As Angel said, absolute bollocks. Unfortunately for Labour in 1997 they had to deal with the world and the electorate as it was after years of Thatcher and Major. Labour was unelectable throughout the eightiesand into the nineties. Thatcher had devastated industry, sold off the utilities and sold off council house stock to emasculate the unions and re-engineer the working class vote.
I know why and under what conditions New Labour got into power. I am not stupid. I was bought up in this city as well. Topping Thatchers brand of politics doesn't take much doing.
The idea that a Corbynite socialist Labour Party would have won an election in 1997 is fatuous mate. The Labour Party had a decades old reputation for financial irresponsibility and New Labour had to find a way to fund new hospitals, schools and other projects without massive borrowing. PFI was a shit way to do it but there were few option at that time. It wasn't 'privatisation' for fucks sake. It was a way to build more NHS hospitals and importantly to reduce waiting lists, which were around twelve months for serious heart conditions when Labour took office.
Did I say Corbyn would have won an election in 1997 or are you putting words into my mouth?
As for PFI schemes, how are you saying that isn't privatisation? The vast majority of those PFI services remain in the hands of PFI's, regardless of how shit a job they've been doing for the last decade or more.
I'm not going to waste my time with 'Labour' supporters who will do anything to distort and slag off the achievements of the last three Labour adminstrations, all election wins under Tony Blair, including things you might of heard of like the Good Friday Agreement (though Corbyn supporters will no doubt claim it was Jezza wot actually done it) with John Major.
The Good Friday Agreement happened under Blair and of course his administration did a good job on it. But a LOT of legwork had gone into that before hand And I am not slagging off his achievements. Of course its good that the worst excesses of poverty from the Thatcher years were curved. However, and with the benefit of hindsight, those achievements have been short term and that brand of politics has proven disastrous. It is possible to think Blair was a c*nt without wanting people dying in the streets.
And again you have me down as some kind of Corbyn-fanatic.
Sure Start, Minimum Wage, Paternity leave for fathers, Devolved power for Scotland and Wales, increased levels of literacy, crime reduced, increased investment in education, restored city-wide government in London, guaranteed 24 days holiday for all workers, a million pensioners lifted out of poverty, half a million children lifted out of relative poverty, child tax credit, free tv licences for over 75s, banned fox hunting, free breasyt cancer screening for women 50-70, free eye tests for over 60s, doubled apprenticeships, free entry to museums, New Deal helped hundreds of thousands back into work, free nursery places for three and four-yar-olds, cut long term youth unemployment by 75 per cent..
These happened during Labour's tenure and of course Labour deserve credit. Labour's tenure also happened to coincide with a worldwide upturn in the economy (before it all came crashing down). Now I am not saying Thatcher or someone of her ilk would have used an economic upturn in such a way as New Labour. But once again Thatcher is a fucking low bench-mark. Most of this stuff, when you compare us to other European countries of similar size and economy, is hardly ground breaking-stuff for the 21st Century.
The problem is when you use Thatcher as your benchmark everyone else looks like a saint.
I lived through Thatcher - brought up a young family during that godawful period and I know the difference between Thatcher and Blair thanks very much.
Again, I am not saying Blair was as bad as Thatcher. I still think he was a c*nt though, who promoted the same brand of neoliberal, rich-get-richer and everyone-else-gets-left-behind economics
Yes he was wrong on Iraq. But the re-writing of history to try and big up Corbyn is one of the reasons I've given up on the Labour Party.
Wrong on Iraq is an understatement. And again you are bringing up Corbyn. My point is these feeling of frustration existed well before Corbyn was put up as a leadership candidate, whether you agree with it or not. People were crying out for a new way. And Miliband completely fucked it when he opted for austerity-lite, which most of the Labour party 'moderates' and Blairites were more then happy to go along with.
Their brand of politics is dead. Not just here, but right across Europe.
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