Britain delivers damning verdict on Blair's 10 years

[cal04]

Exclusive poll: public says PM has failed to improve country
A remarkable picture of the way Tony Blair has lost the faith of British voters over his 10 years in power is revealed today by a comprehensive study of public attitudes towards the Prime Minister.

As Blair prepares to leave office, the poll of more than 2,000 adults shows that people believe the country is a more dangerous, less happy, less pleasant place to live. There was a negative response to nearly all of more than 40 questions the public was asked about trust in politics, how they felt about their own lives and whether public services had got better.

Despite some independent evidence that services have improved and the economy has performed well compared with other industrialised nations, the poll shows how damning the public's verdict is on Blair and his government.

(snip)
The poll suggests voters do think some communities benefited under Labour, with 51 per cent believing Britain is now a better place for ethnic minorities and 61 per cent that it is better for gays and lesbians. However, political scientists David Sanders and Paul Whiteley, analysing the poll for today's Observer, argue that for some this could actually be a negative, reflecting 'a belief that New Labour has "looked after them but not after people like me".' Women, who were critical to sealing Labour's last three victories, were more likely than men to think Blair untrustworthy and say they liked him less than they used to. The Iraq war is seen as Blair's nadir, with 58 per cent judging it his biggest failure: almost two-thirds thought he had just followed America. His biggest success was the Northern Ireland peace process, followed by Bank of England independence.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2052546,00.html

[marmar]

1. Tony, when you lie down with dogs....

you wake up with fleas. :nopity:

[TheBaldyMan]

2. Blair has benefitted the super-rich and corporations,

his policies are a neo-con wet-dream.

Privatisation, corporate welfare, tax cuts, weak labour laws, dishonest accounting - it's like Thatcher never left office.

Most of the extra public spending has ended up in the pockets of management consultancies specialising in privatised services and the privitised service companies themselves. A revolving door policy between consultants, commercial firms and the civil service perpetuates the incestuous loop.

[Vidar]

4. Amen to that.

[Briar]

3. And the independence of the

Bank of England was Brown's reform anyway.