... not to mention the privatisation of chunks of the healthcare system, and the wholesale privatisation of social care, which has been an absolute disaster for everyone, except for owners and shareholders, who've profited on the back of incompetently run and poorly paid frontline workers.
That's right. I think a minute or two in the video to talk about the outsourcing of public services, PFI contracts, and introduction of markets into the NHS would have been good. Not least because Blair did more to push the NHS towards privatisation than Thatcher ever dared. Moreover, bearing in mind he was a Labour PM, it's worth reminding ourselves that outsourcing under New Labour suppressed wages, impeded union membership in the workforce, and had adverse effects on pensions and working conditions.
Tony Blair will be remembered by history chiefly as a war criminal but also the man who could have halted, but instead continued the disenfranchisement of the UK working class.
Great piece. The Labour party did become tories under Blair. We've had an SNP government in Scotland for 14 of the 15 years since Blair. That's not coincidence, it's a recognition among the electorate here that the Union facilitates the likes of Blair, Brown, Cameron. May and Johnson. Isn't it time the English caught on? Saor Alba 2023 ma pals
The party didn't. Many didn't like Blair in the party, sadly though it was the only time since Callaghan that we saw power which is why Starmer is desperate to be Blair Mark 2.
@@buntyjoy1800 I seem to recall that it was the other way around. George W Bush was determined to get revenge for 9/11, and his father had set the precedent for invading the Middle East just over ten years earlier.
@@buntyjoy1800 That was _after_ GW Bush and American intelligence had decided to pursue the military course of action against Saddam Hussein. The UK, and Blair, were just falling in line with their transatlantic ally. Bush emphatically started it all.
Love it. Bust that pedestal in the dirt. It’s time the media catch up with the public consensus on Blair. And you have perfectly and reasonably illustrated why this Blair-love the media has is tone deaf and wilfully ignorant. Sadly, I fear that the people who really do need to hear this message are too emotionally committed to reliving the dream of the Blair years to listen.
The housing failure is massive isn't it. He pressed the accelerator on inherited Thatcher/Major policies, which is shameful. Labour should have been unpicking the structural inequality around housing (and captured markets). Instead they used it to their advantage for elections...and here we are. Blair's record of spending sounds great, but it was just operational spend to sweeten awful long term strategy (ie spending on homeless shelters, while strategising an economy where housing costs are rocketing) All the spending did was sprinkle some sugar on Thatcher's structure. Now we have bedded-in long-term structural hardship.
@@SH-fz9dy we have a distribution problem. Plenty of houses, but the extra privatisation since 1990 means many have 2+ homes and some have 100+ That's the main problem. We're being exploited.
Not to mention losing scotland, making Labours chances of ever being elected again very slim. I said it at the time and will say it again now, Tony Blair was the single worst thing that ever happened to the Labour party.
Labour didn't "lose Scotland", the decades of barely concealed contempt for Scotland by wasteminster, the cruel and arbitrary policy making and the literal theft, privatising and profiteering of our natural resources; which England is still wholly reliant on today, while promoting the narrative we're a "financial burden", "lost Scotland". Right-wing wasteminster leaders and policy being incompatible with the sensibilities of the Scottish people, "lost Scotland". Siding with the establishment and repeating lies and untruths during the independence referendum "lost Scotland". Telling us voting against independence was the only way to stay in the EU then dragging us through f*cking Brexit "lost Scotland". And, funnily enough mate, the great lie that our votes made any difference to the result of a wasteminster election what so f*cking ever, "lost Scotland". Honestly, if I hear one more uniformed, blinkered English person pontificating that Scotland not voting labour is the reason labour lose I'm gonna f*cking lose the plot. Can I please suggest you read just a wee bit of history and see how many years we threw our votes away on Labour to still wind up with a Tory government...
@@cbdaudio7975 You misunderstand, I don't blame the Scottish. Makes total sense why Scotland wants nothing more to do with Westminster. Hell I'm English and I want nothing to do with them either. But one of the people directly responsible for that neglect, and the man in power when it finally flipped, was Blair. Hence Blair objectively "lost Scotland." And the electoral math is not complicated, without those votes it is basically impossible. Not your fault, If I were Scottish I would vote for independence too, but that is the simple truth.
His finest and most valuable achievement was how to entertain after dinner guests by speaking and raking in their fees. He never matched up to any requirements of socialism.
It is excellent because it also tells the story that Blair's economic and warmongering policies failures are also the failures of THATCHER and the TORIES SINCE THATCHER, but that BLAIR was even worse than Thatcher, which takes some doing, because she is the MONSTER who started all this, and BLAIR doubled up on those MONSTROUS, DISASTER NEOLIBERAL CAPITALISM policies, which have led us to where we are now. The only thing missing from this is that Blair led to Brown, who led to Starmer, and if there is one word which perfectly describes what Starmer is doing right now, as "Labour" Leader it is MCCARTHYISM.
None of them will accept responsibility for their failures, all of them did their bit to ruin this country, especially this narcissist we have in power now.
The scale of the Blair failure is still blindingly obvious to-day. He had the opportunity to reform political party funding. He could have limited maximum donations, reducing the rampant corruption and bribery of successive Tory governments. He could have made political donations from unidentified donors illegal. He could have given shareholders similar powers to union members in making political donations. He could have made it impossible for Russian and other foreign entities to interfere in UK politics. If he had made these reforms we would not have had Brexit. He promised to remove the hereditary peers. (He didn't). His role in politics ensured that the Labour Party effectively endorsed and supported the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians to which it is even more committed under Starmer. His enthusiasm for PFI led to the rampant privatisation we have to-day. Income inequality actually increased under Blair in large measure because he failed to implement reforms to income tax and corporation tax. His total lack of interest in taxing the rich and presenting that as a benefit to the population, the completely discredited "trickle down" economic model, was disastrous. I could write a book on the damage New Labour did to politics in the UK.
