Blair tells Labour: change or face dustbin of history

By Kylie MacLellan, Joanna Taylor

 

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks at the Hallam Conference Centre in London, Britain December 18, 2019. REUTERS/Toby Melville

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Labour’s most successful election winner, on Wednesday urged moderates in the party to grab back control from leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose brand of “quasi-revolutionary socialism” had failed.

 

Outgoing Labour leader Corbyn has called for a period of reflection on Thursday’s election defeat, Labour’s worst result since 1935, though a battle is now underway for control of the party with Corbyn’s hard-left loyalists unwilling to let go.

 

“The takeover of the Labour Party by the far left turned it into a glorified protest movement with cult trimmings, utterly incapable of being a credible government,” said Blair, who won three elections and was prime minister from 1997 to 2007.

 

“The result has brought shame on us.”

 

Labour won just 203 seats in the election, down 59, and saw its vote share fall by 7.8 percentage points to 32.2% while Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives won 365 seats, up 47, on 43.6% of the vote.

 

Blair said that few would now bet against a decade of Conservative rule given the state of Labour, and that unless the party changed course it faced the threat of never winning power again.

 

“The choice for Labour is to renew itself as the serious, progressive, non Conservative competitor for power in British politics, or retreat from such an ambition, in which case over time it will be replaced,” Blair said.

 

He chided Corbyn for leading Labour to defeat with a set of ideas that voters had no interest in.

 

“He personified politically an idea, a brand, of quasi-revolutionary socialism, mixing far left economic policy with deep hostility to Western foreign policy,” he said.

 

“(This) never has appealed to traditional Labour voters, never will appeal to them, and represented for them a combination of misguided ideology and terminal ineptitude that they found insulting,” Blair said.

 

“It’s essentially a cry of rage against the system. It’s not a programme for government. To win power we need self discipline, not self indulgence.”

 

Corbyn, beside a promise of another EU referendum in which he said he would be neutral, offered voters the most radical socialist government in British history with higher public spending, sweeping nationalisation and taxes on the wealthy.

 

Supporters of Corbyn say Blair betrayed the working classes by shifting the party to the right and undermined faith in politicians by supporting the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq.

 

Blair said Corbyn’s complicated and equivocal stance on Brexit had displeased both opponents and advocates of Britain’s departure from the European Union.

 

“We pursued a path of almost comic indecision, alienated both sides of the debate leaving our voters without guidance or leadership,” Blair said.

 

“The absence of leadership on what was obviously the biggest question facing the country then reinforced all the other doubts about Jeremy Corbyn.”

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-18

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21 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

“The takeover of the Labour Party by the far left turned it into a glorified protest movement with cult trimmings, utterly incapable of being a credible government,” said Blair,

Very well stated.

 

22 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

“The result has brought shame on us.”

Indeed, and perhaps 10 more years in #10 for Prime Minister Johnson.

 

SIT

 

noticeable that it is not only in UK that "Labour" experience problems and struggle

same same goes on in other European countries

 

seems that after countries climbed up again refurbished/rebuilt after WW2

and after becoming reasonably prosperous in (when?) the 70s or so

 

Labour parties lost out on their turn in reorientation

 

Jeremy, pretend to be centre left like me, then invade Iraq hand in hand with George Bush based on a blatant lie about WMD.

 

Jog on Tony, if I was you I'd be happy I wasn't locked up as a war criminal.

 

    Corbyn and his looney left politics , are a direct result of Bliars abuse of his Labour leadership.

      Labour party , RIP.  

    

There are some figures inside the Labour movement who still insist that "we won the argument".

 

If that's the electoral result you get by winning the argument, what would losing look like?

 

Recognizing there is a problem, they say, is 50% of the process of change, but it seems that Labour hasn't even got that far yet.

Let’s see what the Tories visit upon the nation before we declare Labour destined for the dustbin of History.

2 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Let’s see what the Tories visit upon the nation before we declare Labour destined for the dustbin of History.

No, let's see which way the Labour chose to go, they have two choices, stick with the far left unelectables or move more to the right.

Nobody in Corbyns inner sanctum is apportioning any blame to Jeremy, it's all somebody elses fault. 

10 minutes ago, vogie said:

No, let's see which way the Labour chose to go, they have two choices, stick with the far left unelectables or move more to the right.

Nobody in Corbyns inner sanctum is apportioning any blame to Jeremy, it's all somebody elses fault. 

Labour will change.

 

Meanwhile the UK is stuck with Johnson.

Ah.....its been said before but JC was the best leader the Tories have ever had.

 

Johnson was gifted a victory at the polls because Cornbyn and his friends failed to understand that hard left policies just won't wash with the home owning , holiday abroad, two car working class families any more.

 

 

2 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Labour will change.

 

Meanwhile the UK is stuck with Johnson.

Who was extremely electable and when working class voters are moving their allegience from Labour to Tory, Labour have more problems than the Tories and making disparaging remarks about Boris will not change this. Time to get real and own up to Corbyns uselessness as a Leader, the country hated him. 

Now it looks like we will get a Labour Party following in the footsteps of Corbyn, my guess Rebecca Long Bailey as leader with Richard Burgan as dep leader or Keir Starmer, both unelectable, but the Momentum activists will be happy.

Corbyn should have stood down after his humiliating defeat and not trying to find another Leader with his unworkable ideologies. If they don't they will be doomed. 

I would concentrate what went wrong with Labour at this election and stop name calling Boris, it may make you feel happier but your concerns lay elsewhere.

