Leaving Iraq and N. Ireland aside, there are essentially three thing that the British electorate cares about:

1) The NHS/Health System
2) Public transport – the railways and the tube
3) Schools

Health Transport Schools.…

I never said the man was perfect. I say that Blair is basically good.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2103592,00.html

I agree with almost every word Toynbee has said here.

What does the public think? Every poll shows its deep revulsion against the press, with journalists ranking lower than politicians. [...]

It's a…

I fail to see what parallels may be drawn between the tribulations suffered by Gore and this outstanding act of sophistry.

I think Hansard will bear this one out.

"If you want to blame anyone for this, blame me. I am perfectly happy to take responsibility for it."…

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5920188/the_press_vs_al_gore

Laters.

I don't buy either of these magazines any more becase I can't trust them to give me something reasonably close to the truth.

You have published a piss-poor argument…

For those that don't know, London transport is divided up into six roughly circular concentric zones – zone 1 is Central London, the boundary of zone 6 goes out as far as Essex and…

His second sentence (and you need to see it to get the full impact) was:

__Now I know that standards have slipped in the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer you…

George and the Senate.

and

George on Sky

Love him or hate him, he sticks to his guns.

This poll attempts to separate support for individual leaders from support for their political parties. This poll indicates that more than half of the people that like the Labour Party also like Tony Blair. (This is also to say that a lot of the people that don't like Tony…

the Saddam stooge. London elected him on the basis and clear knowledge of the latter aspects of his career.

But I note that Senator Levin has yet to take him up on his offer of a day in court over the US Senate's claims of Galloway's Oil benefits, which, when…

What, the former member for Glasgow Hillhead?

In one electorate he was a fire breathing left winger. In another the Saddam stooge. London elected him on the basis and clear knowledge of the latter aspects of his career.

A few thoughts: I too loved the John O'Farrell book (I reckoned the best way to read it was with Billy Bragg and the Smiths on the stereo) but to me his conclusion meant that what subsequently happened was not surprising.

He wrote as an old…

What, the former member for Glasgow Hillhead?

“Why did she have to go to war with a fascist dictatorship? Why couldn’t we have a straightforward goodies and baddies war, where Thatcher was the baddie and the People’s Socialist Republic of Narnia…

So making Tony a Kiwi citizen and asking him to run for PM here isn't an option?

He can come and try. However, he stay at your place in the meantime 'cos I don't want him near me.

simon g – you are confusing London with Britain. Easy mistake but they are not the same. For example, only in London would George Galloway get elected :-)

Sorry Don to be so snippy: But the difference between concerns in London and in Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield etc. is that…

In the 1987 election, Galloway won Glasgow Hillhead from Roy Jenkins with a majority of 3,251. Re-elected in 1992.

In the 1997 and 2001 elections Galloway was the Labour candidate for the seat of Glasgow Kelvin, winning with majorities of over 16,000 and 12,000 respectively.

Um, so Glasgow is a…

*Allowances made for Iraq, petty corruption and the like.

I don't think the public gives too much thought to public transport (I wish they did).

One thing Labour did do was get rid of failing operator Connex South Eastern, who were subsequently hired by.....NZ government to run Auckland Metropolitan rail services.

I wrote to the Herald 'can this be…

We're talking about Britain here. A lot of voters virtually live on public transport. It's a long way from work to the nearest affordable house.

1) The NHS/Health System
2) Public transport – the railways and the tube
3) Schools

I don't think the public gives too much thought to public transport (I wish they did).

But as for investment in schools and hospitals...there's been shit loads. I have seen huge differences.

I can't say…

I wouldn't normally reply to stuff like this – it's too time consuming, but you've really got me rarked up (which I expect was the point).

Sadly, I think you're right, Rich. If it's any consolation, you've done a pretty good demolition job.

My sincere apologies if there are personal…

You referred to one British TV import. Allow me to refer to another:

'What a load of old SHIT!' – Katherine Tate.

I'm a…

They've forgotten the outcome of the '80s as well. After all, Reagan and Thatcher won the Cold War. Stupid as it sounded at the time, their foreign policy worked. So might Bush's. So might Blair's.

This is a piss-take, right?
Wahahahaha!!!
Such cunning use of dark irony!
Aaahhh, y'not joking?…

their connection with their Marxists roots remains less in a concern for social justice, and more in a desire for power, for control, and for the untrammelled exercise of power for the good of the state.

To the extent to which one can generalise about such things, it seems more…

3. I can still appreciate the policies of the Blair led Labour party and see what affect they have had and still have in Britain and the rest of the world.

ASBOs? The removal of double jeopordy protection? An extension of the ability of the police to incarcerate without trial…

Well, gee thanks Craig, considering I was correcting your inaccurate portrait on devolution vs centralisation I find that a little rich.

Don: I don't see how I can portray something – accurately or otherwise – I didn't actually mention and don't actually have much interest or specialist knowedge of. Hey,…

Blair just delivered a speech about the British media, which was also interesting.

Was it ever... though I've got to admit the response from Independent editor Simon Kelner is every bit as lprecious and disingenuous in my view. The Independent is no more – but no less, complicit in the…

Well, Don, I'm going to call Coddingstonswallop on most of your post

Well, gee thanks Craig, considering I was correcting your inaccurate portrait on devolution vs centralisation I find that a little rich.

If you read my posts you will realise:

1. I don't like Blair
2. I fundamentally disagreed…

This article is a wonderful piece of rhetoric, but that's all it is.

Wonderful? Really? I would go as far as to say Idiot Savant was wasting his Brecht on this one.

