Tony Blair's advice for Labour: be more like the coalition
Peter Hoskin 8:56am
There's a remarkable self-certainty about what we've seen of Tony Blair's book so far. Sure, there are the fleeting moments of doubt and
insecurity: the drinking that was becoming less a pleasure and more a habit, for instance. But, apart from that, the dominant motif is how His Way was the Right Way. And so, he was right to
keep Brown on as Chancellor. He was, it seems, right to prosecute war in Iraq – even if the WMD intelligence was "mistaken". And his chapter on Northern Ireland is written up as a
ten-point action plan for future peace processes after future conflicts.
Make no mistake, this isn't a bad thing in itself. We shouldn't expect anything different from a politician driven, to an extraordinary degree, by conviction, and writing his own account of a decade in power. But, even considering that, there's one area where his forthrightness is quite surprising; the deficit.
Towards the end of the book, Blair writes that, “If governments don’t tackle deficits, the bill is footed by taxpayers, who fear that big deficits mean big taxes, both of which reduce confidence, investment and purchasing power." And he continues: "We should have taken a New Labour way out of the economic crisis: kept direct taxes competitive, had a gradual rise in VAT and other indirect taxes to close the deficit, and used the crisis to push further and faster on reform." Both passages read like an endorsement of the coalition's main actions and arguments. It's little wonder why Blair refers to the current government as a "Tory version of New Labour".
Of course, you can doubt Blair's economic judgment – particularly as he describes Brown as someone who was "the best Chancellor for this country". But it doesn't harm the coalition
to have the country's most prominent Labour figure back their stance on the public finances. And it needn't harm Labour either. This brand of hardheadedness has been almost taboo during their
leadership contest (although, it must be said, David Miliband has steered closest to it). If Blair's book achieves anything, then it might be to inject some realism into his party's
bloodstream.
UPDATE: Some more extracts that should please the Tories:
"The fact that anxiety over the economy has shifted from banking practices to sovereign debt should illustrate how foolish it is to ignore government and state responsibility for what happened."
"The economic crisis should have been (and indeed still can be) the moment when, instead of lazily succumbing to the idea that more state spending dressed up as fiscal stimulus is the sole answer, we took the opportunity to accelerate and sharpen reform. Getting value for money in services like health care, opening up competition in areas like education, radically altering welfare so that it becomes a genuine safety net for those who need it and a leg up for those who can an should stand on their own feet, and at every point questioning, reassessing, changing, not so as to abandon social solidarity but to make it effective in a changed world; that is what we ought to be advocating as progressives and embracing as nations."
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normanc
September 1st, 2010 9:15am Report this commentThis is news or surprising to anyone?
The one good thing about this book launch is that after the launch tour is that he'll be close to his 90 days in country and we won't hear from him again until the new tax year.
Nickle
September 1st, 2010 9:15am Report this commentSo he knew Gordon Brown would be a disaster as PM.
So what does he do? Nothing.
What a shit.
charles hercock
September 1st, 2010 9:37am Report this commentInject realism into the party's bloodstream
Come on
The Millibands are living in cloud cuckoo land and the party will not embrace their Star Ed Balls
se1man
September 1st, 2010 9:38am Report this commentNo - it won't inject realism into the Labour rank & file. It will inject resentment.
Resentment that he is unapologetic over the war in Iraq.
Resentment that he thinks he should have gone further on public service reform.
Resentment that he anointed Brown into the premiership whilst apparently believing all along that he was the wrong man for the job.
Resentment that he seems to be siding with the wicked Tories/coalition re the deficit.
Resentment that he is hogging the limelight at this precise moment.
Resentment that he is sowing division that has the potential to pull their beloved Party apart.
Resentment that he has earned millions since leaving office and that he's started up a posh investment bank of some sort. A BANK!
And will the rank & file respond by voting for the most Blairite of the candidates as the scales are lifted from their eyes by these revelations from their all-knowing saviour?
Will they heck.
Charlie
September 1st, 2010 10:20am Report this commentse1man - you forgot a few:
Resentment for, even now, being popular in the US and waxing lyrical about GWB.
Resentment for managing to keep all those millions away from HMRC preventing re-distributed to the deserving poor.
Resentment for becoming the modern equivalent of 'Landed Gentry' with his modest property portfolio.
Still as we are constantly reminded.. they chose him!
Vulture
September 1st, 2010 10:26am Report this comment@Charles hercock.
Shurely shome mishtake - anyone who thinks that Ed Scrotal-Sac is 'a star' should really change their name to Charles Cock-'n-Bollox.
You are the one living in cloud cuckoo land, Chaz - Ed Balls has all the charm and appeal of a Chinese gendarme's used jockstrap.
lescam
September 1st, 2010 10:30am Report this commentWithout wishing to comment on the rest of Blair's own record as PM, my main criticism of him is that he failed to sack Brown from his cabinet when he had the chance, ie just after winning the 2001 election, or possibly later. Why did he put up with the insults, threats, bullying and sheer nastiness of Brown and his mob, when he could easily have got rid of him? Presumably because he was too weak a character, and because he was physically afraid of Brown. He did the country a great dis-service by keeping Brown on, and IMHO this was his greatest error.
I wonder how many phones have been smashed this morning in Kirkcaldy?
Hysteria
September 1st, 2010 1:51pm Report this commentI think I could forgive TB everything (and even support *some* of his actions) - but allowing GB into No10 despite knowing he would be a disaster? - that I cannot forvive - what a basta*d
Paddy
September 1st, 2010 2:37pm Report this commentAgree. Can't forgive him for letting Brown into No. 10.
He hadn't got the courage. He was afraid.
So we ended up with the worst chancellor(and no one can tell me he was good with figures - he could surely fix them) and the worst PM ever.
Everyone knew about it even you journos but no one had the courage to expose him.
You were all afraid of him and his henchmen.
Woody
September 1st, 2010 4:01pm Report this commentI suppose the concern now is that having 'dumped' on the left of the Labour Party,' they just might elect 'Balls' who in my view is just Gordon Brown MK II.
God help us!
Dimoto
September 1st, 2010 8:32pm Report this commentI think you have to bear in mind that Blair clearly understands nothing of economics (thus seeing Brown as a political disaster, but a "brilliant" chancellor).
Nevertheless, he has spent lots of time schmoozing with American financial bods, (not amused that Brown fingered them as 'where the meltdown started'), and has picked up some of their nostrums and jargon - clearly without understanding their agenda, or what they are on about.
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