Vile Tories
A good fun essay on why he still (or still-ish) supports Tony Blair by John Lancaster in the LRB. As Lancaster notes, there are three reasons for the left to continue to support Blair even if they don't support him.1. You've forgotten how vile the Tories were.
2. The success of many of his policies.
3. It's better to be in government than out of it.
Point 3 may seem obvious, but I'd imagine there are few left-wing bloggers who haven't yearned for the simplicity of their righist colleagues who can denounce everything and say it would be better if only we were in charge. Point 2 needs a longer post than this, but basically is true, particularly when you remember what a mess of the country, socially and economically, the Tories left it in.
But point 1 is the most true. Lancaster puts it well,
"I've been amazed by how quick to forget people seem to be: specifically, how quick to forget the human and political ghastliness of the Party which ruled us for 18 years. I don't just mean Thatcher and the joke monsters like Hamilton, but the day-in, day-out ignominy of being ruled by men like Kenneth Baker and Norman Fowler, John Wakeham and Michael Howard; of turning on your TV to see Michael Heseltine in a combat jacket, or Ann Widdecombe waving a pair of handcuffs, or Michael Portillo talking about 'three letters which send a chill down the spine of the enemy: SAS', or John Selwyn Gummer over-energetically feeding his daughter a beefburger."
I'm sure everyone can remember all of those incidents, though it's perhaps worth adding that Portillo wasn't speaking to our enemies, but to our fellow EU members. It's hard now to recall how back in 1995 Portillo was the right-wing's wet dream of a leader, a fact that makes it all the more ironic that it was his revelations of a brief homosexual act that made them all turn on him.
posted by Matthew @ 7/03/2003 04:50:00 PM
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