As the link to the working class and trade unions weakens and is even severed, New Labour is preparing to become like the US Dems. A party of big money from the big hedge funds etal. Starmer lied to become leader. The aim is to make Britain a land of three Thatcherite parties: Tory, Lib Dem, New Labour
He took Maggies leavings and ran with them, cashing in most of the tangible assets in the process. I personally believe that the main reason for the Iraq episode was that Maggie came out of the Falklands affair smelling of roses and he thought it would work for him too.
@P JL What you forget is that Blair won his first election on a landslide but on a more progressive platform than he implemented when he actually got into power. He abandoned most of his promises when he became PM. New Labour lost ground in every subsequent election because it failed to deliver.
They do need to return to that to win. And that, in a nutshell, is all you need to know about how rigged the system is (media,) how brainwashed people are, and how fucked we are. Better now to operate at grass roots level and try and improve things locally, imho.
I have gotten a big "lol" at the mainstream media calling Putin a war criminal whilst simultaneously trying to rehab the image of Blair and Brown recently.
"Manufacturing fell more under Blair than under Thatcher." I noticed. After getting a degree in Manufacturing engineering (paid for by Tony Blair student loans and encouraged by Tony Blair's policy of getting 50% of school leavers through university), I suddenly found big name manufacturers like Rover, Seddon-Atkinson, Brush traction and Masser-Ferguson were either closing or moving production abroad.
the central dynamic of the Blair economy is accurately identified as the split between rocketing property prices and anaemic wage growth - it has fallen in real terms for 14 years now. However, we should also identify the main driver of this disparity. It was the creation of seismic levels of private sector debt. This was done first by deregulating banks allowing them to effectively print money rather than use bank deposits to lend out higher and higher amounts. It is this lending that drive house price growth, not some magic "demand" that came out of either nowhere or increased migration. since the GFC, this seismic levels of private sector debt has been reignited by quantitative easing (QE) - the printing by the Bank of England of bank reserves. This continues. The bailout has NEVER ended despite what the BBC's Laura Kuensberg says - lies- about the banking crisis being over. QE means banks no longer need our money, and so give 0.5% interest rate. on savings. This is destroying the value of our money, and homeowners have little recourse but to buy up more houses with cheap debt because even the lousy return from rents vs house price is way better than the 0.5% savings rate. We are now locked into this system. We either allow a crash in the economy, or housing becomes more and more unaffordable and the value of our money gets less and less. Dystopia, and is why I WILL NEVER VOTE New Labour again.
This is just the policy failures. Let's also remind ourselves that New Labour also normalised the disingenuous showboating, control-freakery and attacks on journalism that have tainted British politics ever since. We are no longer run by people who want to make the country a better place, we are run by clowns who think being in politics sounds like a good wheeze.
@@redlightmax I don't think it was a right wing/left wing thing. They had a team of people organising messaging in a way that had not been done before, New Labour candidates brought the whole 'say your piece, don't answer the question' thing to interviews in a way we had not seen before; they literally stage-managed events (there are some funny clips of dumbfounded journalists being astonished by the pantomime nature of the pre-organised crowds at speaking events e.g. v=kPV1Dz5bq_I). In power there was a ruthless control of messaging, bullying of journalists and outlets over access to information (Trump reminded me of this). At the time in the UK this was quite unprecedented.
Spin, spin, spin. Shiny suits and PR bullshit. Of course, politicians have always learned how to repackage the truth. But, Labour definitely refined and expanded that. Just look at Cameron: a natural heir travelling the road that Labour laid down.
One of the few figures I've found who unites most working class people in this country. Unfortunately for him and his acolytes it unites us in antipathy.
@@petermanley7525 yeah, no matter how many people say someone’s a war criminal, they aren’t one until they’re tried, that is the fine line between reality and the mob rule the corbynites want
Preaching to the converted with me: Blair helped create conditions that enabled the "austerity" theft instituted by Cameron's tories. Starmer seems to be a Blair clone - more disaster for the working class!
Blair now knows that the war in Iraq was a mistake and that many people today are still suffering because of it. He has made many millions in recent years which could be used to help them, but he will not use the money for that because he has to be rich and powerful and people don't matter to him.
You missed his greatest failure, the U turn on electoral reform after his 97 landslide victory. It was pretty much the only situation where such reform could have been implemented, the failure to do so being the cause of the last 12 years of failed government as well as likely the reason he was able to invade Iraq.
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned below but on top of his catalogue of disaster this odious man also opened the floodgate to immigration which however you look at it has put a strain (some say broken) on housing and the NHS because the infrastructure wasn't in place.
You're going way too light on him, Aaron. Improving the national GDP means nothing on its own. New Labour did see some benefits to the working class, but they were minor and done on a fundamentally undemocratic framework, something you allude to somewhat by bringing up how these increases in funding were supported by the deregulated banking sector, but don't properly articulate. Communities should have genuine local democracy, including democracy within their workplaces and economic security, not just elitist technocrats in a big city 200km away bestowing funding upon them through the goodness of their hearts.
Didnt he do well !! i think you will find his net worth is around £60,000,000 not bad going really for a politician and he introduced the idea of wind power too , basically like johnson anything he touched turned toxic, thank you for a great video.
Very good piece. We need a politics of anti -interventionist,low immigration, Affordable housing,infrastructure, Industrialisation+Manufacturing+Productivity growth.
Im surprised you didnt use any Buy Now Pay Later culture that imo defines Tony Blairs leadership But a much needed reminder of the thirst for material wealth of neolibs & how far their lies will go to line their own pockets at our expense
Well done for this analysis of Blair's premiership. Following Blair's first term of office I stopped voting Labour and joined the Greens - he should always be known a Tory Blair. Thatcher was absolutely right to see him as a fellow traveller and natural successor to all that she'd put in place. We mustn't forget that Murdoch was also a staunch backer of Blair - that in itself should raise alarm bells about Blair's credentials to lead a Labour (Socialist???) Party. And yes - I see him as a war criminal.
The test of Blair for Labour party or socialist voters is whether he was better than Major , Thatcher , Cameron , May or Johnson. Its not what a fictional Labour PM might have done
The changing face of education in the UK really started to take off when Thatcher approved the creation of more comprehensive schools than ever before or since. Standards have been dropping ever since. Also, the slow process of NHS privatisation was begun under Thatcher. Blair certainly kicked it into high gear though.
