Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution

[Wiseman_Vaughn]

Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere.

I watched the first 2 episodes last night on catchup. Really good insights into them both.
What a Politician Blair was!! I knew Mandelson was a key player but I didn't realise how much.

 

[Pak_Doo_Ik]

Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere.

I watched the first 2 episodes last night on catchup. Really good insights into them both.
What a Politician Blair was!! I knew Mandelson was a key player but I didn't realise how much.

I've seen the first one and found it fascinating. I thought they paid John Smith a bit of a disservice to be fair as I believe we could still have a Labour government now if he hadn't sadly passed away.

 

[Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret]

What I find startling is how in 20 years we've yet to find anyone with even a fraction of his charisma and air of competence.

 

[BoroMart]

Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere.

I watched the first 2 episodes last night on catchup. Really good insights into them both.
What a Politician Blair was!! I knew Mandelson was a key player but I didn't realise how much.

blairite economic and social policies would be far more popular than anything we've seen in the last decade

 

[Wiseman_Vaughn]

blairite economic and social policies would be far more popular than anything we've seen in the last decade

Absolutely!!
I forgot to add that Gordon Brown fas a fantastic Chancellor.
I'd forgotten what a struggle it was for Labour to win power....it really did take a revolution to get there.

 

[Wiseman_Vaughn]

I've seen the first one and found it fascinating. I thought they paid John Smith a bit of a disservice to be fair as I believe we could still have a Labour government now if he hadn't sadly passed away.

Yes, I found that strange. Also, how dismissive TB was of the other candidates when he became Labour leader.

Blair really comes across well to this day.

 

[Otto42]

All still very relevant today; Blair, Mandelson and Campbell got it, not sure Brown really did. You win elections by getting people who voted for the other lot last time to vote for you this time, it's about trust and unfortunately there aren't enough voters who trust socialists to run the country.

 

[Wiseman_Vaughn]

All still very relevant today; Blair, Mandelson and Campbell got it, not sure Brown really did. You win elections by getting people who voted for the other lot last time to vote for you this time, it's about trust and unfortunately there aren't enough voters who trust socialists to run the country.

I sensed some bitterness from Brown about Blair stealing his show.

 

[Wiseman_Vaughn]

Theoretically - If TB was to replace SKS I would put good money on Labour winning a landslide at the next election.

 

[Otto42]

I sensed some bitterness from Brown about Blair stealing his show.

Yes, same here. Am not sure Labour would have won the kind of victory they did in 1997 with Brown or Smith in charge though, but we'll never know.

 

[Ziggy]

Blair was blessed with one of the great political gifts:
Once can you fake sincerity, you have got it made

 

[Lefty]

Theoretically - If TB was to replace SKS I would put good money on Labour winning a landslide at the next election.

Tony Blair is absolutely toxic now.

This is entirely down to Iraq.

Iraq was a failure of best practice in reasoning and critical thinking and the decision making process.

You don't make your decision before you have gathered the evidence, you let the evidence lead you to a decision. You don't narrow your group down in number and fill it with people who agree with you, as Blair did with his sofa government, you take in opinion from a wide range of sources with diverse viewpoints and that gives you your best chance of making the right decision. It is a longer process, but at least it is likely to lead to the right decision in the end.

 

[Wiseman_Vaughn]

Blair was blessed with one of the great political gifts:
Once can you fake sincerity, you have got it made

That was part of it but I think more importantly, he had ideas that he wasn't afraid to express.
He believed in himself and thought nothing was impossible - The bit about the Good Friday Agreement was fantastic.

 

[BoroMart]

Blair was blessed with one of the great political gifts:
Once can you fake sincerity, you have got it made

bit harsh, I think he sincerely wanted change

 

[Ironops]

Blair was undoubtedly the best PM and most effective politician of my lifetime

 

[Ziggy]

Steady lads. It’s a political tool that he took advantage of to engineer some good changes. For a time, it was his time. Then it stopped working….and so it goes

 

[Nero]

New Labour between 97 and 2005 were far better than the successive Tory governments since 2011. Sadly, Blair shot himself in the foot over Iraq and Brown had to deal with a financial crisis 30 years in the making. I think a Brown government would have been a great thing and the country a much different place today.

 

[bear66]

1992 was the highest vote ever for the Tory Party. It was a huge turnaround 5 years later helped by the Tories losing 4.5 million votes with a 2 million gain by Labour.

 

[Otto42]

New Labour between 97 and 2005 were far better than the successive Tory governments since 2011. Sadly, Blair shot himself in the foot over Iraq and Brown had to deal with a financial crisis 30 years in the making. I think a Brown government would have been a great thing and the country a much different place today.

Brown was always a little indecisive, see his reluctance to run for the leadership in 92 & 94 and the election that never was, probably unfortunate to be up against two charismatic figures in Cameron and Clegg in 2010, but even then his performance was on a par with Corbyn in 2017 and I imagine many former Liberal MPs now regret their coalition partners?!

 

[zzzzz]

Theoretically - If TB was to replace SKS I would put good money on Labour winning a landslide at the next election.

Not a chance. One word. Iraq.