Now what have we been saying all along?

[BoredBloke]

I'm not in merseyside, I'm in Hoole just outside Chester. I think Chester is where scoucers go to sell the big issues they nicked off some tramp

[wendigo100]

Had they not lucked out with the economy being in good shape when they took office, then he may not have landed his 'historic third term'

Hello Tony, how's Merseyside?

Where exactly are you anyway - I was up at the Royal Liver building a week or so back. Pulled into Lime street station and some little scally offered to look after our train for a quid.

[BoredBloke]

Had they not lucked out with the economy being in good shape when they took office, then he may not have landed his 'historic third term'

[wendigo100]

Blair never had the guts Thatcher had to see through her reforms.

True, and he never had the ability either. Dealing with the real world is a darn sight harder than information management.

Labour's path through the past eight years is strewn with sheer incompetence.

Not for nothing do the Lords complain about the badly drafted legislation that is placed before them, and its excessive quantity.

[AlfredJPruffock]

Well said BTC

Its about time we saw Blair for the incompetent vain Warmonger that he is.

Of course he is not going to upset the PS applecart, they are all Labour voters.

Welcome to Hell ....

[BobTheCrate]

Fat chance. Look at how he stood up to the public sector unions only last week on pensions.

Fat chance indeed Wendigo.

Blair's climb-down with the PS unions also amounts to the personification of Blair's complete failure to secure any ongoing legacy.

He has now totally and utterly failed the needed PS reform. As indeed he has failed to bring about his vision of some half-assed EU panacea.

He yearns so much for the same ongoing legacy that Thatcher achieved. But he never had the guts she had to see through her reforms. Whether you agreed with those reforms or not.

Blair's only success is 3 terms in office. He has achieved nothing to look back on with any sense of pride. He'll probably only be remembered for misleading the country over Iraq and introducing laws to a country more akin to a Police state, than the founder of democracy.

[wendigo100]

"And he (chairman of the CBI) called on Mr Blair to stand up to Eurocrats and push for "quality reform" rather than fudging a deal."

Fat chance. Look at how he stood up to the public sector unions only last week on pensions.

At least the UK is out of the Euro.

[mcquiggd]

Better than that, auto-generated spaghetti - im not one of these cowboys who writes code - drag-and-drop is how software was meant to be developed...

[DimPrawn]

Just what we need, .NET spaghetti code generating more EU spaghetti legislation.

[mcquiggd]

Dont worry, I'll save Europe. I have a phone call for a contract in Brussels in about an hours time - a bit of .Net and the EU will be right as rain.

[DimPrawn]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4370602.stm

The European Union must carry out "radical surgery" on its policies in order to compete at a global level, according to the CBI.
The director general of the business body, Sir Digby Jones, made the appeal ahead of an EU summit this week.

He called on EU member states to give up their old ways.

"The ideologies of old Europe have condemned hundreds of millions of people to the economic slow track," Sir Digby warned.

In economic terms the US had accelerated into the distance, he said, while India and China were "coming up on the rails".

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) accepted that change is needed, but said reforms should not take place at the expense of workers.

"The EU's got enough problems without being seen as some latter day Thatcherite institution," said John Monks, general secretary of the ETUC.

"The best performers in Europe are those who use their welfare states to help people adjust to change."

Reform agenda

Prime Minister Tony Blair will host the day-long informal EU summit at Hampton Court Palace, near London, on Thursday this week.

Brussels is marching valiantly towards 1970 and we have to have a modernised Europe

Sir Digby Jones, CBI

The subject will be social and economic reform and comes mid-way through the UK's six month presidency of the European Union.

Governments, business leaders and unions will attend.

'Under performance'

Sir Digby called for a more flexible jobs market in Europe in bid to get some of the 23 million unemployed people in Europe back to work.

And he called on Mr Blair to stand up to Eurocrats and push for "quality reform" rather than fudging a deal.

"The challenge for Tony Blair is to persuade his follow premiers of the virtues of fundamental change to end the under performance of the EU and transform it into a thriving economic power house," Sir Digby said.

"Brussels is marching valiantly towards 1970 and we have to have a modernised Europe," he told the BBC.