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I'm no neo-Thatcherite, Blair tells Labour activists
UK Guardian ^ | 1/23/05 | Gaby Hinsliff

Posted on 01/23/2005 6:26:35 PM PST by wagglebee

Tony Blair insisted he was no 'warmed-up neo-Thatcherite' yesterday as he sought to reassert his traditional Labour credentials in the run-up to the election.

In a speech in London, the Prime Minister moved to galvanise disaffected party activists who believe he has lost touch with their values by warning that Labour must now 'fight to keep' the social changes it had made over the past eight years.

Highlighting achievements with old Labour appeal, from the minimum wage to overseas aid, Blair said: 'This is not some warmed-up neo-Thatcherism or an uncertain drift into splitting the difference: it is the most successful era of progressive change this party has achieved since the 1945 government emerged from the ashes of World War II.'

None of it would have happened under the Tories. He dismissed their tax and spending plans as a 'ludicrous impossibility', but said their threat must not be underestimated.

'Opposition is easy: all you do is criticise. In government you decide, and someone, somewhere, is disappointed.' He told his audience not to be complacent about the party's good showing in the opinion polls. The election 'will be tough. Don't put your faith in polls or predictions.'

This reflects private alarm at the prospect of a low turnout undermining Labour's chances, particularly in marginal seats, with disaffected supporters who think Blair has moved too far to the right sitting on their hands assuming the government will manage without them.

However, Blair added the party could only win by being 'strong on defence and law and order' and allowing 'no political correctness, no outdated thinking' to stand between it and the public. This will be seen by Labour MPs as a warning of further controversial policies on crime and asylum, with Tory leader Michael Howard due to go on the offensive over immigration this week and Labour due to unveil tougher controls next month.

A pocket campaign guide handed to activists at yesterday's National Policy Forum highlights '10 ways' Labour could improve lives, ranging from ID cards, extra police and immigration controls to school discipline and cutting death rates from major diseases.

The 'neo-Thatcherite' label is one repeatedly used against Blair by the left, who believe he has gone too far in introducing market forms and want a change of leader. His speech will be seen as an attempt to show he has not lost his compass.

With Gordon Brown watching from the sidelines, Blair referred repeatedly to Britain's economic success - although not to the Chancellor by name - and savaged the Tories' tax and spending plans as a 'ludicrous impossibility'.

Speaking shortly before Brown was due to explain how the Tory plans could mean £50 billion of cuts in public services, Blair however urged his audience to 'forget the numbers for now' and concentrate on the ideology: 'It's right back, full square into the values this country voted to get rid of in 1997.'

He did not mention the Liberal Democrats, whose chief strategist Lord Rennard warned yesterday that Lib Dem supporters would not vote tactically this time as they did in 1997 and 2001, helping sweep Blair to victory, if he went on attacking their leader Charles Kennedy.

John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, believes any collapse of tactical voting - with Liberal Democrats angry over Iraq refusing to back Blair in places where their candidate has no chance - could cost Labour up to 18seats.

Behind closed doors at the Labour forum, John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, Ian McCartney, the party chairman, and the election co-ordinator Alan Milburn used the meeting to deliver pep talks on campaign strategy, in a sign that Labour troops are being put firmly on an election footing.

Brown appealed pointedly for 'unity of purpose' as polling day approached.


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: antonioguterres; europeanunion; margaretthatcher; portugal; tonyblair; unitedkingdom; untiednations
The bigger question would be whether or not the Tories have any "neo-Thatcherites."
1 posted on 01/23/2005 6:26:36 PM PST by wagglebee
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To: wagglebee; Atlantic Friend; Marie007; MadIvan; snugs; Merlinator

What's wrong with neo-Thatcherism?


2 posted on 01/23/2005 6:29:46 PM PST by risk
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To: wagglebee

It's all about whether or not the economy is doing well. All this left-right balancing act doesnt mean anything. Does anybody know how the UK economy is doing?(GDP/Unemployment numbers?)


3 posted on 01/23/2005 6:29:52 PM PST by Betaille (Harry Potter is a Right-Winger)
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To: wagglebee
"Don't put your faith in polls or predictions."

