Bold Brown edges away from Blair (Dropping the "New" from "New Labour"?))

[Khephra]

Gordon Brown yesterday piled the pressure on Tony Blair ahead of the prime minister's crucial party conference speech today when he wrapped a barnstorming defence of the government's reform policies in unmistakably old Labour language that won him roars of applause.

snip.............


Though he said nothing that watching Blairites could use to charge him with disloyalty, the chancellor did say enough to make Mr Blair's task harder this afternoon as he set out the contrasting priorities and tone that would mark the Brown administration that many MPs - and the opinion polls - now anticipate soon.

snip..............

He did not mention New Labour or old. Instead he repeated the unadorned word "Labour" 63 times, including a gentle parody of Mr Blair's "best when boldest" soundbite as his peroration. "Have confidence in our principles... have confidence that Labour values are the values of the British people. This Labour party best when we are boldest, best when we are united, best when we are Labour," the chancellor thundered.

Earlier he had suggested that Britain should seek to be a "beacon" between Europe and the US - combining the EU's social cohesion with America's economic dynamism - rather than the Blairite notion of a "bridge".

He scorned the rival Conservative options, describing them as privatised choice at the expense of the majority. But he also pointedly observed that "you do not defeat the Tories by imitation or just by bet ter presentation, but by Labour policies and Labour reforms, grounded in Labour values".

more.............

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,9061,1052475,00.html

[rooboy]

1. Looks like Tony's "New Labour" is about as permanent as New Coke. n/t

[Cha]

5. lol!

[xchrom]

2. do you think tony is visited

by the ghosts of iraqmess --
bush, rice, cheney?

[fla nocount]

3. As much as I would hate to see our nation isolated.

I think that this may be a harbinger of that. Without the UK solidly on our "side" who's left, Spain? Maybe isolation is what it will take and if so, the sooner the better. As for Blair, I truly do love to see a weak and evil man soundly trounced........I'm small that way.

[dfong63]

4. the isolation will end when chimpy leaves office

[Cha]

6. Exactly!

No need to fret!