Blair hits out at "tragedy" of Corbyn

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Blair hits out at "tragedy" of Corbyn

Postby GoonerAlexandre » Wed Dec 09, 2015 9:52 am

Former prime minister Tony Blair has said that everybody who wants a Labour government recognises “the tragedy of the Labour party’s current position”.

In his first comments on the party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, Blair said the party was “in danger of not asking the right questions, never mind failing to get the right answers”.

In an article called In defence of Blairism for the Spectator magazine, he criticised the new Labour leadership, saying: “All of it is about applying values with an open mind; not boasting of our values as a way of avoiding the hard thinking the changing world insists upon”.”

Blair said “significant elements of the party [during Labour’s time in power] saw the process of governing with all its compromises, pragmatism and embrace of changing times as implicit betrayal of our principles”.


“Many – especially in today’s Labour party – felt we lost our way in government. I feel we found it. But I accept in the process we failed to convince enough people that the true progressives are always the modernisers, not because they discard principle but because they have the courage to adhere to it when confronted with reality.”

Blair argued that although Labour made mistakes in power, his was a “radical reforming” government. “We tried to put the moral purpose of the Labour party into practice, the only sort of morality worth very much,” he said.

“We didn’t spot the financial crisis – along with the rest of the world. It was more an absence of understanding than an absence of a will to regulate which was the issue.”

On foreign policy, he said: “Post 9/11 I became convinced that Islamist extremism was the security issue of our time. People can agree or disagree with the decisions which I took and the emphasis I put on the partnership with the USA, but I took them not in defiance of progressive politics but in furtherance of them.”

Echoing a speech made last week by the shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, to parliament before the vote on extending anti-Isis airstrikes to Syria, Blair said: “I believed then and believe now that this extremism is a modern form of fascism, albeit one based on religious doctrine and that we’re engaged in a global war against it.”


Speaking during the Labour leadership election to the centre-left Progress thinktank, Blair issued an appeal for Labour not to repeat the mistakes of the 1980s by adopting a traditional leftist platform, saying the party could suffer four successive election defeats if it does so.

He urged Labour members not to wrap themselves in a Jeremy Corbyn comfort blanket, saying that people whose heart was with the leftwing candidate should “get a transplant”.

Corbyn dismissed Blair’s comments at the time, saying: “I would have thought he could manage something more serious than those very silly remarks. Surely we should be talking about the situation facing Britain today, the situation facing many of the poorest people in this country today, and maybe think if our policies are relevant.”
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Re: Blair hits out at "tragedy" of Corbyn

Postby Santi » Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:08 am

blair trying to stay relevant #snore
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Re: Blair hits out at "tragedy" of Corbyn

Postby Est83 » Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:27 am

Red Tory, no time for anything that Neo-Libralist says.

The Devil's cum bucket herself said: "new Labour were my greatest ever achievement". And that's thanks to this utter scum bag!
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Re: Blair hits out at "tragedy" of Corbyn

Postby Va-Va-Voom » Wed Dec 09, 2015 12:25 pm

Est83 wrote:Red Tory, no time for anything that Neo-Libralist says.

The Devil's cum bucket herself said: "new Labour were my greatest ever achievement". And that's thanks to this utter scum bag!


I can't breathe. :rofll:
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Re: Blair hits out at "tragedy" of Corbyn

Postby Banquo » Wed Dec 09, 2015 12:43 pm

I guess becoming little tories was a compromise too far. Why this bloke isn't in prison yet for his war crimes is the mystery.
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Re: Blair hits out at "tragedy" of Corbyn

Postby UFGN » Wed Dec 09, 2015 1:29 pm

Corbyns main achievement as leader will be dragging the centre ground of the Labour Party back to the true centre of socialist politics.

It had significantly drifted to the right over nearly 20 years, and it needs someone hard left like Corbyn to redress the ballance.

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Corinthians 15:57; But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus

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Re: Blair hits out at "tragedy" of Corbyn

Postby Est83 » Wed Dec 09, 2015 3:11 pm

Personally I don't feel he'll be able to achieve that. Even Old Labour were shackled in that they were only able to achieve what the capitalist class allowed them to achieve. Their movement was built on the back of industrial defeat, not victories, and so they've always been reformist rather than revolutionary, and therefore have always had to work within the confines of capitalism.

If even Old Labour didn't see the flaws in their reformist model (i.e. they genuinely felt they could bring about a socialist system from within parliament.... laughable), then fair enough. But the worst thing about Labour (same with the French Labour party amongst others) is that their actions have somehow changed the definition of "Socialism"..... even a Neo-Liberal system, that just so happens to have a half decent benefit system, will be considered as "socialist" somewhere by some idiot. Labour's idea of "Socialism" - at best - has only ever been a socially democratic version of capitalism.

... hence, every f***ing doughnut of a Labour MP referring to themselves a "socialists". Corbyn's the closest thing, the majority of the rest can only ever hope to be dragged to the centre, as being Blairites and Neo-liberalists, they're flat out right wingers.

Labour will fall apart, or Corbyn will affiliate with a true left party. Win/win. I have no hope for Labour.
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Re: Blair hits out at "tragedy" of Corbyn

Postby Royal Gooner » Wed Dec 09, 2015 6:53 pm

But they do show they're sincere, they sing the red flag once a year. ;)

PS. Blair is a t**t and I look forward to labour tearing itself apart.
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