Comments on: Blairism is dead and gone – the left should stop talking about it

By: Brian M. Leahy

Brian M. Leahy — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 11:05:31 +0000

Surely we risk repeating mistakes of history if we forget their result one of which was the emergence of that group of Blarite MPs who attempted to betray the existing leader of the Labour Party.

By: bill

bill — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 11:03:11 +0000

Blairism is of course not at all dead in that most of the Labour PLP still ideologically endorses its main tenets and brooks no challenge, demonising anyone who dares to question or heaven forbid challenge the neoliberal consensus upon which it is built;thus new members largely supporting Corbyn are trots,dogs etc and the PLP actively seeks to undermine and destroy them and any influence they may have to bring change….. Even a massive increase in membership causes few if any to stop and question if they have maybe misunderstood what is truly going on in Britain so hopelessly indoctrinated are they with the Blairite ideology. Worse still ,worse even than the naivete which might have it that something new might be born under the Tory Party!, is that the Left” lost” the economic arguments following the Crash ,lost because it simply didnt have any then and even today believes that Labour should have fiscal credibility rules and deal with deficits so still uses the language of that same economic orthodoxy which has so obviously and completely failed, hoping against hope that Tory accountants wont tear apart their financial figures in the months before a General Election,that somehow tax revenues will pay for a series of anti-austerity programmes,where voters will recoil in horror and fear to embrace that same orthodoxy of household economics which is,unbeknown to them who have never heard an alternative explanation, their worst enemy ……Blairism is alive and well and permeates the full gambit of British politics and wont be defeated until the Left leads the challenge head on using an entirely different economic language,one which recognises the usefulness of deficits and the power of a currency-issuing sovereign state for dynamic change

By: Eddie Clarke

Eddie Clarke — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 14:02:14 +0000

Of course “Blairism”, if it ever existed, is dead! Ditto neo-liberalism, and, long past hope, socialism. The electorate in every democracy is in disarray, prey to populists of every hue. The US political system is paralysed, the British state is crumbling, as are the EU and the Western alliance. There are massive movements of people underway across the globe while power seeps away from national governments to increasingly opaque global companies, their tentacles sneaking into every aspect of our economy, private and public. Meanwhile, we have to witness the agony of the Labour Party, as a old 70’s leftie parades absurd fantasies unrelated to any of the above before cheering crowds in his march to “victory”, ie leadership of an irrelevance, the one-time hope of ordinary people. Worse, we have to endure a debate awash with even more irrelevancies. Chilcott? Austerity? We are sleepwalking into an age of “managed democracy”, not “digital democracy” (the politics of social media) and we get endless, pointless, backward-looking, puffed-up nonsense pretending to be politics. I am afraid this is just another one, though better written and with a slender connection with current reality. Yes, please stop talking about Blair all the attendant, out-dated obsessions, so well embodied in Jeremy Corbyn, and start to think about how we can build communities (not just of believers), coalitions (not just of the converted) and real politics (not just marching and cheering) to strengthen the democratic state to face real globalised dangers. Some hope. It is the populists’ day.

By: Michael WALKER

Michael WALKER — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 12:07:05 +0000

“The most successful economies in the world — whether in East Asia or northern Europe — are those which never succumbed to neoliberalism, but instead made pragmatic use of an active state to guide and stimulate the economy.”

The MOST SUCCESSFUL economy in the world is the US one.
There is no active state intervention there (except in crises)

And the Chinese one is not a democracy..

By: Anthony Sperryn

Anthony Sperryn — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 11:40:12 +0000

In practical terms, what is needed is people to draft the legislation to put into effect a new vision. If it is done properly, individual voters will see that there is something in it for each of them.

In my Facebook album, “My Claim to Fame” (open to all Facebook subscribers), I have gathered together some of my writings which may be useful in formulating the new vision.

I have not put in the album much about some issues, such as wider share ownership, worker participation, regulation and control of markets (nearly all of which are rigged), citizens or basic income, pensions and inheritance…..but I hope your readers will be able to pick up on some of the ideas I set out.