Not when I was working in the NHS from 1995 to 2008, no but a bit of privatisation was creeping in and many of us were unhappy about it. Anyway it's been galloping in since 2010 and a US have just built the first of a real private hospital opposite Buck House. Things are about to get much worse, so I suggest the young forget Blair . I have been fighting since the 60s in vain. I supported Corbyn . We needed people to stay in Labour and fight back against the disaster that is Starmer. Some of us will still do so as thete are still some good Labour Mps and councillors.
@@jasonuren3479 no he didn't. It was actually halted under Blair though I believe it was Brown who pushed for the social stuff. It did start to creep in under Blair but it has been rampant since Cameron Hunt and Lansley got into power.
@@patcampton9799 Not sure what you're saying 'no he didn't' to? That it didn't kick into high gear under Blair? Here's just one of many examples proving privatisation did kick into high gear under Blair. A headline from 2006 Guardian reads *'Blair welcomes private firms into the NHS.* Tony Blair today welcomed 11 private healthcare into the NHS family as he promised them the chance to gain a stronger foothold in the NHS. 'Predicting that the private sector would soon provide up to 40% of NHS operations, Mr Blair said the Independent providers _could_ help drive up the quality of service to patients which he said was 'the most important thing.' Also a channel called The Great NHS Heist is worth a look.
A lot of Blair's supporters are teamsters who just cheer on Labour like football fans. Doesn't matter if there's not a single person left from when first caught their attention, they're attached the name and adapt their own preferences to fit the merits of the name, rather than remaining principled in their beliefs and shifting their allegiance to what best fits those principles. Whilst that method isn't my preference, I understand it's how some people are wired for better or worse.
Taxing the rich is important to diminish their power over the economy and for redistributibe measures but again, you don't use taxes to fund stuff. The UK is outside the euro, it has its own currency. Spending comes first, taxes later. Until the left understands how fiat money works, we will always be at the mercy of the right.
Inflation doesn't include housing prices?? What was the rationale for that at the time? Surely they didn't just out-and-out admit it was to cloak policy failure.
The old RPI used to be used as the main measure for Public Sector pay increases, so that Civil Servants, Doctors, Nurses, Police, Waste Disposal Operatives et al could maintain some form of pay parity. The Public Sector will never now catch up.
While certainly not the worst thing that's ever happened to me by a long shot, I do feel like it's worth mentioning that this government gave us mandatory volunteering. A baffling contradiction in terms and also completely illegal, but of course they got away with it regardless, it's the government, they're always above the law. Wasn't it them wot also did zero-hours work? Another contradiction in terms (and one that's sadly lasted). Can't remember if that was the red tories or the blue ones.
3:30 I don't understand why you aren't also showing the housing price to income ratio for other western European countries for that time period. If you look up the OECD data, most western European countries followed a similar trend in the increase of the ratio. Germany was the only major exception I could find where it decreased during that period.
Blair faced the Iraq inquiry soon after though while Bush didnt face any prosecution knowing there wasnt any weapons. He was led as a US hero. See why no EU member wanted him in becouse of his crimes, and Iraq wasn't set as capitalism or democratic becouse factions were radical and do any means of power, the people is who suffered and knowing their country had been bloom to crap out of US and UK operation that looked like the blitz, tragedy ww2, objective Baghdad, and there is skeletons in that war which wouldnt be surprised. And over time your seeing Iraq situation of outsiders manipulating and taking resources that led too Saddem being militaristic. People will understand that but be complicit on ye had to be taken out. Look at it now. Iraq just like Afghanistan never had a chance on the world stance or trade becouse other countrys exploited and took advantage of their seaports, trade routes and water supplies. The only reliance they had was oil.
The idea that regulation is the reason for all bank failures completely ignores the international aspect, international monetary policy. And the failure of the National Bank. As long as you are stuck using entertainment movies for your analysis, your not gone get anywhere. And lets remember that it is Labor that interceded the regulation that made housing so hard to build. To fully relay on the government for housing is crazy. Its not how actually successful countries do it, just look at Japan.
This is a great overview of Blair's Labour's faults (and successes). I was always aware they didn't do nearly enough on housing, a few other things, and conceded a bit to the centre-right, but generally thought their government was (at home) pretty successful with room for improvement and being a little more radical (hence why I'd take a Labour government of any form whether Blair, Corbyn or Starmer over the Tories). However everything the Conservatives criticised Labour for were things that were just outright false, debatable or that they're even more guilty of, which largely made Labour look more competent if you didn't fall for the lies. This video however highlights some aspects I never knew and may not have cared to research. It's good to have that criticism coming from the left in contrast to looney right wing falsehoods as it gives a better case for why a lefter leaning government could potentially do even better (if the public can be brought on side, though many of the influential and powerful will try to block this)
I agree total disaster but the bit you've not mentioned is that Blair destroyed the Labour Party now it has to have Tory Policies so those of us that want something different can't at least whilst we have this first past the post system, The only thing we get with LAbour is the same policies but implemented with a little more compasion.
Well he was a disappointment in many ways but because the 18 years beforehand were dire for most of us who lived through it the new Labour years were much better . I remember the crumbling hospitals and schools . So on the whole most of us were better off. Also house prices started to double during the 80s. My first home a two up and two down bought for 5K. In 79 was sold for £11500 in 84 . If the Tories had stayed in we would have been in even more dire straights by now. We all know now however that he was no Labour politician, that's why he lost votes. Any Tory PM would have gone into Iraq and we wouldn't have had the better things that happened. Certainly things have never been worse in my life time until now and I was born just after the war. I have no time for him now but Starmer is worse in my view.
i don't agree that economic growth to fund public services is a one off and can't be repeated when the economy stops growing - if the economy is now way bigger than before, there will be way more tax revenues each year than before... so it will only seem like the government has less money because of either waste or people getting used to higher level of gov spending and wanting it to increase even more... it's like if you get a pay rise, at first you will be happiest but then over time you'll get used to the higher amount of money and the novelty will wear off - but you still have more money each year than before the pay rise, surely? Would be happy to be corrected on any of that
It has to be in its context, Labour had been out of power for 18 years. The political/economic landscape had been transformed, as the decline in manufacturing testifies. This changed work/patterns/culture and emphasis. The mistake the LP made was a certain acceptance of the neo-liberal model but when the economy was delivering growth and election victories for Labour, who was going to change the mind-set? What most would accept, is that from 1997 - 2008 we actually had a government far better than we have currently been served up with under this government. Aaron, if you did a poll ...A return of Blair and his government or sticking with this one? How do you think that poll would look?
