General Election 2019

Moving in the right direction isn’t good enough.

I’m not disagreeing with what any of you guys are saying, I’m just trying to figure it out for myself. I really hope there are some inspiring candidates and we can elect someone who unites most of the left and centre left behind them.

More unicorns?

I really hope there are some inspiring candidates and we can elect someone who unites most of the left and centre left behind them.

I respect where you are coming from and I feel the same way. Don't know who it is though!

Is Blair angling for a comeback?

I liked him tbh, but don’t know if I can get past the Iraq war

That thought crossed my mind, surely not, he’s widely hated.

he’s widely hated

Presumably by loud people on Twitter?

Is he really widely hated? Even now? He's divisive. Sure.

Blair won't come back. But the party needs to stop making the mistake of demonising everything he did and to learn from him when he speaks. The British left love a loser and hate a winner - absolute opposite of the right.

Great speech.

But one delivered by a man who helped to shape the crisis in trust in politics, and who helped to legitimise the kind of "competition is good" mentality which has started to deconstruct our education and healthcare systems.

I think his brand is more toxic than he or the media realise, and it's telling that even Jess Philips has been keen to distance himself from him in her opening bids for leadership.

Jess Phillips had nothing to do with Tony Blair. She has every right to distance herself from him.

If it's a choice between moving in the right direction and moving in the wrong direction, which will you take?

Thanks for copy-pasting @Señor_Bear.
I always liked Blair bitd but I was just at school. I liked that speech, though maybe doesn't go quite far enough in being 'progressive'. His outright rejection of the 'far' left is too strong - they deserve a seat at the table surely? Compromise is the answer there.
I also thought it was interesting how he talked a lot about how stuff was too radical in the manifesto but then how he advocates for

new policy agenda for progressive politics

and openly admits it needs to be radical. This epitomises the issue: branding.

I think Labour needs a slightly less ambitious manifesto (but only slightly more right) delivered by an outwardly centrist leader with a strong team.

No I don’t think he did that. I think he understood he couldn’t appear too radical or he’d spook the electorate and the establishment. But there was some pretty forward thinking stuff, sure start centres, NHS walk in centres focus on ending child poverty, homelessness. None of that now of course.

Apologies if I'm being a bit thick here, but isn't this:

What we should have done, following June 2016, is accepted the result, said it was for the government to negotiate an agreement but reserved our right to critique that agreement and should it fail to be a good deal for the country, advocate the final decision should rest with the people.

what Labour were going for with a second referendum?

"Sure, you voted to leave, but let's just confirm you wanted to leave in the way that has been decided after these years"

There was months/years of infighting and unnecessary opaqueness first

Agreed, and spreading lies is of course going too far. But going on the offensive with someone as easy a target as Boris is unlikely to leave Labour in a worse position.

what Labour were going for with a second referendum?

Also, I think he is trying to say Brexit is a conservative thing, they need to own it. So avoid a GE until the deal is done by a Conservative govt, or the second ref has been forced by a remain alliance.

Good point, I had read it as a criticism of their actions during the election campaign, not the entire timeframe from 2016.

Figured I was missing something obvious!

Yep. A reasonable position, from Blair or Corbyn.

Was that ever Blairs position before now? I'm sure he was hard remain?

There's no easy answers here but centrism will just mean moving further and further to the right as the Tories move further to the far right.
Just like the Democrats in the States our political compass will become skewed to the right (it probably is already).

Oh yeah by all means go on the offensive - I'm not saying they should be soft.

Has anyone from the PLP acknowledged that their constant infighting and undermining the leader publicly at any opportunity might have had an effect on the labour vote?

Yup he was hard remain.

Also, anyone recall that Blair seemed to have believed in some Manichaen ultimate good vs. evil battle between Islam and Christianity and that was a central pillar to his supporting endless war in the middle east?

Yeah, love that guy.

In retrospect it was a really bad move agreeing to the election. Boris and Cumming were really sh*tting it the first time Labour refused . I think they should of forced another referendum