GROVELLING TO THE RICH... excellent (and damning!) critique of TONY BLAIR!
. | 01.10.2003 13:03
Some time in the last few weeks the prime minister must have decided to impress the Labour party conference by proving he is every bit as courageous as Margaret Thatcher was. "He is not for turning," yaps the conference chairman and devoted government supporter, Ian McCartney.
Like Margaret Thatcher, who used the same words to describe her resolve at a Tory party conference long ago, Mr Blair, we are told, is steadfast. He is like the boy on the burning deck. He sticks to his principles. For him there is, to quote another familiar Tory slogan, no turning back. So whatever you say about Tony Blair, you can't dispute his courage.
Just a moment. Is this the same Mr Blair who told his newly elected MPs way back in 1997 that he was "talking to officials" to ensure that they removed from the NHS the "market" the dreaded Tories had introduced?
And the same Tony Blair who is now, without bothering even to refer to the matter in Labour's manifesto, hell-bent on introducing the market into the NHS via foundation hospitals?
Is this the same young minister who applauded the proud conference boast of his predecessor, Neil Kinnock, that he was the first member of the working-class Kinnock family to be able to go to university because Labour had introduced free higher education for all?
And the same prime minister who, with the enthusiastic support of his education secretary, former Kinnock aide Charles Clarke, is anxious, again without a word of warning in the Labour manifesto, to make higher education even more expensive for students than it is now?
Is this not the same Tony Blair who, from Labour's frontbench, fought the Tories clause by clause on their anti-trade union legislation, and now clings to almost every clause in those same laws?
Is this not the same Tony Blair who promised Labour's conference in 1996 a "publicly owned, publicly accountable railway", and has since presided over a railway that costs us all much more but is neither publicly owned nor publicly accountable?
Is this the same Tony Blair who from the frontbench promised the return to public ownership of the electricity industry when it was privatised by the Tories - and now presides over a privatised mess that lands London with its first major power failure for decades?
Above all, is this not the same Tony Blair who dragged parliament and the country into a monstrous war on the basis of allegations about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that have since turned out to be a delusion - and the same Tony Blair who when confronted with his delusion (and his lies) over Iraq continues to express his "passionate" belief that he was right all along?
What does all this tell us about the courage of the prime minister? The "reforms" to which he says he is steadfastly pledged are not reforms at all. They are retreats and concessions. He is exceptionally courageous when faced with his own supporters, organised trade unionists, fractious health service patients, troublesome pensioners, rowdy schoolchildren, prisoners or asylum seekers. But as soon as he comes up against private health insurers, university chieftains, generals, intelligence spooks, industrialists, Rupert Murdoch, Bernie Ecclestone, the Hinduja brothers or the US president and his militaristic administration, Blair the Steadfast is miraculously transformed into Blair the Meek, as pliable as any Labour leader in history, including even Ramsay MacDonald.
He is, in short, for turning. In this respect he is indeed just like Margaret Thatcher: courageous and unbending when facing up to the weak, the workers and the poor; grovelling and sycophantic to the rich, the strong and the powerful.
Like Margaret Thatcher, who used the same words to describe her resolve at a Tory party conference long ago, Mr Blair, we are told, is steadfast. He is like the boy on the burning deck. He sticks to his principles. For him there is, to quote another familiar Tory slogan, no turning back. So whatever you say about Tony Blair, you can't dispute his courage.
Just a moment. Is this the same Mr Blair who told his newly elected MPs way back in 1997 that he was "talking to officials" to ensure that they removed from the NHS the "market" the dreaded Tories had introduced?
And the same Tony Blair who is now, without bothering even to refer to the matter in Labour's manifesto, hell-bent on introducing the market into the NHS via foundation hospitals?
Is this the same young minister who applauded the proud conference boast of his predecessor, Neil Kinnock, that he was the first member of the working-class Kinnock family to be able to go to university because Labour had introduced free higher education for all?
And the same prime minister who, with the enthusiastic support of his education secretary, former Kinnock aide Charles Clarke, is anxious, again without a word of warning in the Labour manifesto, to make higher education even more expensive for students than it is now?
Is this not the same Tony Blair who, from Labour's frontbench, fought the Tories clause by clause on their anti-trade union legislation, and now clings to almost every clause in those same laws?
Is this not the same Tony Blair who promised Labour's conference in 1996 a "publicly owned, publicly accountable railway", and has since presided over a railway that costs us all much more but is neither publicly owned nor publicly accountable?
Is this the same Tony Blair who from the frontbench promised the return to public ownership of the electricity industry when it was privatised by the Tories - and now presides over a privatised mess that lands London with its first major power failure for decades?
Above all, is this not the same Tony Blair who dragged parliament and the country into a monstrous war on the basis of allegations about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that have since turned out to be a delusion - and the same Tony Blair who when confronted with his delusion (and his lies) over Iraq continues to express his "passionate" belief that he was right all along?
What does all this tell us about the courage of the prime minister? The "reforms" to which he says he is steadfastly pledged are not reforms at all. They are retreats and concessions. He is exceptionally courageous when faced with his own supporters, organised trade unionists, fractious health service patients, troublesome pensioners, rowdy schoolchildren, prisoners or asylum seekers. But as soon as he comes up against private health insurers, university chieftains, generals, intelligence spooks, industrialists, Rupert Murdoch, Bernie Ecclestone, the Hinduja brothers or the US president and his militaristic administration, Blair the Steadfast is miraculously transformed into Blair the Meek, as pliable as any Labour leader in history, including even Ramsay MacDonald.
He is, in short, for turning. In this respect he is indeed just like Margaret Thatcher: courageous and unbending when facing up to the weak, the workers and the poor; grovelling and sycophantic to the rich, the strong and the powerful.
.