The triumph of Blairism

[darmstadt]

Well, from that list he's been a busy boy.

Well done Mr Blair, what a great man you have been. An impressive list of achievements.

Now **** off, and let us get the Britain back we all want to live in.

Thatcher ruined the country I grew up in and loved, just as Bush is ruining that in which I now live. She spawned a generation for whom the making of money is the only measure of achievement, turned vices (greed, philistinism) into virtues (private enterprise, pragmatism), and did irrevocable damage to educational and cultural institutions. My parents' generation (75+) benefited not one whit from the Thatcher ecomonic revolution and are still eking out a living on their pensions. Did anyone say Northern Ireland or Falklands? What short memories we have. When she dies, show me her grave, hand me my dancing shoes, and strike up the band.

She left millions without jobs or hope of a future. Her destruction of the social fabric in Britain has left scars across the country; we are still suffering from the fund starvation she imposed upon public services; and as for her being honorable and representing the best qualities of Britain, well, all I can say is I hope others don't assume she embodies Britain. Her friendship and dealings with men like General Pinochet, and other of the world's less savoury leaders, in the name of free enterprise, is a blight and a shame on our nation. Not to mention the upbringing her son obviously received and the values she instilled in him! All told I think she was without a doubt the worst prime minister this country has ever had, and a horrible person to boot.

[oraclesmith]

I take it you're a product of comprehensive education - I will adjust my postings accordingly

So what's wrong with a comprehensive education then, Mr Troll ?

[CaptainUnderpants]

Blair in a Parallel Universe ..

From inside the Blair bunker the crowds appear to be cheering ... actually, they're calling for his neck ...

What part of "Pi$$ Off!" does he not understand ?

Capn

[Troll]

So what's wrong with a comprehensive education then, Mr Troll ?

According to NL spin nothing:

6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools

8. Funding for every pupil in England to double (since 1997) by 2007-08

Would you agree with NL that the comprehensive system in the UK is producing world class students, easily employable and in demand by industry?
Do you also subscribe to the NL view that selection is wrong and all Grammar schools should be abolished?
Is your local comprehensive is so good that you would have no hesitation in sending your children there?

[zathras]

1. Lowest inflation since the 60s
2. Low interest rates
3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage
4. Record police numbers in England and Wales
5. Cut overall crime by 35 per cent
6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools
7. Best-ever primary school results
8. Funding for every pupil in England to double (since 1997) by 2007-08
9. Lowest unemployment for 29 years
10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries
11. 78,700 more nurses
12. 27,400 more doctors
13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards
14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament
15. Devolved power to Welsh Assembly
16. Banned anti-personnel mines
17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice at any time
18. New Deal - helped over a million people into work
19. Local government funding has increased by a third in real terms
20. Equalised the age of consent for gay men
21. Free entry to all national museums and galleries
22. Overseas aid budget more than doubled
23. Restored city-wide government to London
24. Child benefit up 25 per cent since 1997
25. Created Sure Start to help children from low income households
26. Introduced the Disability Rights Commission
27. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & extra £100 for over-80s
28. The biggest rolling stock replacement programme ever seen on our railways
29. Negotiated the historic Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland
30. Over 30,000 more teachers in England schools
31. Implemented the Freedom of Information Act
32. All workers now have a right to 4 weeks’ paid holiday
33. Record rises in the state pension
34. 700,000 children lifted out of relative poverty
35. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents
36. Banned handguns
37. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent
38. Free nursery places for three and four-year-olds in England, Scotland and Wales
39. Free fruit for all four to six-year-olds at school
40. Free school milk for five, six and seven-year-olds in Wales
41. Record police numbers in Scotland
42. Implemented the Human Rights Act
43. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since the industrial revolution
44. Free TV licences for over-75s
45. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals
46. Halved maximum waiting times for NHS operations
47. Free local bus travel for over-60s
48. Record number of students in higher education
49. Extended the Race Relations Act so that all public bodies and functions now have a duty to promote race equality
50. Five, six and seven-year-olds in class sizes of 30 or less

Well taking a few of these, New Labour have become masters of statistics to make them say what they want but to take a selective few;

Lowest inflation since the 60s

Since the only device currently for controlling inflation is interest rates an these have been responsibility of the BoE exactly what has New Labour done. Further New Labour have fiddled with the products used so that among those who are traditional labour voters inflation may indeed be low, but for the middle classes, not traditional labour voters inflation is well above the quoted amount. It may be better to compare the inflation with the same shopping basket as at 1992. Inflation is now going up and is above target.

Low interest rates

See above

Lowest unemployment for 29 years

Well this is actually factually incorrect. Unemployment is actually at the highest level for 4 years. Measured by claiment count it has risen 14 out of the last 13 months - the longest period of increases since the recession of 1992, manufacturing jobs are at the lowest level since records began in 1978. New Labour is on target to repeat the record of previous labour administrations of having higher unemployment

Restored city-wide government to London

As this is a benefit to me for exactly what reason? Near as I can tell Ken Livingstone costs a lot of money, for no benefit and he has replaced nice buses for some great bendy monstrosity, which can't get round corners, has less seats. Speaking as someone who lives in London I could do without Ken.