@@annenunney9907 'Red Tories' ...We need to cut through that trite. Just a government that hones in on standards and a platform of policies that are designed to clear out the Augean stables, should be enough. Our system is broken and its taking the Country down. Scotland will be independent in a few years. Then our problems really begin.
That's an easy choice. But the point is that Blair's government, in today's context would be calling for austerity as it would not tackle inequality. They wouldn't be too different from the Tories.
I disapprove of him never his 'get women out ot work' policy ! He was totally wrong. Trad wives are 8:11 salt of the earth and do a lot hidden good like having time for their children and caring about the old in the family and not dumping them in care homes prematurely. What our nursing mothers? Ideally feeding as nature intended ccn carry on for at least over two years Babies must bond with their mothers and must not be parted and put in nurseries except I'm emergencies. I strongly disapprove of daycare because mothers are the children's first teachers and they can teach their children themselves usually and need to bond. There is mother's instinct and intuition which daycare does not have. Motherhood and careers do not go properly at the same time. Their is a society Mothers at Home Matter which has many experts guiding it. I approve of it.
significant plus point : Greater equality for LGBT. A whole raft of laws including civil partnerships, same-sex adoption etc. I'm surprised this was omitted from the recent documentary on the Blair & Brown years. Corbyn says he would've done more but this is ground-breaking stuff. Of course, this doesn't negate the disaster of the Iraq was, but it has to be acknowledged. The Conservative admin of the time wouldn't have had the courage to do any of these things.
You should really do a book on the story of the housing crisis, Aaron. Would be good to see more people laying out the fact this is not just a blip in the market, but the final proof of zombie neoliberalism coming apart at the seams.
We have a Labour leader who was a lawyer but held the highest legal position who has refused to state his interpretation of all the legal evidence on WMD and if Blair was guilt, this is the same leader who day job was to look at evidence and decide if person is guilty or not.
Actually Starmer wrote a Guardian article in 2003 condemning Blair's justification for the Iraq war (saying it had no basis in law) and Blair himself for doing so. This is one of the best things about Starmer. Unfortunately he seems to have changed his views on Blair as he feels that's more electable. To be clear my thoughts on Blair are mixed, I liked his first term, but he drifted ever further to the right and against civil liberties after that. He was still so much better than the Conservatives that came after him though (I would take him over them any day), particularly the current ones.
... not to mention the privatisation of chunks of the healthcare system, and the wholesale privatisation of social care, which has been an absolute disaster for everyone, except for owners and shareholders, who've profited on the back of incompetently run and poorly paid frontline workers.
That's right. I think a minute or two in the video to talk about the outsourcing of public services, PFI contracts, and introduction of markets into the NHS would have been good. Not least because Blair did more to push the NHS towards privatisation than Thatcher ever dared. Moreover, bearing in mind he was a Labour PM, it's worth reminding ourselves that outsourcing under New Labour suppressed wages, impeded union membership in the workforce, and had adverse effects on pensions and working conditions.
Contracting to private hospitals is merely a way of improving efficiency and reducing waiting list times. Surely that should be the main priority.
Tony Blair will be remembered by history chiefly as a war criminal but also the man who could have halted, but instead continued the disenfranchisement of the UK working class.
Brilliantly put Novara Media.
Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson. I wonder what it’s like to live in a caring, happy country.
You forgot potential Keir
Great piece. The Labour party did become tories under Blair. We've had an SNP government in Scotland for 14 of the 15 years since Blair. That's not coincidence, it's a recognition among the electorate here that the Union facilitates the likes of Blair, Brown, Cameron. May and Johnson. Isn't it time the English caught on?
Saor Alba 2023 ma pals
The party didn't. Many didn't like Blair in the party, sadly though it was the only time since Callaghan that we saw power which is why Starmer is desperate to be Blair Mark 2.
He marched us into Iraq in am illegal war making our response to Ukraine hypocritical. He set a precedent.
wrt the Iraq War, Blair's mistake wasn't so much to set a precedent, but to follow a President.
@@ftumschk It seems to be Blair convincing Bush that there were WMDs.
@@buntyjoy1800 I seem to recall that it was the other way around. George W Bush was determined to get revenge for 9/11, and his father had set the precedent for invading the Middle East just over ten years earlier.
@@ftumschk It was British intelligence that said there were WMDs
@@buntyjoy1800 That was _after_ GW Bush and American intelligence had decided to pursue the military course of action against Saddam Hussein. The UK, and Blair, were just falling in line with their transatlantic ally. Bush emphatically started it all.
Thank you for this, Aaron.
Love it. Bust that pedestal in the dirt. It’s time the media catch up with the public consensus on Blair. And you have perfectly and reasonably illustrated why this Blair-love the media has is tone deaf and wilfully ignorant. Sadly, I fear that the people who really do need to hear this message are too emotionally committed to reliving the dream of the Blair years to listen.
The housing failure is massive isn't it. He pressed the accelerator on inherited Thatcher/Major policies, which is shameful.
Labour should have been unpicking the structural inequality around housing (and captured markets). Instead they used it to their advantage for elections...and here we are.
Blair's record of spending sounds great, but it was just operational spend to sweeten awful long term strategy (ie spending on homeless shelters, while strategising an economy where housing costs are rocketing)
All the spending did was sprinkle some sugar on Thatcher's structure. Now we have bedded-in long-term structural hardship.
We didn't have a housing shortage until he opened the borders.