Blair may not have control of the insurgency in Iraq now, but he certainly had some influence at some point that he could have used in a way that would have made the present not as bad.

Such as willfully ignoring and disregarding the repeated advice given to him prior…

Step back from there: anyone claiming to be concerned about the state of public discource and hiring Alistair Campbell as…

By dichotomising the issue and caricaturing anything left of Blair you let yourself down.

Fair point. I thought I had noticed that the most vitriolic criticism of Blair seems to comes from the left of the left, but this is by no means universally true. And its prolly a little…

If, heaven forbid, you still have nothing better to do with your time, you can question the wisdom and efficacy of the invasion of Iraq

... because that's a mere trifle that we grownups wouldn't concern ourselves with.

... Petulant, adolescent, you’re-not-my-real-Dad anti-Americanism...

Who is this patronising git?

... their…

__If there's been a crucial failing that's ruined Blair's premiership it hasn't been on his part. It's on the part of his electorate, who have been consistently unable to surmount key intellectual obstacles when considering him – those obstacles being the perceived awfulness of Thatcher…

Well, Don, I'm going to call Coddingstonswallop on most of your post. Sorry, but I think it's rather dishonest to lump all critics of Blair in with the Militant Tendency or the Colonel Blimps on the right.

Second that.

The mandate given to Blair was for a third way. There…

A great piece of writing.

Apart from the factual vacuum when it comes to Iraq and the Cold War....

You may not have noticed...

Well, Don, I'm going to call Coddingstonswallop on most of your post. Sorry, but I think it's rather dishonest to lump all critics of Blair in with the Militant Tendency or the Colonel Blimps on the right. And, FFS, when does the statute of limitations…

I'm not sure how exactly much Blair was involved in the show down with Labour's socialist dinosaurs (but he did campaign successfully against Claus IV – the policy of socialisation of industry) but he, with the help of Brown and others, did make Labour electable.…

I accept that Blair's record is far from perfect. I always found his relationship with George Bush... difficult to accept. Despite what I have already said, I understand why Blair's critics feel the way they do.

On the general subject of the media's role in politics, I tend…

No doubt (well, possibly a little doubt) Bush would have invaded anyway,

Well, the Brits had no doubts about US aggressive unilateralism and wanted to control it.

I'm in no way trying to be glib here, but there's an argument in Italian right wing circles that Mussolini went to war…

If there's been a crucial failing that's ruined Blair's premiership it hasn't been on his part. It's on the part of his electorate...

After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence…

Let me spell it out: Blair versus Far Left NEVER HAPPENED. Actually to some degree Blair was on that left – he supported unilateral nuclear disarmameent when Labour's social democrats did not.

Blair versus social democrats, liberals, moderates is a long-running debate and…

Yes, the far left did enormous damage to UK Labour in the early 80's. But putting Blair up against them is like suggesting everybody should now support Helen Clark to save us from Brian Tamaki.

There was a decade of Kinnock and Smith before Blair. The battle was…

The final consequence of all of this is that it is rare today to find balance in the media. Things, people,…

No doubt (well, possibly a little doubt) Bush would have invaded anyway,

Well, the Brits had no doubts about US aggressive unilateralism and wanted to control it. They also thought removing Saddam was "a good thing". They also thought that by removing Saddam they would force the US and Isreal…

the increasing politicisation of the civil service and concentration of power away from Parliament and into Downing Street

Well, that was Thatcher. Took apart the regional governments and vested all power in Downing Street.

You may not have noticed, but Scotland and Wales just had Assembly elections. The NE of…

The portions of Iraq they patrol are among the most peaceful.

ohhh, you mean aside from things like this

After all, Reagan and Thatcher won the Cold War. Stupid as it sounded at the time, their foreign policy worked

And there was I thinking it was actually Gorby who decided not to play the game anymore, it was Gorby who repeatedly tried to wind back the Cold War to…

If, heaven forbid, you still have nothing better to do with your time, you can question the wisdom and efficacy of the invasion of Iraq, but wasn't the British who screwed up.

I'd have to take issue with this. Sorry if some of us with nothing better to do still…

Well, you do have a point – very few politicians are quite as bad as their detractors would have you believe, or as saintly as their fans claim. (Since Thatcher has been mentioned in dispatches, I'd recommend John Campbell's excellent biography as a careful attempt to separate the myth…

For all the wittering about "hopes and dreams", furthermore, nobody to my knowledge has deliberately addressed the question of what sort of sad, romantic twerp attaches that sort of emotional and intellectual capital to a mere political party.

Or indeed to an individual........

And yet the cult of fresh faced…

Then there's Blair's involvement in Iraq, described by one British journalist as an 'utter disaster'

Or by the vast majority of the British, the media, the analysts, the world ...

__I can think of no British equivalent of the Abu-Grahib scandal. And…

Now,…

bloody nice writing.

Hear, hear. Lovely job, Joseph — great to read such nice prose.

I did. Started uni in1981. Besides, I have opinions on the Asquith government and I was't around in 1910.

I'd agree that the Blair governments economics were smarter…

You'd be surprised how many rabid right wingers in the US don't actually realise Blair is the head…

And subsequently adopted most of the policies of his predecessors. In fact, he went beyond what the Tories would have done. I can't believe that John Major would have introduced ASBOs and…

Blair just delivered a speech about the British media, which was also interesting.

Governments don't promulgate philosophies, they run countries.

*cough* Up to a point, Lord Copper. Perhaps the electorate is entitled to a certain degree of cynicism about folks who campaigned against 'Tory sleaze' a decade ago, and are now facing credible and persistent allegations of selling peerages for campaign cash? In…