This week Tony Blair left the office of Prime Minister for the last time and also resigned as an MP. He is now classified as one of the most "successful" Prime Minister’s in history. But what does successful mean? Is simply being able to win 3 elections enough to be classified as successful? What has he actually done for the country?
Probably one of the biggest changes in Scotland has been devolution. This has hopefully sent Scotland on the rocky path to independence. Ironically, Labour MPs thought devolution would kill independence stone dead.
However, that is about as good as it gets for the Blair administration. Embroiled in controversy after controversy, culminating in a disastrous war in Iraq. This week in Prime Minister’s Questions, Blair was in ebullient mood. Getting the serious bit out of the way first, acknowledging British forces fighting in wars, he then concentrated on treating the Commons as a stage for his act.
But the effect of the Iraq War, which Blair and his chum Bush instigated, cannot be that easily forgotten for some people. For instance, it is estimated that in the region of 70,000 civilians have been killed, as a result of military intervention in Iraq.
Regarding the military, Tony Blair had barely left number 10 Downing Street, when it was announced that another 3 British soldiers had been killed in Iraq. This brings the total to 156.
And what has it all been for? So Blair can look big in front of his old friend George? So George can secure oil supplies and multi-million re-generation contracts for American companies?
If the death of Scottish soldiers isn’t bad enough, today saw the potentially more serious way things are progressing with an attempted suicide attack on Glasgow airport.
So, good riddance Mr Blair. Good luck in your new job as Middle East envoy. With your history, you have about as much chance as bringing about Middle East peace as a scud missile.
Saturday, 30 June 2007
Thursday, 21 June 2007
I'm back!!
I am back after my brief blog hiatus.
Don’t know about the rest of you, but the lead up to the election and the election itself just zapped all my energy and it has taken until now to recover.
The SNP has wasted no time in setting about government and have announced a series of voter pleasing policies. Re-instatement of A&Es, scrapping of graduate endowments and cutting of class sizes have all been announced in the last month. Who said government was hard?
A hard choice that will no doubt be coming down the track faster than another reality TV show is who is going to be the next Labour leader. Jack McConnell is making all the right noises, “I like opposition,” etc etc, but the writing is surely on the wall for him. Who will be voted in to try to halt the SNP juggernaut? Wendy Alexander? Andy Kerr? John Reid?
One position that has definitely been filled is that of Prime Minister. As Teflon Bliar prepares to hand the baton over to Gordon Brown, will anything actually change? Will Brown continue to bribe Scots as Bliar admitted to only last week? He said that giving Scots a higher percentage of funding via the Barnett Formula is a small price to pay to keep us in the Union.
But is the Union not in terminal decline anyway? Now that we have different parties controlling Holyrood and Westminster, we are now seeing the different directions the two parliaments are taking. Scrapping endowment fees for Scottish students, reducing class sizes, rolling out cervical cancer immunisations. It is all taking its toll and the English BBC are doing their best to draw it to the attention of people down south.
One thing they would be better focussing their attention on is the shocking statistic that 10% of Scottish kids live in “severe poverty”. Now, while severe poverty doesn’t mean the same as it did a couple of generations ago, it is all relative. I’ll be interested in seeing what the SNP’s plans are for this after they have got all the easy decisions out of the way.
One man with big plans is Gordon Smith, the newly appointed SFA Chief Executive. In recent interviews he has, amongst other things, talked about tackling cheating and potentially lifting the alcohol ban on Scottish football grounds. Justice Minister, Kenny MacAskill, announced that the alcohol ban would be lifted at Murrayfield for rugby internationals and Smith hinted at the same for Scottish domestic football games. Sounds good to me. I could have down with at least 10 pints down me watching Ross County last season.
Join in the debate on Scottish life and politics at Our Scotland.
Don’t know about the rest of you, but the lead up to the election and the election itself just zapped all my energy and it has taken until now to recover.
The SNP has wasted no time in setting about government and have announced a series of voter pleasing policies. Re-instatement of A&Es, scrapping of graduate endowments and cutting of class sizes have all been announced in the last month. Who said government was hard?
A hard choice that will no doubt be coming down the track faster than another reality TV show is who is going to be the next Labour leader. Jack McConnell is making all the right noises, “I like opposition,” etc etc, but the writing is surely on the wall for him. Who will be voted in to try to halt the SNP juggernaut? Wendy Alexander? Andy Kerr? John Reid?
One position that has definitely been filled is that of Prime Minister. As Teflon Bliar prepares to hand the baton over to Gordon Brown, will anything actually change? Will Brown continue to bribe Scots as Bliar admitted to only last week? He said that giving Scots a higher percentage of funding via the Barnett Formula is a small price to pay to keep us in the Union.
But is the Union not in terminal decline anyway? Now that we have different parties controlling Holyrood and Westminster, we are now seeing the different directions the two parliaments are taking. Scrapping endowment fees for Scottish students, reducing class sizes, rolling out cervical cancer immunisations. It is all taking its toll and the English BBC are doing their best to draw it to the attention of people down south.
One thing they would be better focussing their attention on is the shocking statistic that 10% of Scottish kids live in “severe poverty”. Now, while severe poverty doesn’t mean the same as it did a couple of generations ago, it is all relative. I’ll be interested in seeing what the SNP’s plans are for this after they have got all the easy decisions out of the way.
One man with big plans is Gordon Smith, the newly appointed SFA Chief Executive. In recent interviews he has, amongst other things, talked about tackling cheating and potentially lifting the alcohol ban on Scottish football grounds. Justice Minister, Kenny MacAskill, announced that the alcohol ban would be lifted at Murrayfield for rugby internationals and Smith hinted at the same for Scottish domestic football games. Sounds good to me. I could have down with at least 10 pints down me watching Ross County last season.
Join in the debate on Scottish life and politics at Our Scotland.
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