Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

So...Just watching the telly as The Peoples' Prime Minister drives up to Sedgefield WMC, where no doubt he he going to give a tearjerker speech to the assembled local party hacks. The Cabinet will know the details of his leaving already. But does the Queen - and if not, why not? Surely the constitutional convention is that she should be formally consulted first? Maybe he's in a bit of a rush before the cops arrest him for flogging honours? Anyway, its a poor show.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

...he's informed Helen Mirren of his intentions instead.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

heard that point was put to him this morning, and he replied WHOOO.:D

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

all this stuff to me is so boring!!!!!!, but i like blair, but cameron for some reason makes me want to put my foot in his gob!!:D

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Don't think the Queen needs to know until he actually resigns. He has only announced his intention to resign today. If he resigned today then Two Jags would be Prime Minister, perish the thought !!

Anyway the Queen is currently on holiday at Disneyland in Washington :)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

the 3 musketeers, blair, reid, and prescott, all stepping down, we may just possibly have a labour government next.:rolleyes:

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

He didn't get up this morning and suddenly decide on a date. I would imagine the Queen has known, for some time, exactly when he was going and when he was going to announce it.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Define a Labour Govenment. Also god help us if Gordy gets in.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Clement Attlee, Aneurin Bevan, Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison, Manny Shinwell .................. ;)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

the queen will already have known of his intentions to resign. what have we to look forward to now? Gordon Brown...... well i for one am in no hurry for Mr Blair to step down.

P.S Has got acquainted with the girl, *******how it to you? Only it is fair!

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

just saved me a job,well said.;)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Yes those men were TRUE labour politicians.....NOT NEW Labour politicians.

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what year where they in labour?, ive never heard of them!!!

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Panther, you would only have been a twinkle in your daddy's eye.....!

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

come on Margaret , I'm sure you have an answer to this ;) ;) ;)

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I could probably think of when they were in office, but my brain is addled with ancestry searching....all these blooming dates are making my head swim :)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I was born in 1947...... I can remember Aneurin Bevan, Herbert Morrison, Clement Attlee looked like a lovely old Grandad, Manny Shinwell too.
But as for the years they were actually in office, I'll leave that for someone else to answer.

Yes, OK.....I'm an old B*gger.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Along with many others, they formed the Labour cabinet when the party came to power in 1945.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

born the same year as me mum:D

i wasnt on this earth till 72:rolleyes:

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Yes there were a lot of us born that year....i think the chaps who had been away at war had some time to make up :)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

thanks for putting us straight West Ender.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I was only 2 at the time they got in but their names and reputations have always stayed in my memory. Compared to what we have had in recent years, on both sides of the political divide, these men were giants. They changed the social structure of this country and built up prosperity after the war. I don't say everything they did was perfect, that would be naive, but if the likes of them were in power today Britain would be a vastly different place to live in.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I`ll give you one -- we voted them in when we got de-mobbed after WW2

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I'm sure i'll get slaughtered for this but i thought Neil Kinnock would have made a good PM.Although in my defence i was more politically naive then,but he was a good orator i thought.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

He was`nt nicknamed The Welsh Windbag for nothing!!i

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I agree with you, Maxwell. I thought the Press assassination of Kinnock was disgraceful and just showed how much like sheep people really are - easily led.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Tony Benn the best prime minister we never had.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

cant argue with that un.;)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

My thoughts exactly, West Ender!

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

These greats were the people that took the working class people out of serfdom, branded as 'reds commies' you name. but for these far sighted politicians, our children would have been brain washed that the royalty had a god given right to rule over us, as unfortunatley I and my generation was.
I can remember as a child if Prince Charles broke wind it was front page news, and the leader on Pathe world news. Tony Blair and his like are only minnows compared with the great politicians West Ender has mentioned, they risked prison for treason for their then 'radical' views, the things that all of us now take for granted.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

well i can only say it dose no matter who is england it will all way be the same there are some good things to rember and sad one to but just see what happen,s now.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

yes i agree there all in it for there own gain

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Ianto, while I sympathise with your sentiments I think you're getting a bit carried away with idealism. None of that respected cabinet risked prison, rather they risked, and received, the antagonism of the wealthier echelons. That government introduced nationalisation of the Railways, the coal mines etc. and built up the NHS, along with many other social reforms, but they were not Communists and they didn't lead or advocate a revolution.

They were voted out of Office in 1951 after 6 years of what was, admittedly, a radical and truly Socialist regime and we have not had such a reforming administration since then but their loyalty to the Crown was never in doubt. They were great men because they put their ideals into effect and made them work.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Goodbye Tony,,,I think you have done a good job....Time will tell:alright: :thankya: :bye2:

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

what about john smith as the best prime minister we never had or hugh gaitskill,both died tragically before their time,

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I will probably get slaughtered for this ,but my money would have been on Enock Powell ,,,,

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Granny, I must admit I'm a little confused by your political views. You admire Tony Blair, you're a Labour supporter, but you think extreme right-wing Tory Enoch Powell would've been a great PM...que? :confused:

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

In my humble opinion, the only salutation Blair will get from me me is "goodbye and good riddance"! I would be really pleased at the news of his departure if it were not for the fact that Brown is to take over as Prime Minister - a disaster followed by a catastrophe. Both are proved to have lied not only to Parliament but to the people of this country. Blair was elected on the promise that he would serve a full term, he hasn't and he never had any intention of doing so. Brown grabbed billions from the pension system and now expects the tax payer to plug the pensions black hole he created. So much for a whiter than white administration. So much for financial prudence. We deserve better!

