Former PM Tony Blair has made a significant intervention in British politics this week, criticising Labour.
He advocates for Britain slashing taxes and welfare spending (particularly surging incapacity benefits and pensions).
He warns against creeping isolationism. Britain is giving itself an excuse to isolate herself from all the major players. The left doesn’t like America. The right doesn’t like Europe. Neither like China and nobody loves cosying up to the Gulf because they are not democracies. These are not luxuries that Britain can afford, we need allies and trading partners.
He says shuffling Prime Ministers won’t fix anything (we will soon have our seventh in 10 years) and instead urges Labour to figure out a policy direction first, then politicians after. The center is breaking up not because people don’t want it, but because good centrists aren’t around, in other words a supply problem, not a demand one. Britain has energy radical idiots on the right and the left, an unradical sensible people – what we need is for the sensible people to be radical.
He strongly criticises the Net zero agenda. Asserts that it has driven energy costs up for both households and industry. He is particularly critical of how Britain is shutting down North Sea oil whilst importing it from other countries.
Labour candidates vying to be the next PM have blamed the countries woes on “the last ‘40 years’ of ‘neo-liberalism’” which he calls a delusion.
Very much well worth the read!
———
I agree with a great deal with what Blair writes. Though I disagree with him on how much brexit has actually isolated Britain from the EU, it was always the case that Britain would stay close to the EU, even with a Eurosceptic conservative government. I also think defence should be an even larger priority than it is, Europe must be ready to repel a Russian invasion of the baltics without the help of the US. We cannot afford to take a risk. I also think he over eggs the AI thing a bit and surprisingly doesn’t mention housing at all – just vaguely gestures to planning reform.
Irenaean on
The amount of slopulist moralising in the other thread about this article by succs who didn’t read beyond the Guardian headline is mind-boggling. This sub has been completely taken over by low effort generic left wing people doing /r/politics-level commentary based entirely off vibes. Evidence based sub btw.
atierney14 on
The mods need to do better yesterday by letting the Guardian post in which discussed but didn’t even link to the essay. The essay is interesting, and I wish Blair didn’t decide to support Bush’s illegal war so much because it has really disqualified him in a lot of people’s minds.
I think his vision of labour would be far more successful than whatever the fuck Steimer and the left is fighting about.
WittySea2912 on
Seeing Tony Blair as the writer
Jigsawsupport on
djm07231 on
Great to see him speaking out.
Labour following the footsteps of the Democratic party in being co-opted by progressive socialists would be quite disastrous.
Bad for the economy and would encourage the rise of actors like Reform.
KaChoo49 on
r/neoliberal downvoting Tony Blair
Sub is well and truly gone 😔
senescenzia on
>but in reality what is being said to us is not: ‘the partnership is dead’ but rather ‘be bigger and better partners’
That’s just delusional.
Besides, that is said by a very specific part of the US that is unlikely to be in power as early as November.
SuperblackHunter on
I mean at least he has a vision he believes in unlike this government that seems to spout words and not really deliver on anything pissing everyone off
PostingEnthusiast on
>But Britain’s problem isn’t with a ‘Westminster’ bubble. It is with a ‘politics’ bubble. The politics of the future may be better understood by those presently outside politics.
Can someone who has ascended to a higher level of centrism educate me on what da fuck this even means?
Honestly he could have stopped writing at that point and I would have gotten the message. The fact that he literally calls it radical centrism really shows how out of touch this dude is. What’s worst is I don’t even really see any issues with any of his numbered points!
Golda_M on
Labour’s problem is
A – they won 2/3 of seats with 1/3 of the vote. Even within that 1/3, many votes were “Strategic.” So, they are in a “popularity problem” from day one.
B – Labour aren’t really one party. The “Corbyn wing” is actually beilgerent to the centrist wing.
They aren’t any closer to each other than they are to Tories, greens, reform, libdems, etc.
