British BullBlog

Relaunch

Forthcoming...

Relaunch

February 1st 2007

A song...

Too pitifully hilarious not to listen to: MP3

The link is just a sample, get more info from Think Progress.

via Eschaton

Curses

Isn't that always the way? You've just prepared to get your blog back on track when real life starts happening at you from all directions. In other words this signifies another break in transmission.

Blair belittles old (real) left

Today Blair gave a keynote speech at the self-described "passionate and centrist" organisation Progress as reported by the BBC:

Speaking at the Progress conference in London, he warned that shifting to the leftist policies of the past would see the party lose power.

"We know where that leads: to a right-wing Conservative government," he said. "Always has done, always will."

Instead Blair shifted to the rightist policies of the past to give us the right-wing Labour government we have now, which differs from the Conservatives only insofar that Blair is the PM rather than Major/Hague/IDS - all four of them right-wing ideologues as far as I am concerned, none more so than Blair himself.

Labour membership has fallen to below 200,000 - its lowest level since Mr Blair became leader in 1994.

...

But the prime minister was defiant in his speech on Saturday, saying that the party's success was underlined by Tory leadership contenders "scrambling" to copy its policies.

I think it would be a little more intellectually honest to say they were aiming to retake the stolen Conservative policies on which Blair's and New Labour's success is based. Of course, regardless of how you choose to frame the issue it is always a disadvantage for democracy when competing parties are careering inexorably towards homogeneity and indistinguishability.

He said: "What we must not do is fall for some modern version of the old left delusion that the problem with the progressive government is that it is not left enough, and if only its leadership rediscovered its true principles all would be well."

I can agree with this. We do not want to be delusional like those fools of the old left. What we need to do is listen to the new left - the right. Seriously though, is it possible to decry something as a delusion when it has not even been properly attempted?

Urging activists to remain focused on retaining power, he added that the party had to be organised as a "broad-based political movement" to keep in touch with voters' needs.

"Because to be in touch is to be in power and even if not in government, always to be a contender for it," he said.

Blair - ever a politician, never a representative of the people - just tell them what they want to hear to retain power. Otherwise known as ‘keeping in touch with the needs of the voter.’

He said: "Every time I've ever introduced a reform in government, I wish in retrospect I had gone further."

He has also said that his third term as prime minister will be "unremittingly new Labour" as he seeks to push ahead with change in industry, health, education and welfare.

I continually get the impression that Blair simply has some form of leadership checklist where he ticks a box each time he achieves one of his perceived goals.

Industry? Check. Health? Check. Education? Check. Welfare? Check. Mislead public into illegal war? Check.

Bush in Freefall

It's true. It's irreverent. It's fun. It's via AmericaBlog. It's something you've probably seen before, but not like this. It's here.

That Old Chestnut

The drug debate rears its intermittent head once again as the BBC asks 'How should we tackle drugs?' and, as a look at the short history of B3 will show you, this is a debate in which I take particular interest.

The return of this debate was initiated in no small part by the hysterics of the tabloid press that constituted the coverage of Kate Moss' drug use. Then, as that furore died away, it was reinvigorated by questions aimed at probing the Tory leadership candidate, David Cameron, about his possible youthful indiscretions.

As is most often the case, the BBC debate is clouded by those with personal horror stories. Of course I do not disparage the seriousness of these cases, but all they really highlight is the lack of infrastructure in place to deal with the public health issue of drug addiction. More importantly though, it is not possible to have a reasoned and valid debate without maintaining impartiality, regardless of how emotive the issue may be.

It would be tempting to launch into a diatribe of epic proportions covering the socioeconomic ramifications of the absurdity we call a drugs policy; instead I will save that for a dedicated future post entitled 'Selective Prohibition of Psychotropic Substances.'

Excuses, excuses

Well, the update did not happen, as the more observant amongst you will have noticed, and there has been a total lack of regular updates since the beginning of the year.

Half of that is about to change, however, as I start the regular postings again albeit in the absence of a new design, which was somewhat of a whim and almost entirely unnecessary.

Checking the traffic, most of the hits these days are coming from folks looking to find out all about the British Bulldog - well here's most of what you need know. You're welcome.

Now, time to get down to the dirty old business they call blogging.

Update plan stalled

Please bear with us.

Stunning revelation

...a "recurring theme" among the underlying causes of extremism in the Muslim community was "the issue of British foreign policy, especially in the context of the middle east peace process and Iraq".

...

"...the government denies there is any link when most people, with common sense, would say there is some link that makes it easier to recruit extremists from the Muslim community."

Obvious to us common sensers maybe, but not to the government. Ah well, at least it opens a clear path to be critical of the government on these key issues.