I do not agree that it is probably too soon to judge Blair's "legacy". It is clear for all to see despite the lies, spin, half truths, evasion, arrogance and control freakery.The Brown legacy is also clearly visible - and he hasn't even begun his premiership yet. It is a return to those good old core Labour values; TAX and SPEND.

"Oh", but I hear I hear you all cry "what about the Health Service?" Well, what about it. Have any of you really had a good look at the way it is run round here? Have you had a good look at the way that Blackburn Royal is haemorraging money? And can you really put your hand on your heart and say that the service is better? "Oh" I hear you all bleat, "What about the Billions more in funding put into schools?" Yeah, what about it. Levels of illiteracy are rising. The cost of compensation for assaults by pupils on teachers is spiralling out of control. Teachers are still underpayed and undervalued and the nobody can make up their minds about the correct way to teach kids to read, let alone teach them anything else. "Education. Education.Education"? Spin. Spin. Spin!

I am not even going to go near Law and Order and Immigration, I am not sure my arteries would stand the strain.

And all you lot seem to be able to do by way of political debate is to make pathetic comparisons with the Government of Margaret Thatcher. For Goodness Sake People, get the chip off your shoulders and open your eyes!

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

As far as I remember, it was common knowledge at the last General Election that Blair wasn't going to be P.M. for the full term.


Margaret who?

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

We obviously live in different realities.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

From www.askoxford.com
underpaid
past and past participle of UNDERPAY.

What were you saying about literacy levels, A-b?

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I just think if Enock Powel had been listened to....we would not have had mass immigration,therefore less burdon on the goverment purse strings,,therefore more money to spend on things that realy matter .....
Its a shame he was tory, but he had the makings of a good prime minister...
.:behead: now you can chop off my head

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Just hang on half a mo while I go and get me knitting... ;)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

:blink8: :D :D :D :D

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

'Amid all the rumours it appears Blair first truly laid out a schedule for departure in October 2004.

Ending his party's conference in Brighton - as well as dropping the bombshell he was to have heart surgery - Mr Blair said: "If I'm selected I would serve a third term - I do not want to serve a fourth term."


http://www.channel4.com/news/article...ep+down/169525


Perhaps the news didn't quite reach the reality of the Rishton Con Club.;)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I'll give you there maybe a little confusion, but I'm with Margaret Beckett on this one, it was as clear as mud to us.:D

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I don't know about a third term or a fourth term.....in my humble opinion he should be serving a jail term.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

His policies were all smoke and mirrors.......no real substance. Knee jerk reactions when things didn't go according to his plans.
A government that was plagued by sleaze and controversy, no honesty....and now he leaves someone else to pick up the threads.
He has done the greatest disservice to politics by making us (the electorate) distrust all politicians.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

-Equal of age of consent, at long last.

-Minimum wage, which didn't cause the economy to become sluggish, and lead to international financiers leaving the UK.

-Ban on fox hunting.

-Peace in Northern Ireland.

Four things off the top of my head his government has implemented, and in my life time the best PM I remember, though admittedly not without major disappointments, ie: Iraq, cash for honours etc.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Well, I think he will best be remembered for the sad and bad things.......Iraq....cash for honours......the fact that he didn't keep promises on crime......education.......that statistics were used to give the population the feeling that the government was working.......targets in schools(meaningless).....targets in the NHS, preventing the real work from getting done. I am thoroughly disillusioned with NEW labour...to me it feels like Old conservative.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I see Gordon's off to a great start already. After making promises about "open government" and restoring trust in parliament yesterday, he has refused to block a squalid little move by MPs to wriggle out of the freedom of information laws. They say they want to prevent the confidentiality of letters from their constituents, but handily, they will also be able to keep their expenses secret. Very convenient indeed, and it went through with no objection from either the Labour or Tory front benches.

Looks like Gordon's just as fond of empty rhetoric as his predecessor...and as for the MPs who voted it through, hypocrites, the lot of 'em.

Let's hope the House of Lords throws it out!

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I know millions has been pumped into the NHS and wasted, but there has been a massive change in education in the last ten years. The whole system has been over hauled, with the set up of Accedemies, and greater investment and relationships with industry.

According to the result tables examination results have never been better, and there are record numbers of people in further education. I don't think you can argue that education is a failure, unless I've been brainwashed by the spin.:D

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

-Getting rid of hereditary Peers, that's another major change, after hundreds of years of being lorded over by people who are deemed to know best, simply by the accident of their birth.

