TONY THE TORY (cont.):

Fire chief calls on unions to oust Blair (Andy McSmith, 01 December 2002, The Independent)

Tony Blair's relations with the once loyal Fire Brigades Union were heading towards irretrievable breakdown yesterday as the pay dispute descended into political warfare.

Andy Gilchrist, the firefighters' leader, appeared to be calling on fellow trade unionists to help him to remove Tony Blair to make way for a "real" Labour prime minister. [...]

Mr Gilchrist told a political rally in Manchester: "I'm quite prepared to work to replace New Labour with what I'm prepared to call Real Labour."

He added: "I have no nostalgic romanticism about old Labour but there are real Labour values built on real social progress, on real justice for working-class people and, indeed, for fairness for all."

There's something delicious about the Labour Leader pulling a Ronald Reagan on the unions. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 1, 2002 8:54 AM