Oh no! It’s that man again!

To my mind a retiring characteristic is sometimes sad because the person concerned can sometimes have a lot to offer in the line of good company. Unfortunately it seems that this is a characteristic which does not seem to be possessed by politicians. It is now widely recognised that Winston Churchill took on one premiership too far and that Margaret Thatcher would have done herself more good by retiring gracefully to a more therapeutic life style. Tony Blair is no exception. I was one of the many who now have to confess that I thought he would make a big difference for the better. I now feel betrayed and embarrassed while he no doubt thinks he did a great job.

If a great job includes expanding police powers, undervaluing the right to silence, more privatisation, failing to see that the bankers were taking us to the cleaners, failing to maintain a public housing programme and going into two wars, one without the kit and the other without the truth, then the boy done well. That is no doubt why he became a peace envoy for the Middle East and the promoter of inter faith knowledge, and now, could become President of the European Union. Surely he has done enough. Having recently seen his speech to his annual conference some fourteen years ago about how the elderly would no longer have to put up with poverty in their retirement etc .and then hearing the news last week that the present government is still coming up with ideas for self-funded insurance policies for residential care. I decided I had had enough exercise in the cringe department.

With New Labour’s betrayal of their voter base and more and more grand promises that cannot be delivered, ( and with earlier promises being broken e.g. the troops in Afghanistan will get everything they want!), I am now one of the electoral homeless awaiting some credible politicians to come up with some deliverable policies which might actually do something about the accumulating problems of youth unemployment, social injustice and so many other problems on the downward spiral of incompetence that has got this nation where it is. One thing I am pretty certain of is that whether or not Mr Blair becomes President of the European Union will make not a bit of difference, apart from making EU summits a bit awkward for Gordon.