I have just heard Peter Hain praise Tony Blair’s 10 year leadership on one hand, then describe how Labour must now reconnect with voters and fight the Conservative resurgence on the other hand.
That statement alone surely demonstrates how Labour has been dragged down under Blair’s rule. Didn’t last week’s council election results give a clear message after Conservatives won than 800 seats?
As the graph shows, Blair is not leaving on a high. Can you remember the Ecclestone affair of 1997, a foretaste of the spin and party funding crises that later engulfed his premiership, when he was accused of granting favours to Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone – exempting the sport from a tobacco ad ban – in exchange for a £1m Labour donation?
Is Hain the man to reconnect the British public for Labour?
Exciting times there. On this side of the Pond we understand that Mr. Blair promised to go and that people in his own party and in the opposition have been clamoring for him to hurry up and go already. The expression comes to mind, however, “Be careful what you wish for.”
And what does this portend for the “Special Relationship” between Britain and the States: Here the flat assumption is that the relationship will cool immediately. Is that likely?
Marvellous, isn’t it? They’ve all been baying for his blood and plotting behind his back for months and now it’s “What a great guy” time.
Intersting graph, I wonder if anyone could apply technical analysis to this to guess the result of the next election.
I’m not sure about Peter Hain but I have a sneaky respect for David Miliband.
That graph tells the history of New Labour.
It’s interesting that Blair had to go to his own constituency to be sure of getting any cheers when he announced his resignation.
I agree with the point about council elections, but still fear that our embarrassingly modest turnouts in general elections – a recent phenomenon – reflect badly on both parties. (Sorry, sorry: all three parties, of course.)
It might have been different had Blair actually accomplished anything very much. As it is, he’s presided over clumsy constitutional vandalism and precious little else.
Minor point: 900 seats.
Matt
It’s going to be an interesting to watch what is going to happen now that Blair has retired/resigned.
Hain? No, I’m afraid he’s been Tangoed
Elle, you need to be careful when drawing conclusions on Conservative successes in the local elections when the electoral turnout was so low!
What I find amazing is the dip in Blair’s popularity when he won the last general election, it should never have happened.
Snafu, I would say voters made their feelings very clear in the council elections. Regarding the turnout, it was more than 70% in one of the wards in the York constituency where Julian Sturdy was campaigning, but obviously much less in other parts.
“What I find amazing is the dip in Blair’s popularity when he won the last general election”
I think it was well-acknowledged at the time that, mainly-but-not-entirely because of Iraq, many millions of people really did have to hold their noses while they ticked the Labour box. I couldn’t do it myself – the Blairite stench was too nasty – but I did understand the people for whom fears about the NHS and Oliver Letwin were the overriding factor.