Reply #12: The fact remains that they have moved a long way towards

[evermind]

Thatcherism from the Labour party of the 80's.

Besides privatisation, there's the Private Finance Initiatives, internal markets within the NHS, etc.

They have not reformed a single major Tory policy on industry and the economy that I know of - including the legal stranglehold that the Tories created on the trades union movement.

On foreign policy, there has not been the merest whimper of criticism of the US from any official source. They have supported (and probably provided venues for) the unofficial US foreign prison system and CIA "rendering", and supported the official US propaganda on the threat of Islamic terrorism. Regards Basra, that seems to me merely a case of different means in support of the same goal.

Regards the police-state that Britain is fast becoming - the latest tranche of Labour proposals included demolishing habeas corpus and the right to a jury trial. They have been moderated by the Lords, but the proposals were clear enough in their intent. Next on the menu: compulsory ID cards.

Outside of rhetoric designed to distance the parties, there's not much to choose in real terms between Blairism and Thatcherism - that's how I see it, anyway.

I wouldn't claim to be particularly well informed on all these issues, I'll admit, but I have seen how the political landscape has shifted over the last 10 or so years.