That Blair Speech Part 4 - Thank God It's Over

That's the party fobbed off for another year... I'm of for a cuppa!

The final instalment....

We must never again let Lebanon become the battleground for a conflict that neither Israeli or Lebanese people wanted though it was they who paid the price for it.

Really who are we to stop this? We have not been asked by either Israel or Lebanon to intervene in their respective holy wars. Neither the Lebanese or Israeli people have voted us into power in either of those countries. If we do show our faces there we will probably make the situation worse, or as happened last time we just provide a suitable human shield for Hezbollah’s forces.

Peace in Lebanon is a defeat for terrorism. Action in Africa is a defeat for terrorism. What is happening now in the Sudan cannot stand. If this were in the continent of Europe we would act. Showing an African life is worth as much as a Western one - that would help defeat terrorism too.

Maybe showing that a British life, peace, democracy and human rights are as important to you as Arab ones would go a long way for you as well Tone.

Yes it's hard sometimes to be America's strongest ally.

Especially when we are expected to jump on board every military adventure they ask us to without question. I’m far from Anti-American but where were they in the Falklands crisis when their “strongest ally” was invaded? Where were they during Suez when their “strongest ally” had territory seized by a foreign power? Yet with every American military intervention we just jump on board.

Yes, Europe can be a political headache for a proud sovereign nation like Britain.

But Europe doesn’t need to be a political headache… we can just leave. The only economic benefit to EU membership is to the EU not to Britain.

But believe me there are no half-hearted allies of America today and no semi-detached partners in Europe. And the truth is that nothing we strive for, from the world trade talks to global warming, to terrorism and Palestine can be solved without America, or without Europe.

So we work with them, this is incredibly different to the blind slavish obedience you seem to have to both.

At the moment I know people only see the price of these alliances.

Because we cannot see the benefits

Give them up and the cost in terms of power, weight and influence for Britain would be infinitely greater.

How… this has never been explained.

Distance this country and you may find it's a long way back.

Assuming you want to go back… which I for one would not.

So all these changes of a magnitude we never dreamt of, sweeping the world, are calling for answers of equal magnitude and vision. All require leadership. And here is something else I've learnt. The danger for us today is not reversion to the politics of the 1980s. It is retreat to the sidelines.

Just how sidelines were the politics of the 1980s then? We repelled invaders to British territories…. We intervened in Kuwait because we were asked to by the Kuwaitis… we played a huge part in the promotion of democracy to the Eastern Bloc and the end of the Cold War. Just how on the sidelines were we? We are on the sidelines now because we are not forming any part of the command structure. We are simply reinforcing the Americans and handing money to the Europeans, and I am not seeing anything come our way.

To the comfort zone. It is unconsciously to lose the psychology of a governing Party. As I said in 1994, courage is our friend. Caution, our enemy.

There is a wealth of difference though between courage and blind fucking stupidity.

A governing Party has confidence, self-belief. It sees the tough decision and thinks it should be taking it. Reaches for responsibility first. Serves by leading.

Oh just fuck off…. What does this government know about responsibility? It has spent 9 years of failure and blamed the Tories for it. It strips our civil liberties daily and blames the muslims for it, it releases our criminals and blames the Human Rights Act yet when we point out that they put that in place they blame the system.

There is no responsibility in this government… if there were Clarke would have resigned but instead he had to be fired, Hewitt would have resigned but instead she fired the Chief Exec of the NHS, Prescott would have resigned but instead he claims pay without a job, Blair would have resigned but instead he plays world fucking policeman.

Responsibility? You are talking out of your fucking arse.

The most common phrase uttered to me - and not at rallies or public events but in meetings of chance, quietly, is not "I hate you" or "I like you" but "I would not have your job for all the world".

Whereas I thought the most common phrase was “are you going to set a date” or “Blair Blair Blair Go Go Go”

The British people will, sometimes, forgive a wrong decision. They won't forgive not deciding. They know the choices are hard. They know there isn't some fantasy Government where nothing difficult ever happens. They've got the Lib Dems for that.

Whereas if they want fantasy government where nothing happens at all apart from a shitload of headline initiatives that never occur then they have you cunts!

Government isn't about protests or placards, shouting the odds or stealing the scene.

It’s a good job really since we’re not allowed them any more.

It's about the hard graft of achievement. There are no third-term popular Governments. Don't ignore the polls but don't be paralysed by them either.

No…. just continue fighting amongst yourselves and we can make way for a decent government.

10 years on, our advantage is time, our disadvantage time.

What?

Time gives us experience. Our capacity to lead is greater. Time gives the people fatigue; their willingness to be led, is less.

Especially when we’re being led by a group of trough snouted fucktards like you lot.

But they will lose faith in us only if first we lose faith in ourselves.

Or we might lose faith in you if you say spend 9 years fucking up everything you touch.

The first rule of politics: there are no rules. You make your own luck. There's no rule that says the Tories have got to come back.

There is however I believe a rule that says effectively don’t sell seats in the House of Lords, I believe there are also a series of rules in the Ministerial Code of Practice, you remember that big book of toilet paper that the Labour Party has.

David Cameron's Tories? My advice: get after them.

You’ll have to since you can’t seem to get in front of them.

His foreign policy. Pander to anti-Americanism by stepping back from America.

I like it… we use our power and responsilibites to futher Britain’s interests rather than America’s.

Pander to the Eurosceptics through isolation in Europe.

I like it… we use our power and responsilibites to futher Britain’s interests rather than France and Germany’s.

Sacrificing British influence for Party expediency is not a policy worthy of a Prime Minister.

Which is why we wanto vote you out you cunt… after all the Tories are not proposing to close hospitals in Labour held constituencies.

