I remember lying in bed watching Tony Blair walk into Downing Street, all smiles and hopes for the future. The crowds looked really happy and optimistic that things were really going to change. I felt absolutely nothing. I wasn't as elated as I should have been given that the Tories had finally been beaten.
I never really thought he would deliver. You can't really trust someone who can abandon their core philosophy the way he did just for electoral gain. It's ok to change your views, but the New Labour phenomenon simply seemed to operate in a philosophical vacuum. They floated this way and that, dependent on the views of focus groups, rather than their core beliefs.
The only time I have ever had a positive emotional reaction to anything he said was the day Diana died. He seemed to sum up the shock felt by everybody.
Whatever good things he has done, and there have been some - improved maternity leave, civil partnership legislation, Northern Ireland to name a few, I can't forgive him for leading us into the illegal war in Iraq. He has damaged Britain's credibility so badly that it will take us decades to recover.
We needn't think that things will change with his departure, either. Everything Labour has done, including Iraq, ineffective and expensive ID cards, and the tax credit fiasco, has been bankrolled by Gordon Brown.
I felt nothing at Blair's arrival and I don't feel that we are on the dawn of a new, brighter, future with his departure.
LinkWithin
2 comments:
"The only time I have ever had a positive emotional reaction to anything he said was the day Diana died."
Interesting, I took one look and said to my ex that it was fake, scripted and despicable news management. She said I was a cynic..
You can judge again at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjKweo_t1kU
It did almost exactly capture people's moods that morning, though, before there was an idea of how the majority of people were feeling.
Post a Comment