'Cross-dressing' on political policy is here to stay, says PM (Blair)

[IndianaGreen]

This is today's Blair speech to Newscorp in California:

'Cross-dressing' on political policy is here to stay, says PM

· Era of rivalry between left and right 'is over'
· News Corp executives told of need for boldness

Patrick Wintour, political editor
Monday July 31, 2006
The Guardian

The era of tribal political leadership is over in Britain with "rampant cross-dressing" on policy set to become a permanent feature of modern politics, Tony Blair told News Corp executives in conclave in the Californian resort of Pebble Beach yesterday.

In an elegiac survey of his nine-year leadership, Mr Blair claimed the true divisions opening up across the world were now not between left and right, but between advocates of modern, open societies and closed, traditional ones.

<snip>

Mr Blair, who flew by helicopter from San Francisco to the exclusive Pebble Beach resort to make his speech, argued that modern political debate in Europe and the US was "no longer between socialists and capitalists but instead between the globalisers and the advocates of protectionism, isolationism and nativism", which he described as issues of migration and national identity.

The prime minister argued: "Most confusingly for modern politicians, many of the policy prescriptions cross traditional left-right lines. Basic values, attitudes to the positive role of government, social objectives - these still divide among familiar party lines, but on policy cross-dressing is rampant and a feature of modern politics that will stay.

"The era of tribal political leadership is over."

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,1833967,00.html

[Kagemusha]

1. Politicians declare tribal political leadership to be over when

they've lost the support of all their popular constituencies.

[Amonester]

2. 23% of the U.K. still think bLiar has any credibility...

The same for less than 0.00000001% in the rest of the world...

Blah, blah, blah, bLiar...

[salin]

11. Odd isn't it - when someone with lower than a 25% approval rating

declares the end of one political era and the harkening of another.

And that revision of what he meant by "Conservatism" in 1999 - as now not being the Tories, but "little c" conservatism - cute, eh? Position for a job with a GOP type big firm, Tony? Murdoch's operation? Carlyle Group? A financial house?

[ShockediSay]

3. Reminds me of one of Scalia's written opinions

Just WTF is he talking about???

I don't think he even knows

[IndianaGreen]

4. I am troubled about Blair using a word like "cross dressing" while

having a master/slave relationship with Bush.

[Solly Mack]

5. If he really believed that he wouldn't support Bush on anything

Bush is about closed, controled societies and nationalism...Bush doesn't want the people free

[IndianaGreen]

6. Blair declares himself a Tory

That's the only way I can interpret The Independent's account of Blair's speech:

Blair snubs Brown in speech to News Corp

By Francis Elliott in San Francisco
Published: 31 July 2006

Tony Blair delivered a calculated snub to Gordon Brown last night, declaring "the era of tribal political leadership is over".

In a speech to media mogul Rupert Murdoch's senior executives in California, Mr Blair appeared to abandon his party, which, he said, could be as resistant to change as the Tories.

"Across a range of issues, there is no longer a neat filing of policy to the left or the right," Mr Blair said,although he added that he was still "loyal to and proud of the Labour Party". He also came close to an endorsement of David Cameron's leadership of the Conservative Party.

And in a passage that is likely to be seized on by Mr Cameron and will infuriate the Chancellor, Mr Blair said that opposition to reform was as strong in his own party as from his opponents.

He said his 1999 attack on the "forces of conservatism" was not an attack on the Conservatives but an assault on "small c" conservatism, which could be, "as much from the left as the right."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1205998.ece

[Karmakaze]

7. Bingo - got it in one!

This has been the plan by the globalists for absolutely decades - infiltration of the left wing parties by people who, once they gain leadership positions, immediately start pushing the left wing parties towards the right, while talking about a "new way" or "third way". In reality it is the old way enshrined by deception.

I know it sounds far-fetched, but think about it, along comes a group of left wing politicians that suddenly have all sorts of big money backing and talking about how great their policies will be for the people. The left wing parties hear the rhetoric and see the money flowing in and think "if we make these guys the leaders, we will gain power and can really help people" then as soon as they gain those leadership positions they enact policies that are not good for anyone but the corporations. Then when the rank and file start to complain, they find they have no power any more to prevent the policies from being enacted and start to drift away from the left wing party into third parties.

