Tony Blair tells Labour: return to the centre ground to win again

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Tony Blair has insisted that Labour can recover from its disastrous general election defeat only if it reoccupies the centre ground of British politics, proudly championing a pro-business agenda and bold new ideas to reform public services.

As the party attempts to come to terms with a devastating result that saw the Conservatives returned to office for five more years with an unexpected Commons majority, the former prime minister and three-times election winner said Labour has to be “for ambition and aspiration as well as compassion and care”.

While generous about Ed Miliband – praising him for showing “courage under savage attack” and campaigning brilliantly – Blair made clear in an article in the Observer that he believes Miliband’s left-of-centre agenda alienated the business community and failed to appeal to those wanting to get on in life. In an unashamed call for the party to return to the approach of New Labour which Miliband abandoned, Blair wrote: “The route to the summit lies through the centre ground.

“The Labour party has to be for ambition as well as compassion and care. Hard-working families don’t just want us celebrating their hard work; they want to know that by hard work and effort they can rise up, achieve. They want to be better off and they need to know we don’t just tolerate that, we support it.”

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/09/tony-blair-labour-return-centre-ground-general-election-defeat

[swilton]

1. Tony Benn on Tony Blair

Labour Suffered Greatly Through Tony Blair

http://www.bigissue.com/features/interviews/3202/tony-benn-interview-labour-suffered-greatly-through-tony-blair

[roguevalley]

15. Tony Blair had to crawl to Rupert Murdoch to get his

blessing to run in the first place. Nearly everyone does its said so he won't beat you to death with his rags.

[Hoppy]

2. That's good advice. Maybe Bernie can win if he moves center.

But then we would be electing just another piece of shit.

[PatrynXX]

11. course their left and our left are oppsoites

ouch.. which is why Mitt was left redface being around Conservatives in London not having a clue.

course in the states we must dumb the R and D symbols for Liberal and Conservative Parties. and I just don't see it happening but it's still my hope. that way we can dump the conservative in their party (cya Hillary) and get real Liberals back. some of Bernie some of Gore and alot of Mondale

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. The line "failed to appeal to those wanting to get on in life."....

Sounds an awful lot like the Conservative nonsense here where all you have to do is stop being a victim and stop looking to the government for help. (As they apply for every loophole, subsidy, rebate, tax free loan and bailout they can get.)

[Jack Rabbit]

3. What a third way fool

Labour doesn't need to be more centrist or even more leftist, it just needs to be less feckless.

The party rolled over an played dead for five years. The Tories destroyed the Liberal Democrats, their former coalition partners, and the SNP took Labour's lunch money in Scotland. Why not? Labour didn't seem to want it and the working class, in Scotland and elsewhere, wants a party that going to fight against austerity measures and crooked banks.

How does Mr. Blair propose to do that? Probably the same way he stood against neoconservative imperialism.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. Maybe they should go back to representing labor.

[iamthebandfanman]

20. Hitler considered himself

a 'third way' too
just sayin'

[lark]

4. Fuck that warmonger

He and GW are indeed kindred souls, they'll do anything to get theirs wars and increased black budgets. He's part of the reason the Labour party did so poorly. Going to the center is the exact opposite of what they need to do.

[Joe Bacon]

28. F You, PHONY TONY

The contempt in which I hold that liar knows no bounds!

[Sgt Preston]

30. Blair and GW are kindred souls?

I thought it was Blair and Bill. That's who sent people to advise Blair on his campaigns.

[lark]

33. No, meant Blair and Bush.

They were the ones that planned the Iraq war, Tony supporting his good pal Georgie all the way. They said they were kindred souls, even used the same toothpaste. Don't you remember that photo op at the Bush ranch.

[Sgt Preston]

34. By GW, I meant George W. Bush.

And Bill Clinton was tight with Blair, too. Very tight. They are political twins. So a plague on all their houses.

[Gregorian]

5. Just abandon your principals, and win!

[Sgt Preston]

29. What about the vice-principals, and the superintendent?

They should not be abandoned either. Not to mention the teachers themselves.