(Though I agree with Wynonie, it's a disgrace that government is to be excluded from the same scrutiny as everything else.)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I agree, hereditary peers were an anomaly in this day and age. But it seems to me that Blair's simply replaced them with a motley collection of cronies and Labour party donors...or am I being a tad too cynical here?

Whatever, I still hope they throw that bill right back in the MPs' faces!

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

No, I agree of sorts. Though I'd still rather have a second house filled with cronies, who were there because of whatever earned merit, rather then people who were there because of their birth right.

If I had my way I'd have an elected second chamber, and I'd personally open Parliament for them each November, because I'd get rid of the Royal Family too.

Oh well, come the revolution.:D

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I aggree, the educational standards are set very low, you only have to look at the spelling and vocabulary used by certain members on here. I am no brain surgeon and do not use a spelling corrector, but there are dictionaries if they take the time to use them, no one is expected to get it right all the time, in my opinion phone text language is a very destructive element, and to allow it to be used is school examinations is beyond a joke, it's asking for illiteracy.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Using Accy Web as an example, the young people that come on this forum are eloquent, and write clearly, and correctly. So perhaps education under Blair has worked.;)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Yea yea yea yea hows u duin rindy.:D

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Well, Garinda.....you can prove anything with statistics, and this government has been very fond of using statistics and targets.......and I don't believe educational standards have risen very much. Universities are being asked to lower their standards in order to let more people in who would never get there. I can't believe this is good for the Universities or for the country as a whole...and i think it casts doubt on the integrity of degrees in general.
Certainly. during my work I interviewed a large number of young people....and found their educational standards left a lot to be desired...and their handwriting and spelling was abysmal.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I can see what you are saying. Lies, damned lies, and statistics, and all that.

I'm not being rude, but the people you would have interviewed, were like me, probably educated whilst the Tories were in power, so you can't really blame their bad literacy on Blair.

A change I'm glad that has been brought about is that children's whole lives aren't mapped out for them at the age of eleven. If you failed the eleven plus, you were to all attempts and purposes, assigned a second class education.

At the begining of sixties the percentage of people who went on to university fron secondary modern schools was less than one percent. Happily things are different today. My own parents were equally intelligent, yet my father received a great education, at his fee paying grammar school, whilst my mum didn't, and like many of her generation, it was decided by the eleven plus that she was basically factory fodder. Today, the opportunity is there for all, if they wish to take it.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I was interviewing 16 year olds......and Ok part of their education would have been under tory lead government policies, I don't blame Blair for their lack of educational standards........all I am saying is that he didn't deliver on a lot of his promises....instead he relied on statistics and targets that were meaningless. This was done to bamboozle the electorate.
Maybe the low numbers going to uni in the sixties was because the uni's were far more selective about who they took. In those days if you had a degree you were somebody...mainly because a degree in those days, actually meant something. And today higher education is for those who are well to do, and can pay for tuition fees......well, unless of course you want to saddle yourself with a huge debt before you even start work. Is this not a second class education (of sorts)? I do not have any political affiliations, and I have to say that I am very suspicious of all the political spin......especially the latest debacle which protects MP's from having to divulge their expenses...... the Freedom of Information act is a case of 'do as I say...not as I do' and that cannot be good or healthy.

I know all about the 11 plus system too. I was one of the ones who failed my 11 plus. It has been proved since, that the 11 plus was flawed and was biased towards the children of professional people - though yes, a small number of gifted children from non-professional families did pass.

In my case it wasn't a catastrophe...in fact quite the reverse, it made me all the more determined to make something of my life.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Oh and Garinda, I wouldn't take anything you said as rude...not even if you called me an 'Old baggage'...I would take it as a term of endearment. :)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Oh dear Margaret ! :rolleyes:

led

past simple and past participle of lead

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Sorry...it was a typo. But good on you for spotting it.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

My brain sometimes goes faster than my fingers. And being human I do make mistakes.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I think there are only two of us on here margaret, your description of the Tories was spot on 'lead from the head down';) and the neck up.:D

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

And if you thought it was a spelling error, why give me a lesson in grammar?

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I didn't. That was an added bonus, courtesy of the Oxford Dictionary.:)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Margaret, could you have a word with the OF brigade. Tell them it's could have, would have, should have; not OF.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

What makes you think I have any influence over the posters on this forum?

And doesn't that lead you to believe that what I was saying about educational standards is correct?

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

I know it's correct.:)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Regarding education under Blair, as opposed to the Conservatives.

It was whilst Minister for Education in Heath's government, that Mrs Thatcher has the honour of being the person who closed the most grammar schools, and who introduced the most comprehensive schools.

'While Margaret Thatcher was education secretary from 1970-74, the number of children in comprehensives exceeded those in selective schools for the first time.'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1813890.ece

'Margaret Thatcher to her shame has the distinction of closing more grammar schools than anyone else.'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...cle1813865.ece

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

yeh rindy, but people either say (thats then) or forget,or have(selective memories).;)

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Oh wait nevermind. I didnt read the rest of the thread.

Re: Bye-bye Mr Blair
 

Always read the question at least twice, before attempting to answer.;)

Good luck with your exams.:D