(http://www.bt.no/multimedia/archive/00159/tony_blair_159780a.jpg)
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1300000/images/_1303422_prescott150.jpg)
For what will you best remember them?
Mike
Maybe Tony Blair will go on to make Pizza Hut commercials, Mike.
(The other chap I just don't know, do I?)
He is our hapless deputy Prime Minister.
Here is how I think of him.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4945170.stm
And a typical piece of mangled English...
The objectives remain the same and indeed that has been made clear by the Prime Minister in a speech yesterday that the objectives are clear and the one about the removal of the Taliban is not something we have as a clear objective to implement but it is possible a consequence that will flow from the Taliban clearly giving protection to Bin Laden and the UN resolution made it absolutely clear that anyone that finds them in that position declares themselves an enemy and that clearly is a matter for these objectives.
Mike
I have seen worse!
Blair was a total and complete waste of time, thoroughly unsuitable for any kind of leadership role- but in the democratic system that promotes people who the masses respond to, the rise such an unspeakably mindless moron was inevitable. The fact that both Blair and Bush got re-elected is horrendous.
Quote from: Sean on May 10, 2007, 12:14:45 PM
Blair was a total and complete waste of time, thoroughly unsuitable for any kind of leadership role- but in the democratic system that promotes people who the masses respond to, the rise such an unspeakably mindless moron was inevitable. The fact that both Blair and Bush got re-elected is horrendous.
Nothing horrendous going on, just regular guys voted in by regular people. It's just democracy in action.
Quote from: knight on May 10, 2007, 05:04:00 AM
For what will you best remember them?
Mike
Quite simply, for dashing the hopes and expectations of the (true) left after the misery of 18 years of Conservative rule and altering the Labour party irrevocably to occupy the stodgy, bland, middle ground that British politics now resides.
Yes, I can see that. Still, it was better than Thatcherism and babe of Thatcher.
Mike
Quote from: knight on May 10, 2007, 05:04:00 AM
For what will you best remember them?
Maintaining the dynamic economy with great professionalism.
Quote from: Lethe on May 10, 2007, 09:35:41 PM
Maintaining the dynamic economy with great professionalism.
Agreed, our economy kicks ass. And we've overtaken America as the finance capital of the world.
Quote from: Michel on May 11, 2007, 02:25:53 AM
Agreed, our economy kicks ass. And we've overtaken America as the finance capital of the world.
Capitalist Bourgeois scumbag
:P
Quote from: SimonGodders on May 11, 2007, 03:01:56 AM
Capitalist Bourgeois scumbag
:P
Hehe! ;D
I only really take pride in any victory over America. My eventual aim is to have our land back.
Quote from: Michel on May 11, 2007, 03:02:51 AM
Hehe! ;D
I only really take pride in any victory over America. My eventual aim is to have our land back.
They are so gonna' love you on here....(just like the last time >:D)
Blair will be remembered for Iraq and John Prescott for his laughable infidelity and for a brawl with a member of the public, who had thrown flour or an egg over him.
"My main legacy is New Labour" (Margaret Thatcher)
Captain Haddock! I didn't realize there were any other Tintin fans.
Quote from: Captain Haddock on May 12, 2007, 04:08:48 PM
"My main legacy is New Labour" (Margaret Thatcher)
She never said that, did she?
Yes she did, quite some time after Labour got in.
Mike
Quote from: JCampbell on May 12, 2007, 10:57:28 PM
Captain Haddock! I didn't realize there were any other Tintin fans.
Oh yes, I love the Tintin books, never quite grew up, but the disaster prone Captain is the character I most relate to :)
Quote from: knight on May 13, 2007, 03:53:19 AM
Yes she did, quite some time after Labour got in.
Mike
Quote from: Captain Haddock on May 13, 2007, 04:05:37 AM
She did and it's true.
Blimey, what an insult to the (proper/old fashioned/trad.) Labour Party! Quite a damning indictment. (IMO of course, I realise the discussion of politics can open up a can of worms, but I am a leftie!)
You may notice that the Right has been moving into the middle and the Left moved into the middle to make itself electable and Lib Dems were in the middle anyway. So, just at the moment we are back to consensus politics where it is perceived that to catch votes you need to be .....in the middle, but with a gimmick. So Lib Dems loose out as usual...unless you can think that their lackluster leader is a gimmick.
