>Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (and new Blair buddy) said
>something .....
Blair has a systematic policy of allying with individual prominent Conservatives on particular issues. Thus he asked John Major to chair a committee advising on Princess Diana's estate. He got a noted Tory elder statesman, Lord Wakeham, to chair the important reform of the House of Lords. Many members of this list may be bitterly opposed to the policy, but Blair makes a public show of allying with Mrs Thatcher on Kosovo both to cement broad cross party support for NATO, but also to undermine Hague's credentials as carrying the Thatcher flag against the Euro.
This morning, following my post last night about Tory troubles, an opinion poll in the Times one week away from crucial nation-wide local and regional elections shows the Conservatives 31 points behind Labour at 27 to 58%. Hague's rating has gone down 5 points from 31% to 26%.
Even 2 years after the election when the opposition party is usually on the rebound, Blair is forcing it to learn totally new tunes. They are of concensus politics, coalition politics, politics of personal gestures of respect and cooperation across the political divisions. This could trap the Conservatives for a generation as the minor party of little England capitalism while New Labour is the party of modern European monopoly capitalism and popular democratic consensus.
All Blair's buddying is carefully analysed. We should be analytical too. In class terms and not in terms of superficial, apparent, friendships, just because Blair is vain about his personal magnetism. He is much too intelligent than to rely solely on that. It is all worked out with focus groups. Ultimately class and economic forces are the determining factors, and Blair is a dedicated opportunist riding them. Don't sneer, analyse.
Chris Burford
London