Boy, if only Blair could've told FR this during the campaign season.
4 posted on 01/23/2005 6:34:24 PM PST by Terpfen (Gore/Sharpton '08: it's Al-right!)
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To: risk
What's wrong with neo-Thatcherism?

Nothing as far as I can tell (unless you're in the Labour party).

5 posted on 01/23/2005 6:35:32 PM PST by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: wagglebee
"I'm no neo-Thatcherite, Blair tells Labour activists"

Well, he got that right:

http://www.socialistinternational.org/1What/presidium-e.html

Presidium of the Socialist International

 

PRESIDENT

António Guterres
Socialist Party, PS, Portugal. Former Prime Minister of Portugal

 

SECRETARY GENERAL

Luis Ayala

 

VICE-PRESIDENTS

Rolando Araya Monge
National Liberation Party, PLN, Costa Rica

Deniz Baykal
Leader of the Republican People's Party, CHP, Turkey

Tony Blair
Leader of the Labour Party. Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas
Party of Democratic Revolution, PRD, Mexico

Joaquim Chissano
Leader of Frelimo. President of Mozambique

Massimo D’Alema
Chair of Democrats of the Left, DS, Italy

Hatuey de Camps
President of the Dominican Revolutionary Party, PRD, Dominican Republic

Elio Di Rupo
Chair of the Socialist Party, PS, Belgium

Alfred Gusenbauer
Leader of Social Democratic Party of Austria, SP…

François Hollande
First Secretary of the Socialist Party, PS, France

Thorbjørn Jagland
Norwegian Labour Party, DNA, Norway

Lászlo Kovács
Leader of the Hungarian Socialist Party, MSzP

Paavo Lipponen
Leader of the Finnish Social Democratic Party, SDP

Mogens Lykketoft
Leader of the Social Democratic Party, Denmark

Plácido Micó
General Secretary of Convergence for Social Democracy, CPDS, Equatorial Guinea

Pascal Affi N’Guessan
Ivorian Popular Front, FPI, Côte d'Ivoire

Jeltje van Nieuwenhoven
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, PvdA, Netherlands

Ricardo Núnez
Socialist Party of Chile, PS

Jaime Paz Zamora
Leader of the Revolutionary Left Movement, MIR-New Majority, Bolivia

Shimon Peres
Leader of the Israeli Labour Party

Göran Persson
Chair of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, SAP. Prime Minister of Sweden

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
Secretary General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, PSOE. Prime Minister of Spain

Gerhard Schröder
Chair of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD. Chancellor of Germany

Costas Simitis
Panhellenic Socialist Movement, PASOK, Greece

Abderrahman Youssoufi
First Secretary of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, USFP, Morocco

6 posted on 01/23/2005 7:33:33 PM PST by RightOnTheLeftCoast (You're it)
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To: RightOnTheLeftCoast

I'm actually surprised no American leftists are listed.


7 posted on 01/23/2005 7:36:19 PM PST by wagglebee ("We are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." -- President Bush, 1/20/05)
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To: Betaille

Unemployment: about 4.6%
GDP: 41.66 trillion - $27.7k per head


8 posted on 01/23/2005 11:12:13 PM PST by weegie
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To: risk

It doesn't include Margaret Thatcher's business sense or her tax-cutting policies.


9 posted on 01/23/2005 11:36:55 PM PST by LibertarianInExile (NO BLOOD FOR CHOCOLATE! Get the UN-ignoring, unilateralist Frogs out of Ivory Coast!)
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To: risk

For a Labor member like Blair, it would be instant apostasy to call himself a Thatcherite, I suppose. After all, she came to incarnate the Tory leader.


10 posted on 01/24/2005 1:26:20 AM PST by Atlantic Friend (Cursum Perficio)
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To: Atlantic Friend

Someone once told me that national defense issues aren't always a neat and tidy fit onto the left/right political spectrum. One can be socialist and support nation and defense causes together. I suppose Blair falls into that category. In any case, he gets my support. I think he is a lot more like Margaret Thatcher than he'd like to admit, though.


11 posted on 01/24/2005 2:11:56 AM PST by risk
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To: risk

I agree with you about Tony Blair.


12 posted on 01/25/2005 6:31:18 AM PST by Marie007 (La politique dénature et ruine l'amitié)
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