I Hated New Labour....now I Miss Them!

[ToraToraTora]

In 1997 I was fearful of New Labour, I needn't have worried they were basically Tory light. Blair was a huge fan of TGL and Brown was a mostly competant chancellor, he had a few moments but basically be knew what he was doing. Leaving aside the whole war thing, it wasn't too bad. How I miss them now compared with this REAL Labour shower! Kill off pensioners, farmers, retail etc

[newmodarmy]

I liked Alistair Darling, David Blunkett and quite a few others.

They looked a pretty good team compared to the current team.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Blair_ministry

[Untitled]

starmer is far closer to the "tory light" stereotype than blair ever was. blair had a number of policies that would have been unthinkable from the tories of the time. gay rights, minimum wage, etc. They were more radical than starmer's labour. virtually all of starmer's policies are things that were proposed by the tories or informed by similar ideas. he is not much of a lefty at all really. 

the iraq war is also the worst thing that any british government has done in my lifetime... a truly evil and destructive war that caused horrifying amounts of damage and gave terrorism acrosd the world a huge boost. it should be mentioned whenever blair's name comes up. he does not deserve to live it down and he does not deserve a peaceful retirement. he did something truly evil and reprehensible in facilitating that war and has never shown any contrition over it. whatever his other achievements might be the man is a monster. 

[ToraToraTora]

11:01 Starmer may personally be towards the Tory Light end of Labour but he heads a government that is pure old Labour. The last budget as caused a 1000 times more grief than the oft cited Truss non implemented budget.

[Untitled]

i think you're being a bit dramatic

[ToraToraTora]

Dramatic? Really?

Mass job losses imminent

Morgage rates going skyward due to imminent inflation

Farmers on the streets

Pensioners screwed

Retail on it's knees £7bn cost increase imminent

....oh but we can still give foriegners £11,6bn for "climate change" initiatives

...we can commit Trillions to the pointless "net zero" folly

perhaps some drama is warranted!

[Untitled]

all valid criticisms but i disagree with how you are characterising the government's ideology

[ToraToraTora]

11:14 "all valid criticisms but i disagree with how you are characterising the government's ideology" - It's not just ideology though is it? It shows a child like approach that only looks at the front cover. Pointing at things and taxing them with zero analyses of the effects or indeed whether more revenue will actually result. The most disasterous is the ENI. They clearly thought that the private sector employers would simply wear it and pay up. In reality it is likely to reduce jobs and increase the benefits bill. Net revenue increase will quite possibly be negetive. Wait till after Xmas when the likes of Amazon will look at their extra bill for the 75000 they employ.....

[Untitled]

that's all fine but the premise of the thread was not "labour is bad" (agree) but "labour is Old Labour" which I do disagree with. they don't have anything transformative, it is all just reactionary. 

[ToraToraTora]

I think they are very much like old Labour taxing things for ideology without any thought for whether increased revenue will result.