Mike
I think it's utterly miserable and would love to see a return to the polarisation of left and right, but feel the political landscape essentially mirrors society in that every where you look it's safety first and the suppression of risk or behaviour that's deemed risky. No one makes a stand anymore.
As a famous band once sang, 'It doesn't matter who you vote for because the Government always get in'. Far more applicable now than it ever was (or then).
I'm latching on to Gordie' and hope he might morph into an old style tub-thumping union loving Labour PM, shedding the New Labour coat of Technicolor...Probably not :D
There is that advice not to waft flies away from an open wound....all you do is replace them by freshly hungry flies. Perhaps we should just leave the same gravy train passangers in office, on that advice.
Mike
Agreed, Simon.
And despite what people say, they aren't just both in the middle. At the end of the day, Conservatives enjoy the status quo, labour want change. How people listen to anything that comes out of a Conservative politicians mouth, for example, with regard to the NHS, is beyond me. They would have shut it down years ago if they had the chance.
Their ideologies remain dramatically different.
I don't agree, the only way of getting elected at the moment is to take the middle ground. Tory's have moved into the centre since Major's time and New Labour is no longer true Left. Of course there are differences, but they are not dramatic.
People like change of Gov. eventually, I wonder if Brown will be a sufficient change to satisfy?
Mike
Quote from: knight on May 13, 2007, 10:45:59 AM
I don't agree, the only way of getting elected is to take the middle ground. Tory's have moved into the centre since Major's time and New Labour is no longer true Left. Of course there are differences, but they are not dramatic.
Mike
Why must there be a middle ground? Sure, they aren't radical. But, there are millions of people who hold the values of the left dear - have you been north of Birmingham Mike?
And likewise there are hoardes of reactionary racists out here in the home counties that love to vote blue. Maybe everyone is just boringly liberal where you live.
Its that simple - and for the parties to get their support base in, they must still retain some of the old, else they will go elsewhere. So many people will always vote the same party all their life.
Just because it isn't workers vs capitalists by no means means that there is nothing left to fight over.
You are a right little joker as you know my roots are in Scotland and the North of England. At the moment, there are so many floating voters who must be captured, that each party has to temper its extreme positions to capture that middle ground....or remain unelectable.
Labour suffered it for 17 years and the Tory folk have been trying to move into the centre, but Labour got there first.
When the electorate get bored with their existing Gov, they always do eventually, we can swop faces.
Mike
It would have been interesting to have seen the direction of the Labour Party and the Government if John Smith hadn't suffered a heart attack.
Yes, he is still missed. I suspect he would have lead a highly successful government with very little sleeze or spin.
Mike
Quote from: knight on May 13, 2007, 11:41:04 AM
Yes, he is still missed. I suspect he would have lead a highly successful government with very little sleeze or spin.
Mike
Agreed. He always came across as a very decent and honourable human being :'(
The death of John Smith was a great disaster for the Labour Party. He was a man of great integrity; the only man, I believe, who could have got "Old Labour" re-elected.
I agree, except that he was all for modernisation, but it is a shame did not get a shot at it.
Mike
Quote from: knight on May 13, 2007, 01:01:07 PM
I agree, except that he was all for modernisation, but it is a shame did not get a shot at it.
Mike
Agreed Mike,
best wishes
Jeffrey
This is what usually pops into my head when I see Tony Blair.
(http://www.tokyonikki.com/www/radiohead_bear.gif)
Not Bambi any more then.
Mike
Sorry, there just are no more Winston Churchills and Franklin D. Roosevelts available.
Yes Iago, they say come the moment come the man, but it looks like we need to bin that saying now.
Mike
Churchill was a nazi.
Quote from: Florestan on May 14, 2007, 01:09:09 AM
That's a joke, right?
I suspected him to be a little deranged, but now I am sure!
This is no joke anymore, but blatant nonsense.
I think he means more in terms of political stance, than a member of the National Socialist Party ;)
Might be problematic trying to argue that Churchill was a Nazi :)
Nazi is often interchanged (rightly or wrongly) to describe someone on the right side of the political spectrum...
Quote from: SimonGodders on May 14, 2007, 01:19:59 AMMight be problematic trying to argue that Churchill was a Nazi :)
Problematic? Nice understatement. As Harry said, it's blatant nonsense.
Quote from: SimonGodders on May 14, 2007, 01:19:59 AMNazi is often interchanged (rightly or wrongly) to describe someone on the right side of the political spectrum...
Then I'm a nazi, too. :)
But I'd rather be nazi with Churchill than liberal with Marx. ;D