Halved maximum waiting times for NHS operations

That's because they are all on waiting lists to get on the waiting list!

Free local bus travel for over-60s
Have you actually spoken to someone over 60 as to this benefit. It's restricted to such an extent as to be virtually useless.

Record rises in the state pension

92pence in one year. Further more and more benefits are means tested which not only puts people of claiming, but has the effect of reducing what some get.

New Deal - helped over a million people into work

This cost so much, and dragged resources from other areas. So much so that investigations into it concluded that it has zero effect.

Record number of students in higher education

And record number of graduates out of work at the other end. Not only that the differential between a graduate and non-graduate is being debased because there are so many.

[BoredBloke]

"And record number of graduates out of work at the other end. Not only that the differential between a graduate and non-graduate is being debased because there are so many."

Ahh but this also means that the people who stayed on in education and who become unemployed at the end of their course are no longer part of the youth unemployment stats.

[bogeyman]

Thatcher ruined the country I grew up in and loved, just as Bush is ruining that in which I now live. She spawned a generation for whom the making of money is the only measure of achievement, turned vices (greed, philistinism) into virtues (private enterprise, pragmatism), and did irrevocable damage to educational and cultural institutions. My parents' generation (75+) benefited not one whit from the Thatcher ecomonic revolution and are still eking out a living on their pensions. Did anyone say Northern Ireland or Falklands? What short memories we have. When she dies, show me her grave, hand me my dancing shoes, and strike up the band.

Heh! Heh! Heh!

We'll see about that, puny human!

[Nipple Clamp]

Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one party that hearing shall hear and shall not understand, and another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware, both of that “more” and of the outsider’s incomprehension.
HTH

But the party that hears and doesn't understand can be understood by both the other parties to be present only in their imagination.

[wendigo100]

1. Lowest inflation since the 60s
2. Low interest rates
3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage
4. Record police numbers in England and Wales
5. Cut overall crime by 35 per cent
6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools
7. Best-ever primary school results
8. Funding for every pupil in England to double (since 1997) by 2007-08
9. Lowest unemployment for 29 years
10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries
11. 78,700 more nurses
12. 27,400 more doctors
13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards
14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament
15. Devolved power to Welsh Assembly
16. Banned anti-personnel mines
17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice at any time
18. New Deal - helped over a million people into work
19. Local government funding has increased by a third in real terms
20. Equalised the age of consent for gay men
21. Free entry to all national museums and galleries
22. Overseas aid budget more than doubled
23. Restored city-wide government to London
24. Child benefit up 25 per cent since 1997
25. Created Sure Start to help children from low income households
26. Introduced the Disability Rights Commission
27. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & extra £100 for over-80s
28. The biggest rolling stock replacement programme ever seen on our railways
29. Negotiated the historic Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland
30. Over 30,000 more teachers in England schools
31. Implemented the Freedom of Information Act
32. All workers now have a right to 4 weeks’ paid holiday
33. Record rises in the state pension
34. 700,000 children lifted out of relative poverty
35. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents
36. Banned handguns
37. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent
38. Free nursery places for three and four-year-olds in England, Scotland and Wales
39. Free fruit for all four to six-year-olds at school
40. Free school milk for five, six and seven-year-olds in Wales
41. Record police numbers in Scotland
42. Implemented the Human Rights Act
43. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since the industrial revolution
44. Free TV licences for over-75s
45. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals
46. Halved maximum waiting times for NHS operations
47. Free local bus travel for over-60s
48. Record number of students in higher education
49. Extended the Race Relations Act so that all public bodies and functions now have a duty to promote race equality
50. Five, six and seven-year-olds in class sizes of 30 or less

Record spending, record legislating, record headlines. But to what effect? How has it changed what we see in the UK?

Twenty questions

1. Have improvements to the NHS been any better than negligible?
2. Are children better educated now?
3. Has crime gone down? Has gun crime gone down? Have detection rates gone up?
4. Are we involved in less wars?
5. Are there more jobs in private enterprise?
6. Are there less taxpayer-funded state jobs?
7. Have we got better funded pensions?
8. Are people in less debt?
9. Is the country balancing the books or even running a budget surplus?
10. Are roads less crowded?
11. Is public transport less crowded, and is it faster?
12. Are there less racial tensions?
13. Is immigration better controlled?
14. Has the cost of our most basic and non-competitive supplies - water and power - gone up no more than wage inflation?
15. Have constitutional changes helped anyone other than professional politicians?
16. Has the freedom of information act stopped the government vetoing requests for information that is nothing to do with national security and everything to do with protecting Party interests?
17. Is the environment any better, or even any policies in place to slow down its getting worse?
18. Do we pay less tax now?
19. Do the public have less form-filling and other red tape to cope with now?
20. Are politicians more trusted now than they were in 1997?

How did you do?

0 Yeses - Well done
1 to 5 Yeses - Everyone is entitled to the odd, diverse opinion
6 to 10 Yeses - You aren't paying attention
11 to 15 Yeses - You aren't very bright
16 to 19 Yeses - You aren't paying attention and you aren't very bright
20 Yeses - You are a lying government minister

[BoredBloke]

Did you know that in the UK more people work in Indian restraunts/takeaways than work in mining AND shipbuilding.