THE HIGHWAY LEADS RIGHT:

Blair: my way or it’s the highway (James Cusick and Douglas Fraser, 7/25/04, Sunday Herald)

Five more years of even newer New Labour. That was the dream, and for some the nightmare, described yesterday by Tony Blair as he sounded the final death knell for old Labour.

The Prime Minister, emboldened by his latest escape from the conclusion of the Butler Report, used the national policy forum in Coventry to effectively demand from his party the ultimate in loyalty. His message was stark and stern. They had to “give up the luxury of criticism” and do it his way, the New Labour way. The alternative? He said there was none.

Blair, already offering his party an apology for what is to come during the next five years, said there was no choice. “I know that just occasionally we all wish it didn’t have to be like this. That we could have won as we were, that we could have governed without so many tough choices, that we could win again in a more confined and safe way. Unfortunately it is not true.”

Blair’s do-it-my-way message will have shocked many on the left who still believe a Labour government could deliver a socialist agenda.

The Revolution isn't going down any easier there.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 25, 2004 3:23 PM