Slartibartfast wrote:Hexx wrote:Slartibartfast wrote:Hexx wrote:Slartibartfast wrote:Gandalf wrote:All this Obama "change" bullshit is getting on my tits. Nothing will change. I'm sure Blair said the same thing, and look at the state of this shithouse country. One man won't make a difference.
America has a pretty good record for being able to reverse a declining situation and there are many examples in both UK and USA politics that show the right man/woman in the right place can profoundly change the nation. Comparing to Blair is nonsensical, he came to power in relative good times and was in some ways more right wing than the man he took over from - hammering home the Thatcherite revolution - change was the last thing on his mind.
"Things can only get better", was I believe, the 1997 election slogan
Well quite, there's no 'change of direction' implied.
Stop being obtuse
The proposed constitutional reforms? Talk of a new "Third Way" ?
Blair proclaimed when he won "A new day has dawned"?
Oh right, I thought you were agreeing with me. I'm afraid that, campaign slogans aside, the New Labour government has pretty much carried on in the Thatcherite mould (although, lest it be forgotten, with less fiscal restriction - which has improved services but lumbered the nation with billions of pounds of debt) - I think that "Things can only get better" sums up the idea that New Labour would not radically change anything. Blair worked very hard to convince businesses and the middle class that the income tax system wouldn't be any more than tweaked and that nothing would be nationalised, etc. It's quite bizarre and really shows the marked difference between Blair's New Labour and the original Labour ideals.
The constitutional reforms amounted to devolution for Scotland and Wales and very little else.
Oh I'm not disagreeing with you that they actually ended up doing very little differently, but I disagree in the actual campaign platform/promises seem quite similar in tone to some of Obama's
Just look at the Manifesto I edit in above, here's some choice bits
I want to renew faith in politics by being honest about the last 18 years. Some things the Conservatives got right. We will not change them. It is where they got things wrong that we will make change. We have no intention or desire to replace one set of dogmas by another.
I want to renew faith in politics through a government that will govern in the interest of the many, the broad majority of people who work hard, play by the rules, pay their dues and feel let down by a political system that gives the breaks to the few, to an elite at the top increasingly out of touch with the rest of us.
The reason for having created new Labour is to meet the challenges of a different world. The millennium symbolises a new era opening up for Britain. I am confident about our future prosperity, even optimistic, if we have the courage to change and use it to build a better Britain.
To accomplish this means more than just a change of government. Our aim is no less than to set British political life on a new course for the future.
You can't see any similarities?