@@SH-fz9dy we have a distribution problem. Plenty of houses, but the extra privatisation since 1990 means many have 2+ homes and some have 100+
That's the main problem. We're being exploited.
Heart breaking to know we had Corbyn and we weren't "revolutionary" enough with it. Too soft, too apologetic, we were walked all over. Never again
Not to mention losing scotland, making Labours chances of ever being elected again very slim. I said it at the time and will say it again now, Tony Blair was the single worst thing that ever happened to the Labour party.
I remember them coming to power, the thought of real change. We got it but not the changes we wanted.
Kier Starmer is trying hard to push him into 2nd place!!!
Damn... you took the words out of my mouth!
Labour didn't "lose Scotland", the decades of barely concealed contempt for Scotland by wasteminster, the cruel and arbitrary policy making and the literal theft, privatising and profiteering of our natural resources; which England is still wholly reliant on today, while promoting the narrative we're a "financial burden", "lost Scotland". Right-wing wasteminster leaders and policy being incompatible with the sensibilities of the Scottish people, "lost Scotland". Siding with the establishment and repeating lies and untruths during the independence referendum "lost Scotland". Telling us voting against independence was the only way to stay in the EU then dragging us through f*cking Brexit "lost Scotland".
And, funnily enough mate, the great lie that our votes made any difference to the result of a wasteminster election what so f*cking ever, "lost Scotland". Honestly, if I hear one more uniformed, blinkered English person pontificating that Scotland not voting labour is the reason labour lose I'm gonna f*cking lose the plot. Can I please suggest you read just a wee bit of history and see how many years we threw our votes away on Labour to still wind up with a Tory government...
@@cbdaudio7975 You misunderstand, I don't blame the Scottish. Makes total sense why Scotland wants nothing more to do with Westminster. Hell I'm English and I want nothing to do with them either. But one of the people directly responsible for that neglect, and the man in power when it finally flipped, was Blair. Hence Blair objectively "lost Scotland." And the electoral math is not complicated, without those votes it is basically impossible. Not your fault, If I were Scottish I would vote for independence too, but that is the simple truth.
His finest and most valuable achievement was how to entertain after dinner guests by speaking and raking in their fees. He never matched up to any requirements of socialism.
Not usually a fan of Bastani, but this video was very well made and well argued. Hope to see more like this.
It is excellent because it also tells the story that Blair's economic and warmongering policies failures are also the failures of THATCHER and the TORIES SINCE THATCHER, but that BLAIR was even worse than Thatcher, which takes some doing, because she is the MONSTER who started all this, and BLAIR doubled up on those MONSTROUS, DISASTER NEOLIBERAL CAPITALISM policies, which have led us to where we are now. The only thing missing from this is that Blair led to Brown, who led to Starmer, and if there is one word which perfectly describes what Starmer is doing right now, as "Labour" Leader it is MCCARTHYISM.
Gordon Brown should be asked about how so much of today’s poverty is linked to what happened to housing under his tenure
None of them will accept responsibility for their failures, all of them did their bit to ruin this country, especially this narcissist we have in power now.
The scale of the Blair failure is still blindingly obvious to-day. He had the opportunity to reform political party funding. He could have limited maximum donations, reducing the rampant corruption and bribery of successive Tory governments. He could have made political donations from unidentified donors illegal. He could have given shareholders similar powers to union members in making political donations. He could have made it impossible for Russian and other foreign entities to interfere in UK politics. If he had made these reforms we would not have had Brexit. He promised to remove the hereditary peers. (He didn't). His role in politics ensured that the Labour Party effectively endorsed and supported the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians to which it is even more committed under Starmer. His enthusiasm for PFI led to the rampant privatisation we have to-day. Income inequality actually increased under Blair in large measure because he failed to implement reforms to income tax and corporation tax. His total lack of interest in taxing the rich and presenting that as a benefit to the population, the completely discredited "trickle down" economic model, was disastrous. I could write a book on the damage New Labour did to politics in the UK.
As the link to the working class and trade unions weakens and is even severed, New Labour is preparing to become like the US Dems. A party of big money from the big hedge funds etal. Starmer lied to become leader. The aim is to make Britain a land of three Thatcherite parties: Tory, Lib Dem, New Labour
He took Maggies leavings and ran with them, cashing in most of the tangible assets in the process. I personally believe that the main reason for the Iraq episode was that Maggie came out of the Falklands affair smelling of roses and he thought it would work for him too.
Please write the book. I will buy a copy and recommended every single person I ever meet buys a copy too.
@@seanfaherty a frankly meaningless post that only exculpates. If the same thing can be said about everything, why bother commenting?
@P JL What you forget is that Blair won his first election on a landslide but on a more progressive platform than he implemented when he actually got into power. He abandoned most of his promises when he became PM. New Labour lost ground in every subsequent election because it failed to deliver.
Super-important to talk about this considering how many people within the Labour right insist we have to return to Blairite politics to win
It's like they all forgot the illegal wars and the fact that his reign paved the way for our current political situation
@@mojotheaverage illegal wars...hmm? 🤔 you mean the millions who died on his say so?? 🙃😉👍
@@_....J........................ tayt?..teat?...or just straight nipple! ..what a mammary gland! 😂🤣😢😥🤏💃🤌💪👍✌🖖
They do need to return to that to win.
And that, in a nutshell, is all you need to know about how rigged the system is (media,) how brainwashed people are, and how fucked we are.
Better now to operate at grass roots level and try and improve things locally, imho.
@@LKeet6 I totally agree, to rebuild you start with the ground and go up.
I have gotten a big "lol" at the mainstream media calling Putin a war criminal whilst simultaneously trying to rehab the image of Blair and Brown recently.
"Manufacturing fell more under Blair than under Thatcher."
I noticed. After getting a degree in Manufacturing engineering (paid for by Tony Blair student loans and encouraged by Tony Blair's policy of getting 50% of school leavers through university), I suddenly found big name manufacturers like Rover, Seddon-Atkinson, Brush traction and Masser-Ferguson were either closing or moving production abroad.
