I do think the country was a lot happier as a whole under the Blair Premiership than is was under the previous Tory administrations of Thatcher and Major and those that have followed since, and under the Labour Government 1974-1979. The last time the country was politically united prior to 1997 was in 1966 under Harold Wilson. Why do you want a PM to fight the EU? We need to cooperate with the EU, preferably as an existing member. The Brexit result needs to be shoved right up the **** of William Rees Mogg where the sun doesn´t shine. PS: The only genuine Brexiteer is Bill Cash. The rest are just fraudsters, including Farage.
Being a bit hard on Blair there imo. As an individual I believe, like Thatcher, that he got corrupted after being in power too long; but I don't think you can compare the two. The Labour Party under Blair had to shift to the right - or the centre ground, depending on your perspective - to follow the electorate. At the time, the general consensus was that free market capitalism had won all the economic arguments; parties of the left could try to try to spread the benefits of those markets to as wide a section of society as possible, but the orthodox thinking was that the market was god. Of course, everything goes in cycles. Public opinion may have shifted markedly following a decade of post Credit Crunch austerity. The "every man for himself" philosophy of the post Thatcher era may be up for review, while ideals such as greater economic equality, a fair days work for a fair days pay, and public ownership of essential services are overdue for a comeback imo.
Blair's government introduced the minimum wage, presided over huge investment in education, health and the police, and worked tirelessly to secure a lasting peace in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately all of these achievements have since been undermined by the conservative govts of Cameron and May.
Too true. The Blair govt was more socialist than it was given credit for and was affected by a left who hated him for being too moderate and a media that hated him for being too electable. And then he ****ed it up with Iraq. Still relatively golden socialist times compared to today
Ahhh the classic a Thatcher defence. If a woman walks up to you and tells you she’s going to smash you in the face steal all your stuff and then kick you in the balls do you praise her for her honesty? She said there was no such thing as society and then did her damnedest to destroy it
Thatcher ****ed about with the lives of people I care about and my own much more than Blair ever did.
Yep, it's a shame that he backed the wrong horse over Iraq, but the truth is that a Tory goverment would've done exactly the same as him at the time.
I lived through the 80s in the Welsh valleys. I saw a proud, hard working and prosperous community reduced to being the dole scroungers everyone hates. Coal mining should have been wound down, not many miners survived that long after retirement due to lung disease but that wasn't why Thatcher closed the mines. If there had been something to replace them? 30 years later the mines have been grassed over and the valleys look green but the scars are still there.
I don't normally do politics so never post in here, but have just seen what the new foreign secretary said on his tour to China about his wife. I actually lol'd when I read it, how the **** have people like that managed to get into such senior positions
Many politicians are “post turtles”. Read below for the explanation. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Post Turtle
Through trade union activities in the early 80s I got to know a few of those Welsh miners . As honest and honourable a body of men as I have ever met anywhere. An absolute tragedy what happened to those communities- not so much that the mines closed, but that so little was initially done to replace those industries and support those communities; but to Thatcher, they were "the enemy within."
Oh yes, the demise of British mining was entirely in the hands of Mrs Thatcher. please log in to view this image Vin
just the bit where it went from 250,000 to nil and no jobs to replace them, that's the important part
Just passing by the old Ford plant on my recent holidays, its good to see that blight finally being occupied
Thatcher destroyed industry and broke communities for purely ideological reasons and used North Sea oil and gas revenues to foot the social security bill. She basically declared war on the British working class and used the nation's police force as her foot soldiers. Some people did ok out of Thatcherism, millions of others didn't.
Point fairly spectacularly missed there Vin. Thatcher declared war on those communities and on the Trade Union movement in general. Mining as an industry was in decline - it’s how that decline was managed that’s being discussed. As for the loss of the steel industry which was so closely linked to mining - that was a result of a deliberate policy of prioritising investment capitalism over manufacturing; for political reasons (bankers don’t join trade unions)