So, in the end it is a double whammy for the right - they get the policies they want AND they kill off the major opposition party in one fell swoop.

Its happening in the US too, and it happened in New Zealand, and I can tell you this, it most definately is NOT something being pushed by THE PEOPLE, but by THE CORPORATIONS.

Blair has basically ADMITTED that he LIED to the people when he claimed in 1999 to be fighting conservatives, because he sure as hell didnt say he was talking about the left back then, but now he is saying the right AND the left. When Labour finally gets rid of this arsehole I gaurantee you he will start working with conservative groups pointing fingers at the "conservatives" on the left that are holding back the country. He is a piece of shit and needs to go NOW, before he fucks up the country even more.

Trust me, I've lived through this shit in New Zealand, and this is play-by-play exactly what happened to us.

[IndianaGreen]

8. Sounds like a British version of the DLC

New Labour and New Democrats, followed by Third Way.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Off topic: I am rooting for the Emirates Team New Zealand

to take the America's Cup back to Auckland!

[Amonester]

10. "he will start working with conservative groups"

Do a Search with these three words:

blair carlyle group

Results On Google:
...about 299,000 for blair carlyle group. (0.15 seconds)

No credibility left...

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. No, Blair did say he was fighting the left in 1999

and, in a sense, that's what his removal of Clause 4 from the Labour party constitution was, years earlier.

Here's a link to the full text of the 1999 "forces of conservatism" speech (he uses the phrase incessantly in it); while it has plenty of attacks on the Conservative party (as you'd expect in a speech in the yearly party conference), it's notable for attacking his own party too:

For the 21st century will not be about the battle between capitalism and socialism but between the forces of progress and the forces of conservatism.

They are what hold our nation back. Not just in the Conservative Party but within us, within our nation.
...
It would be comforting to think the forces of conservatism were only Tories. But wrong.

There were forces of conservatism who said changing Clause 4 would destroy the Labour Party, when in truth it was critical to our renewal.
...
The Third Way is not a new way between progressive and conservative politics.

It is progressive politics distinguishing itself from conservatism of left or right.

New Labour must be the new radicals who take on both of them, not just on election day but every day.
...
Let us take on the forces of conservatism in education, too, the greatest liberator of human potential there is.

No more nursery vouchers.

No return to 11+.

No freeze on student numbers in our universities.

No more Assisted Places Scheme.

Not the right. But not the old Left either: no tolerance of failing LEAs.

No truce on failing schools.

No pupils condemned to failure.
...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/460009.stm

And, for reference, the old Clause 4:

To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service.

and what replaced it:

To these ends we work for:
a dynamic economy, serving the public interest, in which the enterprise of the market and the rigour of competition are joined with the forces of partnership and co-operation to produce the wealth the nation needs and the opportunity for all to work and prosper, with a thriving public sector and high quality services, where those undertakings essential to the common good are either owned by the public or accountable to them;

[w4rma]

13. I wonder if he's trying to do as much damage as he can to Labor before he

goes away to his big cushy job at News Corp?

[BooScout]

12. In your dreams Tony.....

He has totally lost all touch with reality.........his days are numbered. His modern, open society of the UK is about to reach out and smack him a big one. The Boogeyman Paranoia of the US won't wash in the UK for much longer.

[rodeodance]

15. there is truth in what he says--take for example immigration issue in the

US--and all the cross-dressing that is going on.

[T_i_B]

16. Whether Blair likes it or not...

...there will always be a poltical right wing and a political left wing. It's how you deal with it that counts.

Boh sides have big faults, but the problem is that New Labour continues many of these faults whilst falling prey to many of the traditional vices of organized politics to a greater degree then either the traditional left or right. :-(

[GeorgeGist]

17. The Rich will get Richer...

and the Poor will get Poorer. Any questions?

"Mr Blair, who flew by helicopter from San Francisco to the exclusive Pebble Beach resort to make his speech,..."