His immigration policy. Says he'll sort out illegal immigration, but opposes Identity Cards, the one thing essential to do it.

How given that immigrants and foreign nationals won’t be required to have one?

His energy policy. Nuclear power "only as a last resort". It's not a multiple choice quiz question, Mr Cameron. We need to decide now otherwise in 10 years time we will be importing expensive fossil fuels and Britain's economy will suffer.

And that can apparently be done without the use of nuclear power. Good on him.

He wants tax cuts and more spending, with the same money.

Actually he wants better spending of the money and then we can use the growth to cut tax thus leading to more growth, higher earnings and in effect therefore more tax money coming in without the tax rates having to go up. Sounds like a plan.

He wants a Bill of Rights for Britain drafted by a Committee of Lawyers. Have you ever tried drafting anything with a Committee of Lawyers?

Yup…. It leads to 9 years of nothing happening. You should know this given that your entire cabinet are lawyers.

And his policy for the old lady terrorised by the young thug is that she should put her arm round him and give him a nice, big hug.

This is bollocks and you know it.

Built to last? They haven't even laid the foundation stone. If we can't take this lot apart in the next few years we shouldn't be in the business of politics at all.

I agree…. You shouldn’t be in the business of politics at all. Politics is supposed to be an honourable call to serve, you have made a mockery of the system that Britain is based on and then blamed the system for allowing you to do so. You are a traitorous fucking shit and I think you should be shot.

The Tories haven't thought it through. They think it's all about image. It's true we changed our image. We created a professional organisation.

Yup about 3 years before the election and then you started making policies which the public took seriously once you had suitably changed your image. How are the Tories being different here, how can you disapprove? Is it because it might get your lot out of power? You’re going why should you care?

But if I'd stood in 1997 on the policies of 1987 I would have lost. Period.

Instead you stood on different policies but then proceeded to revert back to the old days of socialism with the backdoor nationalisation of the railways, your exapnsionist policy of invasions, the removal of the right to speak out, detention without trial… the list goes on. Stalin did it and why shouldn’t you eh?

And it's the same now. Enough talk of hung Parliaments.

Unless of course the current one is being hung.

The next election won't be about image unless we let it be.

Actually the next election will be about what WE want it to be.

It'll be about who has the strength, judgement, weight and ideas for Britain's future in an uncertain world.

Let’s talk judgement shall we? The judgement of Gordon Brown, a man who sold all our fucking gold at half price so he could get his hands on the money. The man who knowing there would be a pensions crisis in the future robbed the private pensions blind. Judgement? Fuck off.

Or shall we take your judgement? Ready to fire in 45 minutes? Even if you believe that should we really trust the judgement of someone who looked across a crowded bar at Cherie Booth and thought “Phwoar I’m gonna have me some of that”?

Something else I've learnt.

That you’re a cunt?

It's about a Party's character. I'll give you two examples. Dennis Skinner. Watching from his sick bed. Get well soon. Never agreed with a policy I've had. Never once stopped him knowing the difference between a Labour Government and a Tory one.

Because that’s what’s fucking important here isn’t it? Power, power and fucking power.

People like Janet Anderson, George Howarth, Mike Hall. Good Ministers, but I asked them to make way. They did. Without a word of bitterness. They never forgot their principles when in office; and they never discovered them when they left office.

They fit right in…. the whole fucking lot of you have never discovered a principle on your lives. What you did discover in office was free Jags, junkets abroad, diary secretaries, free country homes and the ability to sell our democracy down the line to any fucker with a million quid.

This is the Party I am proud to lead.

See above

From the day I was elected until the day I leave, they will always try to separate us. "He's not Labour." "He's a closet Tory."

No I don’t think you’re a Tory Tone…. The Tories would let Galloway in before you.

In the 1980s some things done were necessary for the country. That's the truth. Saying it doesn't make you a Tory. I'm a progressive.

Then how come we have progressed backwards on nearly every measure?

The true believer believes in social justice, in solidarity, in help for those not able to help themselves.

That’s as maybe but you seem to believe in making us slaves to the welfare state.

They know the race can't just be to the swift and survival for the strong.

They are of course the ones who win races

They say I hate the Party, and its traditions. I don't.

No but the party hates you Tone… you’re the reason they’re going to lose next time round. You’ve been a true heir to Mrs. T. You’ve polarised opinion in the same way.

I love this Party. There's only one tradition I hated: losing.

So you’re fucking off before they lose … nice touch.

I hated the 1980s not just for our irrelevance but for our revelling in irrelevance.

You hated the 1980s because you were in opposition and that’s all.

Every day this Government has been in power, every day in Africa, children have lived who otherwise would have died because this country led the way in cancelling debt and global poverty.

That’s a pleasant sentiment Tone but every day this Government has been in power the British citizen, the people who put you there, have been second fiddle to any Arab or African that wanted our free money. Like all good socialists you hate Britain.

That's why winning matters.

That and the ministerial salary

So keep on winning. Do it with optimism. With hope in your hearts. Politics is not a chore. It's the great adventure of progress.I don't want to be the Labour Leader who won 3 successive elections. I want to be the first Labour Leader to win 3 successive elections.

You may be… when the Labour Paty stop fucking the county’s arse

So: it's up to you.

No it’s up to US!

You take my advice. You don't take it. Your choice. Whatever you do, I'm always with you. Head and heart.

Yay… all they want is for the cunt to go and yet he’s “always with you”

You've given me all I have ever achieved, and all that we've achieved, together, for the country.

WE have given you all you have ever achieved Tone…. US

Next year I won't be making this speech. But, in the years to come, wherever I am, whatever I do. I'm with you. Wishing you well. Wanting you to win. You're the future now. Make the most of it.

Oh I intend to….