A View From Middle England - Conservative with a slight libertarian touch - For Christian charity and traditional belief - Free Enterprise NOT Covert Corporatism

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Exit! Stage Left.. or is it Right?

Blair tells aides he quits May 31!

Is it a comedy of errors, a total farce, or a real political drama? Whatever is happening it is not a very edifying time for us all. The Prime Minister is stuck in his own muddle, because he did the one thing a prime minister should never do. Say in advance when he is going. Blair thought he was being clever, but without his spin doctor by his side, he is like a loose cannon.

Now we have the Chancellor and PM verbally abusing each other, and the Blairites and Brownites drawing up their ranks for the final putsch. In all this, Blair has acted as the bate to Brown's hook. If John Smith had not died when he did, Gordon Brown would probably be Prime Minister (Smith having resigned by now). John Smith would have made Brown look good as a successor. They were fellow Scots. The English did not have much antipathy towards John Smith, seeing him more as a friendly bank manager. Tony Blair has managed to make Gordon Brown an angry, frustrated, and sometimes morose man. This is because Blair (I have no doubt) bamboozled Brown at that Granita restaurant.

Blair's legacy will be that of a man who brought outstanding electoral success to his party but who is one wriggled in insecurity. He only appears at ease in the comfort of praise, adulation, and "that's great, Tony"! Hence more Richard & Judy, less Jeremy Paxman. When confronted, he resorts to sarcasm, or flashes of anger. Debate is only permitted if he can control it!

Personally, I can't wait to see Blair go. He has no real policies, no depth, no vision, other than this nebulous concept called "New Labour". His agent was blathering on yesterday about not wanting to return to "socialism". Good heavens! If he'd said that 20 years ago in County Durham, he'd have been hauled over several hot coals (from the local mines, of course!). Blair has succeeded in turning Labour Party members, like his agent, into a mixed bag of corporate enterprise automatons. That is why we need to get rid of them electorally, for the good of our country.

I have no great desire to see Brown as PM. The one who I think could well give us new direction is Alan Johnson. I'm saying this as someone never likely to vote Labour, even at the point of a gun! However, we need a person of ability. Johnson has several plus points. He is articulate, he can think on his feet, he is not tainted by Blair, and he enjoys fine dining. That makes him a very sociable chap, being at ease with his working class roots as well as feeling OK with different classes. Unlike Prescott, who has a great beam on his shoulder! So I plump for Alan Johnson.

If anyone wants a defining example of Blairism, then watch Rory Bremner's sketches as Tony Blair in Downing Street. A political commentator said recently that these were the closest one could get to the real thing!

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