C – Labour has a coalitional mentality. The policies are whatever is needed to keep the (internal) coalition going. It’s an “all stakeholders” thing.
12 Comments
Posting Blairslop on my beloved sub now?
Former PM Tony Blair has made a significant intervention in British politics this week, criticising Labour.
He advocates for Britain slashing taxes and welfare spending (particularly surging incapacity benefits and pensions).
He warns against creeping isolationism. Britain is giving itself an excuse to isolate herself from all the major players. The left doesn’t like America. The right doesn’t like Europe. Neither like China and nobody loves cosying up to the Gulf because they are not democracies. These are not luxuries that Britain can afford, we need allies and trading partners.
He says shuffling Prime Ministers won’t fix anything (we will soon have our seventh in 10 years) and instead urges Labour to figure out a policy direction first, then politicians after. The center is breaking up not because people don’t want it, but because good centrists aren’t around, in other words a supply problem, not a demand one. Britain has energy radical idiots on the right and the left, an unradical sensible people – what we need is for the sensible people to be radical.
He strongly criticises the Net zero agenda. Asserts that it has driven energy costs up for both households and industry. He is particularly critical of how Britain is shutting down North Sea oil whilst importing it from other countries.
Labour candidates vying to be the next PM have blamed the countries woes on “the last ‘40 years’ of ‘neo-liberalism’” which he calls a delusion.
Very much well worth the read!
———
I agree with a great deal with what Blair writes. Though I disagree with him on how much brexit has actually isolated Britain from the EU, it was always the case that Britain would stay close to the EU, even with a Eurosceptic conservative government. I also think defence should be an even larger priority than it is, Europe must be ready to repel a Russian invasion of the baltics without the help of the US. We cannot afford to take a risk. I also think he over eggs the AI thing a bit and surprisingly doesn’t mention housing at all – just vaguely gestures to planning reform.
The amount of slopulist moralising in the other thread about this article by succs who didn’t read beyond the Guardian headline is mind-boggling. This sub has been completely taken over by low effort generic left wing people doing /r/politics-level commentary based entirely off vibes. Evidence based sub btw.
The mods need to do better yesterday by letting the Guardian post in which discussed but didn’t even link to the essay. The essay is interesting, and I wish Blair didn’t decide to support Bush’s illegal war so much because it has really disqualified him in a lot of people’s minds.
I think his vision of labour would be far more successful than whatever the fuck Steimer and the left is fighting about.
Seeing Tony Blair as the writer
Great to see him speaking out.
Labour following the footsteps of the Democratic party in being co-opted by progressive socialists would be quite disastrous.
Bad for the economy and would encourage the rise of actors like Reform.
r/neoliberal downvoting Tony Blair
Sub is well and truly gone 😔
>but in reality what is being said to us is not: ‘the partnership is dead’ but rather ‘be bigger and better partners’
That’s just delusional.
Besides, that is said by a very specific part of the US that is unlikely to be in power as early as November.
I mean at least he has a vision he believes in unlike this government that seems to spout words and not really deliver on anything pissing everyone off
>But Britain’s problem isn’t with a ‘Westminster’ bubble. It is with a ‘politics’ bubble. The politics of the future may be better understood by those presently outside politics.
Can someone who has ascended to a higher level of centrism educate me on what da fuck this even means?
Honestly he could have stopped writing at that point and I would have gotten the message. The fact that he literally calls it radical centrism really shows how out of touch this dude is. What’s worst is I don’t even really see any issues with any of his numbered points!
Labour’s problem is
A – they won 2/3 of seats with 1/3 of the vote. Even within that 1/3, many votes were “Strategic.” So, they are in a “popularity problem” from day one.
B – Labour aren’t really one party. The “Corbyn wing” is actually beilgerent to the centrist wing.
They aren’t any closer to each other than they are to Tories, greens, reform, libdems, etc.
C – Labour has a coalitional mentality. The policies are whatever is needed to keep the (internal) coalition going. It’s an “all stakeholders” thing.