Clips from April 1995 and January 1997. Opposition leader Tony Blair attacks Prime Minister John Major. Just listen to Blunkett shouting down the microphone!
haha tony blair was incredible back then. he was like a boxer putting john major through 12 agonising rounds until the final knockout in 97 with labours landslide victory
I just hate Tony Blair... Charming, smiling, nice, and then he sticks a knife in your back. He's a politician, genuinely, of the worst kind. Dangerous, very dangerous man.
@peacefrog1916 interesting read, but what about the other issues surrounding the separation of Scotland from the United Kingdom? Please elaborate on how these would be dealt with.
I am a great fan of C-Span's coverage of question time. Some of the best i have ever seen were between Blair and Major. Question time is kind of boring now.
@dezboss Old post, but too damn right. By 2007 prudent broon had run up the national debt beyond half a trillion quid, even the LibDem Vince cable remarked at the time that such a deficit during a period of sustained economic growth highlighted gov problems in the event of a down turn, and even The Guardian published an article about our debt levels back then. More than half of our national debt was incurred before the credit crunch.
I saw the policies of Major's government (the PFI, and privatisation of the railways, to name two) continued unmodified by New Labour. 'New' Labour continued the previous government's trend of commercialising public services.
Lots of people make that argument, as if Labour willingly copied the Tory policy simply because they 'liked it', but thats not entirely the case. The fact of the matter is, commercialisation and privatisation are by their very nature essentially IRREVERSIBLE. It wasn't really to do with appropriating 'policy', so much as Labour HAVING to accept a one-off revolutionary act that couldn't be undone.
@peacefrog1916 and for those reason that you listed in the first half of your reply, I would be happy for Scotland to become independent. However, I feel that both England and Scotland are stronger as a nation together, rather than separately, even if we have our differences and many are unhappy at political decisions and the economy.
depends in what way they'd "touch" the NHS. As it is it's a massive beaurocratic organisation that prioritises form-filling and arbitrary targets above actual patient outcomes. Maybe some form of touch may be a good idea. I don't think anyone seriously thinks they'd get rid of it though, or noticeably hike charges for general procedures etc. they may add the question "how do we actually pay for this?" which the government have skirted for 11 years, with mostly unpleasant consequences
@MyDoominateR As I stated, it's a show for the public. Cabinet ministers have been in politics for many years, they are thick skined and are not offended by these comments. They don't attack each other personally, they attack their leadership qualities. UK has used this system for well over 1300 years, longer than any other country's political system, which is a credit to its effectiveness. They do not hate each other, just get over they do this in the spirit of public support.
Actually they had children in there a few weeks ago, and they behaved a lot more maturely than normal politicians - they were clapping after each speaker for instance.
Tony Blair eh? Seemed like the old cobwebs of brirtish politics would be swept aside in favour of a younger, newer, fresher leader. We ended up being CONNED in the end. WEAK,WEAK,WEAK!!!!!!!
History also shows that Blair carried on the same policies as Major under the banner of 'New' Labour. Privatisation, private finance, Public Private Partnerships, Private Finance Initiative, mortgage everything owned by the public for short-term savings at long-term cost...
Then Blair took over a booming economy recovered from Major's big mistake joining European Monetary Union. This together with Majors bill ensuring we got a referendum on joining the Euro was why we have an economy that can survive today.
Anton, I agree with you. I don't believe the British born people, in the main, are racists, but immigration shouldn't be to our detriment, and successive governments appear to be soft on the subject due to fear of criticism!
John Major was a good man, and if his party at the time werent bent of self destruction, would have been one of our great Prime Ministers, certainly he was infinately more intellegent than Blair and Blair knew it, hence the constant leftwing attacks on Majors character.
whatever you say about Tony, he was easily one of the greatest speakers and questions-answers debaters I've ever seen. I think highly of almost all his arguments, unfortunately I don't agree with much of the way Labour has implemented many of it's reforms... But I admire Tony Blairs ability to argue his case.
Your country needed to be a lappdog for America, otherwise Britain's economy would have collapsed. He was better than many others before and even after him, let's not forget Thatcher, or at least the Irish won't ever forget her...
I'm just going by what I was told, our country depends on MNCs apparently from America, I just took my geography lecturer's word for it I guess. As for going to Iraq, I never said Britain's economy depended on going to Iraq, you just assumed.
In 1997 the pulic sector accounts were fantastic. Now after new Labour they are and I quote "Shot to blazes!". We have been spending far too much. Especially towards the social security.