Putin, Bush, Blair in the dock at the Hague, a perfect world
Plus Netanyahu and Biden just for good measure 👍
fking amen.
the central dynamic of the Blair economy is accurately identified as the split between rocketing property prices and anaemic wage growth - it has fallen in real terms for 14 years now. However, we should also identify the main driver of this disparity. It was the creation of seismic levels of private sector debt.
This was done first by deregulating banks allowing them to effectively print money rather than use bank deposits to lend out higher and higher amounts. It is this lending that drive house price growth, not some magic "demand" that came out of either nowhere or increased migration. since the GFC, this seismic levels of private sector debt has been reignited by quantitative easing (QE) - the printing by the Bank of England of bank reserves. This continues. The bailout has NEVER ended despite what the BBC's Laura Kuensberg says - lies- about the banking crisis being over. QE means banks no longer need our money, and so give 0.5% interest rate. on savings.
This is destroying the value of our money, and homeowners have little recourse but to buy up more houses with cheap debt because even the lousy return from rents vs house price is way better than the 0.5% savings rate. We are now locked into this system. We either allow a crash in the economy, or housing becomes more and more unaffordable and the value of our money gets less and less. Dystopia, and is why I WILL NEVER VOTE New Labour again.
This is just the policy failures. Let's also remind ourselves that New Labour also normalised the disingenuous showboating, control-freakery and attacks on journalism that have tainted British politics ever since. We are no longer run by people who want to make the country a better place, we are run by clowns who think being in politics sounds like a good wheeze.
Hear hear!
@@redlightmax I don't think it was a right wing/left wing thing. They had a team of people organising messaging in a way that had not been done before, New Labour candidates brought the whole 'say your piece, don't answer the question' thing to interviews in a way we had not seen before; they literally stage-managed events (there are some funny clips of dumbfounded journalists being astonished by the pantomime nature of the pre-organised crowds at speaking events e.g. v=kPV1Dz5bq_I). In power there was a ruthless control of messaging, bullying of journalists and outlets over access to information (Trump reminded me of this). At the time in the UK this was quite unprecedented.
Spin, spin, spin. Shiny suits and PR bullshit. Of course, politicians have always learned how to repackage the truth. But, Labour definitely refined and expanded that. Just look at Cameron: a natural heir travelling the road that Labour laid down.
Bliar had to kiss Murdoch's ring to get the support of his gutter press rags.
Not to mention political correctness which now permeates through our society like a cancer.
The Big Short is a hugely underrated film!
One of the few figures I've found who unites most working class people in this country. Unfortunately for him and his acolytes it unites us in antipathy.
No wonder when asked what her best achievement was , That her said , Tony Blair and New Labour .
Brilliant! Thank you
An excellent summary of the War Criminal. In my opinion Blair epitomises everything that’s abhorrent.
When was he found guilty of war crimes?
@@Nick7901962 in the not to distant future
@@petermanley7525 so he hasn’t.. got it
@@Nick7901962 are you pleased then?
@@petermanley7525 yeah, no matter how many people say someone’s a war criminal, they aren’t one until they’re tried, that is the fine line between reality and the mob rule the corbynites want
Preaching to the converted with me: Blair helped create conditions that enabled the "austerity" theft instituted by Cameron's tories. Starmer seems to be a Blair clone - more disaster for the working class!
Blair now knows that the war in Iraq was a mistake and that many people today are still suffering because of it. He has made many millions in recent years which could be used to help them, but he will not use the money for that because he has to be rich and powerful and people don't matter to him.
You missed his greatest failure, the U turn on electoral reform after his 97 landslide victory.
It was pretty much the only situation where such reform could have been implemented, the failure to do so being the cause of the last 12 years of failed government as well as likely the reason he was able to invade Iraq.
Spot on. Great video
Gordon Brown screwed the pensioners. Blair is a Tory.
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned below but on top of his catalogue of disaster this odious man also opened the floodgate to immigration which however you look at it has put a strain (some say broken) on housing and the NHS because the infrastructure wasn't in place.
You're going way too light on him, Aaron. Improving the national GDP means nothing on its own. New Labour did see some benefits to the working class, but they were minor and done on a fundamentally undemocratic framework, something you allude to somewhat by bringing up how these increases in funding were supported by the deregulated banking sector, but don't properly articulate. Communities should have genuine local democracy, including democracy within their workplaces and economic security, not just elitist technocrats in a big city 200km away bestowing funding upon them through the goodness of their hearts.
There are days I frequently wonder what could have been if John Smith hadn't died in 1994.
Thank you very much
Didnt he do well !! i think you will find his net worth is around £60,000,000 not bad going really for a politician and he introduced the idea of wind power too , basically like johnson anything he touched turned toxic, thank you for a great video.
That's what I despise him for now, the personal wealth an the sucking up to some very dodgy leaders.
Couldn’t agree more with everything said herein.
And this is why Labour have more chance of platting fog then getting a vote from me.
If I remember correctly: Another thing was the huge increase in local authority CEO and Director,s pay. It went through the roof.
Very good piece.
We need a politics of anti -interventionist,low immigration, Affordable housing,infrastructure, Industrialisation+Manufacturing+Productivity growth.
Patiently waiting for someone to invent a time machine so we can go back to 1997 and buy a whole house for £65k….
Im surprised you didnt use any Buy Now Pay Later culture that imo defines Tony Blairs leadership
But a much needed reminder of the thirst for material wealth of neolibs & how far their lies will go to line their own pockets at our expense
Well done for this analysis of Blair's premiership. Following Blair's first term of office I stopped voting Labour and joined the Greens - he should always be known a Tory Blair. Thatcher was absolutely right to see him as a fellow traveller and natural successor to all that she'd put in place. We mustn't forget that Murdoch was also a staunch backer of Blair - that in itself should raise alarm bells about Blair's credentials to lead a Labour (Socialist???) Party. And yes - I see him as a war criminal.
Oh yeah, and he's godfather to one of Rupert Murdoch's children. So there's that.
Things that destroy a people when they stop paying ATTENTION. and that's why tories are in power.
