When His Tonyness walked through the door of number 10 in 1997..

[R1Geezer]

Who thought it would take 13 years to kill off the Noo Labour experiment? Who Hoped it would end sooner? Who hoped it would last forever? Come on come clean for the Geezer!

[naomi24]

I was euphoric when Tony Blair walked through the door of number 10 - but I soon discovered that my euphoria was misplaced - as was my lifelong allegiance. I will never vote Labour again.

[BertiWooster]

Lets hope all of the admirers of this administration , will look with affection , when you are selling the Big Issue on some street corner .

[naomi24]

Berti, What makes you think those who didn't voter Labour are admirers of this administration?

[naomi24]

*vote*

[Quinlad]

At least when the Tories get in they're repeal the Human Rights Act and get us out of the Lisbon Treaty!

What's that? Oh.

[Kromovaracun]

When Blair walked into No. 10, I was 7 so I didn't really think anything.

New Labour have had a very mixed 'balance sheet'. But as someone pointed out to me a while ago, all of NL's major achievements came in their first term. From about 2001-2010 there really isn't much good to say about them, which is significant.

Here's my appraisal of New Labour

Good:

- Working Family/ Child tax credits

- Bank of England independence

- Repeal of Section 28 (I have no idea what Geezer is talking about with 'gay propaganda' but that's certainly not how the people who were victimized by it feel)

- Civil Partnerships (Bearing in mind I'm a bit biased, I still don't why this isn't given wider praise than it is - people who have been together for decades are -finally- able to have the same legal benefits as heterosexual couples. Any government that brings that to peoples' lives should be applauded)

Ctd

[Kromovaracun]

Ctd

- Northern Ireland (though my understanding is that the Blair govt largely picked up from breakthroughs in the 80s/90s, but even so they still deserve credit for doing so)

- Human Rights Act (massively misrepresented by the tabloids. Doesn't exactly chime with lynch-mob mentality but I think that's a good thing)

- Slashing of NHS waiting times

- Response to the credit crunch

Bad:

- Prevalence of 'Spin' and media management (NL didn't introduce spin, but its obsession with media-management under Blair seems to have been far, far more intensive than their predecessors)

- Iraq/Afghanistan (disastrous, costly, badly-thought out etc)

- Foxhunting ban (widely praised but it's just as much a stupid, knee-jerk measure as the Dangerous Dogs Act)

- Vast borrowing

- Peerages scandal

- Draconian and completely overblown anti-terror laws (again, deriving from NL's nasty knee-jerk streak)

[Kromovaracun]

"Hitler said his Third Reich would last for a thousand years, but it only lasted for 12years.

So give or take a year or so, it seems Dictatorships don't have a very good track record"

Huh?

I'd really like to hear how Britain has been living under a dictatorship for the past 13 years. British governments are very, very powerful - New Labour aren't any exception to that.