disgoftunwells wrote:
On 6 May, 23:38, Tony Polson wrote:

I wonder how the alleged "horrors" of Thatcher's Tories compare with the
"achievements" of NuLabour? *Notably, the latter's two illegal wars, the
near-destruction of the British financial services industry thanks to
inept regulation (or a lack of it) and the massive and apparently
uncontrolled rises in public spending and taxation that show no kind of
return.

Not to mention the control freakery, the sleaze of individual MPs and
the corruption of the Labour Party as a whole. *It was the latter that
caused me to leave Labour, starting with the Ecclestone affair allowing
continuation of tobacco advertising in Formula 1 motor racing in return
for a bribe of £1 million paid to the Labour Party.

John Major's Tory government was accused of sleaze and incompetence but
nothing they did bears more than the slightest resemblance to the
institutionalised gross corruption and negligence of this NuLabour lot.

You need to recall how bad Britian was in 1979. Remember talk of
"managed decline" and the "sick man of Europe"? People wanted to leave
for a better life.

Compare that with 1997: Britain was the fastest growing major economy
in Western Europe, running a major budget surplus, with some of the
most enterprising companies in Europe. People wanted to leave for a
slower life.

Fast forward to 2009: Largest deficit in Western Europe, unemployment
up, confidence down. People once again leaving for a better life. And
we still have one of the worst health services in Europe, and some of
the worst transport, and schools are only looking better because exams
are getting easier.


You're right in everything you said above. Blair conned a lot of people
(including me) into thinking that "New" Labour was genuinely something
different, but it's exactly the same as Old Labour. Gross economic
mismanagement and gross incompetence at everything else.

I find an interesting parallel between Harold Wilson and Tony Blair.
Each proclaimed that they were new and in touch with the times. With
Wilson it was the "Swinging Sixties" and with Bliar it was "Cool
Britannia".

Then each of them left under a cloud and handed over to someone else who
took us into darker and even more incompetent times.

The despair I feel is exactly the same as in 1978 - one year before an
election that will sweep Labour away for a generation, until some other
young and charismatic leader comes along, and cons us into thinking that
Labour can change. It cannot, it has not, and it will not ever change.