The danger in Blair's balderdash

[Briar]

At last - someone else prepared to admit that Bliar is a liar:


The danger in Blair's balderdash

Forget principles, 'outflanking' is the New Labour watchword

Roy Hattersley

The admission of error is never easy - even for someone of a naturally humble disposition. But, having misjudged Tony Blair for years and repeated my misjudgment time after time in this column, honour requires me to confess that I was mistaken about an important aspect of his character. While others accused him of mouthing whatever prejudices reports from focus groups made politically appealing, I argued that he always said what he honestly believed. I was wrong.

Last Friday, after a contrived photo opportunity at the Beechwood Family Centre in Watford - regulation mug of tea in hand - he described one of his aspirations for a better Britain. It was a "historic shift from a criminal justice system which asks: 'how do we protect the accused from the transgressions of the state and police?' to one whose first question is 'How do we protect the majority from the dangerous and irresponsible minority?'"

Could any grown man - with even a smattering of understanding about the real world - genuinely imagine that the criminal justice system is based on the principle that its primary purpose is the protection of suspected criminals against the law? Does the prime minister really believe that an obligation to hamstring the police was the imperative that motivated MPs as they passed successive bills in the last parliament? Was it the hope that guided David Blunkett when he was home secretary? Is it the principle that judges observe when they administer the law, and the aim of every voluntary justice of the peace who sacrifices valuable leisure time in order to sit on the local bench?

<No, he argues, it is an example of "outflanking.">

... "outflanking" - as distinct from outdated notions like liberty, equality and fraternity - has become New Labour's watchword. It is the reason why Tony Blair talks dangerous nonsense about "choice" in the public sector. It is why the education authorities who preserve selective secondary schools are allowed to prejudice the futures of thousands of children. It is why the trade unions and local government are dismissed as a relic of old Labour inefficiency.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1562742,00.html