in 1997 and beyond.

My hope is that Brown will become PM this year so that he'll have enough time to repair the damage done by Blair before needing to call the next general election. Blair might be a disappointment but the Tories will always be worse. One thing puzzles me, I had thought that Labour was protective of civil liberties, but under Blair the opposite would seem true. The Tories are knuckledraggers so is there a party in the UK that cares about individual liberties? Are the Liberal Democrats the party to vote for if you care about civil liberties?

I wanna be Mr. Baccarin!

CITIZEN

Sunday, May 28, 2006 3:25 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Mercury002:
wait they were in power wernt they i was thinking of new labout in 74 then thatcher came in yeah labour suck, all of the benefits that we experienced first was from the conservative party the only good thing they have done was gordon brown and the monetary policy committee, thats really it.

Benefits like the destruction of British industry, mismanagement of the economy, policies that are directly responsible for the current spiralling private debt, the disastrous privatisation of the rail network, terrible mismanagement of the NHS, and on and on and on...

Yeah the Conservatives are just great.

Quote:
Originally posted by SimonWho:
A moderate Tory? The Conservatives never proposed tuition fees or wars of aggression or anti-citizen laws such as those we have now.

Nope he's pretty far over on the conservative bench all the way.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
"I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalog: 'No good in a bed, but fine against a wall'." -- Eleanor Roosevelt.

OLDENGLANDDRY

Sunday, May 28, 2006 9:15 PM

I'm afraid there is no "LABOUR " Party in U.K. anymore. The creation of "New Labour" pretty much turned them into the British Democrats.
On the world stage whoever is in power we would still be involved in Iraq and the so-called war on terror and whoever is in number ten would still be trying to pass laws eroding civil liberties because we are too scared of the U.S. economy to stand up for ourselves and too mistrustful of Europe to form a block powerful enough to counter the Americans.
Perhaps the Chinese can do better.

MRSKBORG

Sunday, May 28, 2006 9:39 PM

Said from day one that when Blair/Labour took over that all that had changed was the name.

For all of the reasons listed above.

I could rant for several hours about Mr Blair and his so called New Labour policies but I think I said all I need to with my first line.

I will just say this - the policies instituted by Westminster Government in England/Wales have not all been adopted by the Scottish Parliament.(notably, we are not going to be charging an arm and a leg for University) Odd, given that it too is Labour led yet the policies are different. Maybe it is time for Mr Brown to take over after all.

"This movie may be a beautiful butterfly, but I loved that damn caterpillar." Joss Whedon.

FLETCH2

Sunday, May 28, 2006 11:47 PM

He's post Thatcherite, which means that on major issues he's about the same as the Tories which are also a post Thatcherite party. I don't think that makes him or Labour the same as US Democrats any more than Tories are the same as the Republicans.

What IS interesting is that the new Tory leader is going to the left of Blair on a number of issues be interesting to see how that all shakes out.

KPO

Monday, May 29, 2006 12:01 AM

Quote:
whoever is in number ten would still be trying to pass laws eroding civil liberties because we are too scared of the U.S. economy to stand up for ourselves

I don't understand how this follows - can you elaborate on this point?

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