The test of Blair for Labour party or socialist voters is whether he was better than Major , Thatcher , Cameron , May or Johnson. Its not what a fictional Labour PM might have done
Well he was in some regards. I wouldn't want him back and Starmer is killing the labour party slowly.
Well said.
Good piece, Aaron, but look what the British electorate have now.
Didn’t he also privatize schools and much of the NHS?
PPE
The changing face of education in the UK really started to take off when Thatcher approved the creation of more comprehensive schools than ever before or since. Standards have been dropping ever since. Also, the slow process of NHS privatisation was begun under Thatcher. Blair certainly kicked it into high gear though.
Not when I was working in the NHS from 1995 to 2008, no but a bit of privatisation was creeping in and many of us were unhappy about it. Anyway it's been galloping in since 2010 and a US have just built the first of a real private hospital opposite Buck House. Things are about to get much worse, so I suggest the young forget Blair . I have been fighting since the 60s in vain. I supported Corbyn . We needed people to stay in Labour and fight back against the disaster that is Starmer. Some of us will still do so as thete are still some good Labour Mps and councillors.
@@jasonuren3479 no he didn't. It was actually halted under Blair though I believe it was Brown who pushed for the social stuff. It did start to creep in under Blair but it has been rampant since Cameron Hunt and Lansley got into power.
@@patcampton9799 Not sure what you're saying 'no he didn't' to? That it didn't kick into high gear under Blair? Here's just one of many examples proving privatisation did kick into high gear under Blair.
A headline from 2006 Guardian reads *'Blair welcomes private firms into the NHS.* Tony Blair today welcomed 11 private healthcare into the NHS family as he promised them the chance to gain a stronger foothold in the NHS.
'Predicting that the private sector would soon provide up to 40% of NHS operations, Mr Blair said the Independent providers _could_ help drive up the quality of service to patients which he said was 'the most important thing.'
Also a channel called The Great NHS Heist is worth a look.
Thanks
A lot of Blair's supporters are teamsters who just cheer on Labour like football fans. Doesn't matter if there's not a single person left from when first caught their attention, they're attached the name and adapt their own preferences to fit the merits of the name, rather than remaining principled in their beliefs and shifting their allegiance to what best fits those principles.
Whilst that method isn't my preference, I understand it's how some people are wired for better or worse.
corporate capitalism at its worst
For all that, it wasn't too bad when you consider the alternative. Iain Duncan Smith anyone?
Taxing the rich is important to diminish their power over the economy and for redistributibe measures but again, you don't use taxes to fund stuff. The UK is outside the euro, it has its own currency. Spending comes first, taxes later. Until the left understands how fiat money works, we will always be at the mercy of the right.
Novara will never accept that tax can't fund spending, they are too in thrall to James Meadway
Let‘s not forget that he also started tuition fees in the uk
Brilliant video
War criminal
Agree with everything Aaron said but "Gen Zed" instead of "Gen Zee"? I'm not having that, it's an American term
The correct term is "zoomer' - this way nobody complains
Blair didn't just fail on the left's terms, he failed on his own
Got to give it to Thatcher she had some great lines
Inflation doesn't include housing prices?? What was the rationale for that at the time? Surely they didn't just out-and-out admit it was to cloak policy failure.
I seem to remember no rationale being given, rather it was announced with little fanfare in the media, presumably in the hope that no one would notice
The old RPI used to be used as the main measure for Public Sector pay increases, so that Civil Servants, Doctors, Nurses, Police, Waste Disposal Operatives et al could maintain some form of pay parity.
The Public Sector will never now catch up.
When Blair first wanted to enter politics he applied to the Tories for a candidacy...
While certainly not the worst thing that's ever happened to me by a long shot, I do feel like it's worth mentioning that this government gave us mandatory volunteering. A baffling contradiction in terms and also completely illegal, but of course they got away with it regardless, it's the government, they're always above the law. Wasn't it them wot also did zero-hours work? Another contradiction in terms (and one that's sadly lasted). Can't remember if that was the red tories or the blue ones.
Saw the title and clicked like 😃
I like the new format
Tony was a saint comparing to Boris and Brexit.
3:30 I don't understand why you aren't also showing the housing price to income ratio for other western European countries for that time period. If you look up the OECD data, most western European countries followed a similar trend in the increase of the ratio. Germany was the only major exception I could find where it decreased during that period.
Blair faced the Iraq inquiry soon after though while Bush didnt face any prosecution knowing there wasnt any weapons. He was led as a US hero. See why no EU member wanted him in becouse of his crimes, and Iraq wasn't set as capitalism or democratic becouse factions were radical and do any means of power, the people is who suffered and knowing their country had been bloom to crap out of US and UK operation that looked like the blitz, tragedy ww2, objective Baghdad, and there is skeletons in that war which wouldnt be surprised. And over time your seeing Iraq situation of outsiders manipulating and taking resources that led too Saddem being militaristic. People will understand that but be complicit on ye had to be taken out. Look at it now. Iraq just like Afghanistan never had a chance on the world stance or trade becouse other countrys exploited and took advantage of their seaports, trade routes and water supplies. The only reliance they had was oil.
it would have been interesting if Michael Meacher or John McDonnell defeated Brown in the 2007 Labour leadership election
The idea that regulation is the reason for all bank failures completely ignores the international aspect, international monetary policy. And the failure of the National Bank. As long as you are stuck using entertainment movies for your analysis, your not gone get anywhere.
And lets remember that it is Labor that interceded the regulation that made housing so hard to build. To fully relay on the government for housing is crazy. Its not how actually successful countries do it, just look at Japan.
Yes I remember John Smith, I think he could have been great prime minister, but he died suddenly and instead Tony Blair got in.
And even that wasn't as bad as the Tory gov we just had.
Now we have a rentier class
Well they are back for sure. Rentiers were pretty bad in the 50s and 60s as I recall especially in London. Look up Rachmann.