1 hour ago, elliss said:

 

    Corbyn and his looney left politics , are a direct result of Bliars abuse of his Labour leadership.

      Labour party , RIP.  

    

ehh Labour was built on socialist policies, and JC's were not 'looney left', I mean you can believe the utter bs in the billionaire owned press or you can look at the facts - what he was proposing was practically no different to what you find in other countries in Europe, especially Scandinavian countries.

 

It was because of Brexit that they lost. I think Brexit is idiotic, but the centrists of the party pushed him to talk about another referendum which turned off a lot of voters in the North who wanted Brexit. Blair is an idiot and a war criminal 

For once I agree with Blair on something.

 

 

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Corbyn, beside a promise of another EU referendum in which he said he would be neutral, offered voters the most radical socialist government in British history with higher public spending, sweeping nationalisation and taxes on the wealthy.

If that was all he offered I'd have voted for him. Privatisation has been a disaster for British rail, and those rich people deserve to get higher taxes. Nobody NEEDS over a million quid.

Unfortunately for him, his agenda was far too extreme.

 

Re Blair, he's got a cheek lecturing anyone, seeing as he squandered two major election wins to be Bush's poodle in the Iraq war, a war they should never have joined, based as it was on deceit.

With the money he had from the previous Tory government, and boundless public approval, he could have made Britain a brilliant place for all. Instead he allowed Brown to squander the money and ruined Britain with his ill advised war, IMO.

Since his departure, he's done rather well for himself though.

There was a tv show years ago about the "Trial of Tony Blair", in which he was convicted of his many crimes and jailed. Pity it was fiction.

7 hours ago, PremiumLane said:

Blair is an idiot and a war criminal 

Yes, but he got away clear and free.

pretty silly not to say imbecille to label Blair a war criminal

childish

 

 

 

3 minutes ago, melvinmelvin said:

pretty silly & imbecille to label Blai a war crmial

 

 

Why? He committed the UK to a war based on deceit, and didn't leave when the lies were exposed. Every British soldier that died is down to him. As PM, the responsibility lies with him.

And as usual many comments about the person's, Blair and Corbyn, some even about other posters, when it should be about the OP.

Please go away Blair. You wrecked the Labour Party by turning it into the Tory-lite party. Didn't Thatcher call you her greatest success???

 

 

1 minute ago, Pedrogaz said:

Please go away Blair. You wrecked the Labour Party by turning it into the Tory-lite party. Didn't Thatcher call you her greatest success???

Yes, Blair wrecked the Labour Party by winning three General Elections in a row. That in itself should be denounced as the great Labour Party is all about losing and losing big.

39 minutes ago, melvinmelvin said:

pretty silly not to say imbecille to label Blair a war criminal

childish

 

 

 

Not when you look at the facts.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/05/tony-blair-should-be-prosecuted-over-iraq-war-high-court-hears

 

4 minutes ago, SheungWan said:

Yes, Blair wrecked the Labour Party by winning three General Elections in a row. That in itself should be denounced as the great Labour Party is all about losing and losing big.

It's not that they won that was the problem, the problem was that they wasted all the money and involved the country in a war they should not have been in. In short, they did not leave the country better than they found it.

The thick stupid working class people in the North and Midlands voted Tory and all the Metropolitan Labour Elite can do is go around in circles blaming everyone but themselves.

 

Always simple with the newspaper of today to know better how to decide a day / week / month / year /decade ago.

I remember another PM, Chamberlain, who really thought he succeeded to get "peace in our times".

Imagine, the US /UK coalition forces found weapons of mass destruction just-in-time… how all other western leaders would have looked then...

When Iranian rockets, with nuclear bombs, can reach Europe ( 10 years after 2015, as then Iran is completely free to do what they please) , as now North Korean weapons can reach a big part of Eastern Asia, and maybe Hawaii of further… thanks to the inert politicians of a 5-15 years ago, like Mr President Speech ( Obama) ? 

Years ago I asked a Thai friend of mine: "imagine, YOU are PM of Thailand, and via your intelligence you hear, MAYBE some Muslim terrorists in Yala got enough nuclear material to make a dirty bomb, let it explode at Siam Square and make Krung Thep unlivable for a century or so. What you will do? ". As answer I got: "Sorry, I do not know." As PM of Thailand... YOU HAVE TO KNOW.....  NOW!

 

 

Here Labour MP for Wakefield Mary Creagh rightly blames Corbyn for the loss of her seat, but what she fails to mention is that her constituents voted leave and she did everything her power to remain, always somebody elses fault.

 

 

 

They got in the dustbin the moment Blair took over ,now its just more <deleted> in there .

GBP looks to be declining again

1 hour ago, Pedrogaz said:

Please go away Blair. You wrecked the Labour Party by turning it into the Tory-lite party. Didn't Thatcher call you her greatest success???

 

 

No fan of Blair's, but if he wrecked the Labour party by winning three elections what would you say Corbyn's debacle has done to it? He and his ilk just cannot accept that the British people will never allow their country to be turned into Venezuela.

14 minutes ago, earlinclaifornia said:

GBP looks to be declining again

That'll jump after the Queen has weighed in.

10 minutes ago, roquefort said:

No fan of Blair's, but if he wrecked the Labour party by winning three elections what would you say Corbyn's debacle has done to it? He and his ilk just cannot accept that the British people will never allow their country to be turned into Venezuela.

I was watching a post election review show the other day where Corbyn was claiming he'd won the arguments in the build up, to which the commentator responded that he'd hate to see what happened to Labour if they lost them ????.