Monday 9 May 2005

Blair's post-election blues

Showing the gratititude and honesty typical of Labour MPs everywhere, British Labour MPs now want to stick the knife into the man they asked a country to vote for last week, on the pretext that not enough people did so. "The [Labour] backbenchers, many speaking publicly for the first time, have been moved to hasten Blair’s departure after his majority was slashed by 94 in Thursday’s general election." Read here. And that's just the backbenchers; his cabinet are little better, bickering about the cabinet posts offered them. Apparently the words 'hypocrite' and 'ungrateful' are both spelt L-A-B-O-U-R.

Hypocritical blathering is not solely restricted to British Labourites however. In the wake of Michael Howard's resignation comes navel-gazing from British Conservatives too, wondering where it all went wrong for them. I can tell them quite simply: they can trace it to the day they so cowardly abandoned the Thatcher Revolution that had once made them both popular and principled.

But the latest navel-gazing demonstrates they still have no idea where they went wrong. "The compassionate part of our Conservatism goes back deep into our history and must be renewed," says one tired old Tory sifting through his navel fluff here, offering a paucity of ideas as flaccid as any given by the 'Heseltinis' who once knifed Thatcher. "We sometimes talk as if all that matters is the individual and his or her freedoms but Conservatives have always valued the ties that bind us," he blathers to himself. "That's why we've never settled for the conventional bureaucratic welfare state. It's why we understand the ties of family, neighbourhood and nation." It's why they've been deservedly ignored by the country since at least 1993.

Blair stole what once made the Tories worth anything at all, and it's clear they still don't want it back.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Blair's taking a real kicking over the war in Iraq. This is more than a little tragic as he claims he did it because he felt it was the right thing to do.

If so, this would be one of the very few principled, non-populist things Blair has done. And he might lose his job over it...

It's a shame but he's still an unprincipled, populist worm so he deserves it on many other fronts, just not this one.

Re UK Conservatism. I agree that the Conservatives don't have a bloody clue. Labour only had to mention "Tory cuts" and the cowards sprinted for the hills.

The Conservatives platform (as far as I could tell) was comprised of:
a) Immigration policies stolen from Winston Peters.
b) Labour policies, but done "more efficiently".
c) A promise not to loot taxes quite as much as Labour.
d) Some minor cuts that due to the greater efficiency of their management would lead to no pain for anyone.

Not inspiring, not brave and got the results it deserved.

Unfortunately the Tories seem to be interpreting this as meaning they need to be fluffier to win power. Miserable cowards!

Cheers,

Anthony