@@patcampton9799 yep. He's infamous. I'm a Londoner.
in the aftermath of John Smith's death Bernie Grant & Robin Cook had planned to work together as a leadership ticket
Don't trust him now he is still sticking his noise in it you could not stop his medathats because the queen in with him
This is a great overview of Blair's Labour's faults (and successes). I was always aware they didn't do nearly enough on housing, a few other things, and conceded a bit to the centre-right, but generally thought their government was (at home) pretty successful with room for improvement and being a little more radical (hence why I'd take a Labour government of any form whether Blair, Corbyn or Starmer over the Tories). However everything the Conservatives criticised Labour for were things that were just outright false, debatable or that they're even more guilty of, which largely made Labour look more competent if you didn't fall for the lies. This video however highlights some aspects I never knew and may not have cared to research. It's good to have that criticism coming from the left in contrast to looney right wing falsehoods as it gives a better case for why a lefter leaning government could potentially do even better (if the public can be brought on side, though many of the influential and powerful will try to block this)
I agree total disaster but the bit you've not mentioned is that Blair destroyed the Labour Party now it has to have Tory Policies so those of us that want something different can't at least whilst we have this first past the post system, The only thing we get with LAbour is the same policies but implemented with a little more compasion.
Well he was a disappointment in many ways but because the 18 years beforehand were dire for most of us who lived through it the new Labour years were much better . I remember the crumbling hospitals and schools . So on the whole most of us were better off. Also house prices started to double during the 80s. My first home a two up and two down bought for 5K. In 79 was sold for £11500 in 84 . If the Tories had stayed in we would have been in even more dire straights by now. We all know now however that he was no Labour politician, that's why he lost votes. Any Tory PM would have gone into Iraq and we wouldn't have had the better things that happened. Certainly things have never been worse in my life time until now and I was born just after the war. I have no time for him now but Starmer is worse in my view.
i don't agree that economic growth to fund public services is a one off and can't be repeated when the economy stops growing - if the economy is now way bigger than before, there will be way more tax revenues each year than before... so it will only seem like the government has less money because of either waste or people getting used to higher level of gov spending and wanting it to increase even more... it's like if you get a pay rise, at first you will be happiest but then over time you'll get used to the higher amount of money and the novelty will wear off - but you still have more money each year than before the pay rise, surely? Would be happy to be corrected on any of that
It has to be in its context, Labour had been out of power for 18 years. The political/economic landscape had been transformed, as the decline in manufacturing testifies. This changed work/patterns/culture and emphasis.
The mistake the LP made was a certain acceptance of the neo-liberal model but when the economy was delivering growth and election victories for Labour, who was going to change the mind-set?
What most would accept, is that from 1997 - 2008 we actually had a government far better than we have currently been served up with under this government. Aaron, if you did a poll ...A return of Blair and his government or sticking with this one? How do you think that poll would look?
@@annenunney9907 'Red Tories' ...We need to cut through that trite. Just a government that hones in on standards and a platform of policies that are designed to clear out the Augean stables, should be enough.
Our system is broken and its taking the Country down. Scotland will be independent in a few years. Then our problems really begin.
That's an easy choice. But the point is that Blair's government, in today's context would be calling for austerity as it would not tackle inequality. They wouldn't be too different from the Tories.
Aaron, taxes don’t fund spending - this is very important for you to understand to engage in a proper analysis.
It takes talent to build less council houses then Margaret thatcher
I disapprove of him never his 'get women out ot work' policy ! He was totally wrong. Trad wives are 8:11 salt of the earth and do a lot hidden good like having time for their children and caring about the old in the family and not dumping them in care homes prematurely. What our nursing mothers? Ideally feeding as nature intended ccn carry on for at least over two years
Babies must bond with their mothers and must not be parted and put in nurseries except I'm emergencies. I strongly disapprove of daycare because mothers are the children's first teachers and they can teach their children themselves usually and need to bond. There is mother's instinct and intuition which daycare does not have. Motherhood and careers do not go properly at the same time. Their is a society Mothers at Home Matter which has many experts guiding it. I approve of it.
significant plus point : Greater equality for LGBT. A whole raft of laws including civil partnerships, same-sex adoption etc. I'm surprised this was omitted from the recent documentary on the Blair & Brown years. Corbyn says he would've done more but this is ground-breaking stuff. Of course, this doesn't negate the disaster of the Iraq was, but it has to be acknowledged. The Conservative admin of the time wouldn't have had the courage to do any of these things.
Al built on vast amounts of debt, and endless borrowing. A little legacy for our grand children.
We had the war debts to pay back
It wasn't paid back until Brown was PM. That's how societies work I'm afraid.
Winning 3 GE's is about as successful as any PM gets; ultimately all PM's fail
Well done for explaining to everyone how shit the system is.
"He won elections."
Great, and what did he actually DO??
Tony Blair was the best Prime Minister the UK ever had. Unfortunately the far right and far left hated him because of his success.
do one on thatcher
Come on, surely these are just ugly rumours...
His eyes scare me
You should really do a book on the story of the housing crisis, Aaron. Would be good to see more people laying out the fact this is not just a blip in the market, but the final proof of zombie neoliberalism coming apart at the seams.
That will be soon when he brings outdigital I d
He’s a neocon collaborator
We have a Labour leader who was a lawyer but held the highest legal position who has refused to state his interpretation of all the legal evidence on WMD and if Blair was guilt, this is the same leader who day job was to look at evidence and decide if person is guilty or not.
Actually Starmer wrote a Guardian article in 2003 condemning Blair's justification for the Iraq war (saying it had no basis in law) and Blair himself for doing so. This is one of the best things about Starmer. Unfortunately he seems to have changed his views on Blair as he feels that's more electable.
To be clear my thoughts on Blair are mixed, I liked his first term, but he drifted ever further to the right and against civil liberties after that. He was still so much better than the Conservatives that came after him though (I would take him over them any day), particularly the current ones.
I voted for Blair a few times just to keep the Tories out. But even though Blair was bad. I would still pick him over Johnson.
He's reyt.
Hey schools - play this ! Or, continue to condition your students to vote for rich posh folk.
Good job doing the tories job for them, we all want a Labour government, we are not going to get one if we keep trashing the last Labour government
Great, now do one on David Cameron. Oh, you just attack Labour Party winners.
lying spiv