[Solly Mack]

6. Tony Blair said: "Blah, blah, blah. Look at me! Look at me!"

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. Just do what Rupert Murdoch tells you and you will be fine

[jalan48]

8. Bush's poodle barks, woof! woof!

[Sgt Preston]

31. Grrr, also too.

[RoccoR5955]

9. Oh no. That statement gives me a Deja Poo moment.

Meaning that I have heard that BS before.
That never works!
Blair is a tool!

[JonLP24]

10. & lose Scotland

One of my all-time favorite DU posts
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025764711

[steve folk]

12. old

news

[lsewpershad]

13. Guess he is

still the prime minister, not.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. Tony is lucky he's not in jail.

[olddots]

16. I'm telling Tony Blair

to stick his head up his ass and bite for air.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

17. The fucking balls on

this guy.

 

[sadoldgirl]

21. Blair was always the Third Way,

but he was an excellent pretender!

[blackspade]

22. Warmonger Tiny Blair needs to shut the fuck up.

[DallasNE]

23. Tony Blair, Trickle Down Doesn't Work

That is why the UK suffered through 3 recessions under Cameron and what makes this election outcome so puzzling. The UK voters just voted for more stagnation. And Tony Blair wants to be trickle down light.

I think the key phrase here is "savage attack". Cameron hired a GOP strategist to handle the messaging and it caught Miliband by surprise so the savage attacks carried the day. Apparently Tony Blair doesn't see the cause and effect that is in evidence here so his "advice" misses the point.

[ibegurpard]

24. Tony your policies are why Labour lost it's stronghold

Scotland.

[deminks]

25. Where is the Chilcot report now that the election is over?

Phony Bliar.

[AllyCat]

26. Huh. That sounds vaguely familiar. Where have I heard that before?

Ugh.

[sendero]

27. Return to "center ground"..

... and win a Pyhrric victory with no value. Be a poodle.

[Sgt Preston]

32. Isn't this what Democrats usually say when they lose an election?

"We need to move farther to the right, because, hey, the right won the election." That's what the Party actually has done for many years.

[Unvanguard]

36. I think the Democratic Party is substantially to the left of where it was in the 1990s.

On most issues I can think of (gun control is maybe the one exception).

[Sgt Preston]

37. I disagree.

There's a good article on it here:

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2011/07/22/Barack-Obama-The-Democrats-Richard-Nixon

[Unvanguard]

38. Your article is making a different comparison.

It's not comparing Obama to Clinton. On LGBT rights, on mass incarceration, on drug policy, on the importance of economic inequality as an issue, on direct aid to the poor, on "family values" rhetoric demonizing single mothers, on the death penalty, on financial regulation, the Democratic Party has moved leftward from where it was in the Clinton years. That is why the next Clinton is distancing herself from her husband's record on several of these issues.

[candelista]

43. Obama to the left of Bill Clinton?

That's ridiculous. Politically they are twins. And the Party is mostly unchanged, except for, except for its economic policies, which are worse now than they were under Clinton.

[Unvanguard]

35. He deserves credit for 1997 but this is terrible advice.

Biggest problem for the center left in Europe is that it has hewed too closely to the center-right economic line to resist destructive austerity policies.

[Joe Chi Minh]

39. They never give up, do they. Mandelson's at it, as well.

Miliband's stated wish to extend a hand to disaffected Tories can hardly have pleased the Party's supporters. The people want a Labour Government; the last thing they want are neocons again.

[T_i_B]

40. The Blairite analysis doesn't stand up

Last edited Mon May 11, 2015, 07:47 AM - Edit history (1)

Labour hemorrhaged left wing votes to the SNP in Scotland.

Labour also lost votes to the Tories and UKIP in England.

So to conclude that Labour lost because it was too left wing or too right wing is rubbish. It does not explain what happened at all. Nonetheless, it's the analysis the old guard of "new" Labour cling to because it fits in with their triangulation dogma.

IMHO, the biggest factor that's dragged Labour down has been poor leadership. And much of the poor leadership comes as part of the Blairite legacy to Labour.

[malthaussen]

41. Well, if Tony Blair said it, it must be true. n/t

[Tom Ripley]

42. Nothing has changed with Tony The Tool

[candelista]

44. What's the difference between Blair and Miliband?

They are both third way politicians. Just like Clinton, Obama and the other Clinton.

[Tom Ripley]

45. +1000