Spookily,
Tony Blair MP really does seem to be
Tory Plan B, deserving his
anagram more than anyone else I know of. The
Tory party ruled the country for 18 years, throughout which they were actively hated by a large proportion of the
British population, and at the end of which even most
Conservatives were pretty sick of them. So what are
Tories to do when almost the entire country turns against them and their policies? Why, turn to
Plan B: Put a
tory in charge of the 'opposition.' Of course! That way, when tens of millions of people turn up to
vote against you, you don't need to worry about
income tax being put up, tax-payer's money being wasted on
public services like
health and
education, namby-pamby
civil liberties advocates getting in the way of ever-increasing
police powers - heck, you can even look forward to the enthusiastic continuation of your
privatisation agenda! And people who think of themselves as
socialists will still vote for the people in charge of these policies, because they are still called the '
Labour Party' and because they are scared that if they don't they will end up with an even more
right-wing party in charge.
Sheer, ruthless genius.
Of course, I don't know if the whole thing has literally been planned by Tories, or if Tony Blair really does believe he is advancing the cause of social justice and the other traditional concerns of the Labour Party, or what. It is impossible to tell where Tony Blair is coming from. It's hard to imagine that he could ever really have believed in socialism, though.