[Dave]

Tony Blair has announced he will stand down as prime minister on 27 June.

So how have the last 10- years been for you ? Has he been good for the country & yourself, or are you glad to see the back of him ?

What will you best remember him for ?

Dare I even ask what people think of Gordon Brown

[Dave]

Blairs Resignation speech in full

I have come back here, to Sedgefield, to my constituency, where my political journey began and where it is fitting it should end.

Today I announce my decision to stand down from the leadership of the Labour Party. The Party will now select a new Leader.

On 27 June I will tender my resignation from the office of prime minister to the Queen.

I have been prime minister of this country for just over 10 years. In this job, in the world today, that is long enough, for me, but more especially for the country.

Sometimes the only way you conquer the pull of power is to set it down.

It is difficult to know how to make this speech today. There is a judgment to be made on my premiership. And in the end that is, for you, the people, to make.

I can only describe what I think has been done over these last 10 years and, perhaps more important, why.

I have never quite put it like this before.

I was born almost a decade after the Second World War. I was a young man in the social revolution of the 60s and 70s.

I reached political maturity as the Cold War was ending, and the world was going through a political, economic and technological revolution.

I looked at my own country, a great country - wonderful history, magnificent traditions, proud of its past, but strangely uncertain of its future, uncertain about the future, almost old-fashioned.


I ask you to accept one thing. Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong. That's your call

All of that was curiously symbolised in its politics.

You stood for individual aspiration and getting on in life or social compassion and helping others. You were liberal in your values or conservative.

You believed in the power of the state or the efforts of the individual. Spending more money on the public realm was the answer or it was the problem.

None of it made sense to me. It was 20th Century ideology in a world approaching a new millennium.

Of course people want the best for themselves and their families, but in an age where human capital is a nation's greatest asset, they also know it is just and sensible to extend opportunities, to develop the potential to succeed, for all - not an elite at the top.

People are, today, open-minded about race and sexuality, averse to prejudice and yet deeply and rightly conservative with a small 'c' when it comes to good manners, respect for others, treating people courteously.

They acknowledge the need for the state and the responsibility of the individual.

They know spending money on our public services matters and that it is not enough. How they are run and organised matters too.

So 1997 was a moment for a new beginning, for sweeping away all the detritus of the past.

Expectations were so high, too high - too high in a way for either of us.

Now in 2007, you can easily point to the challenges, the things that are wrong, the grievances that fester.

But go back to 1997. Think back. No, really, think back. Think about your own living standards then in May 1997 and now.

Visit your local school, any of them round here, or anywhere in modern Britain.

Ask when you last had to wait a year or more on a hospital waiting list, or heard of pensioners freezing to death in the winter, unable to heat their homes.


There is only one government since 1945 that can say all of the following: 'More jobs, fewer unemployed, better health and education results, lower crime and economic growth in every quarter,' - this one.

But I don't need a statistic. There is something bigger than what can be measured in waiting lists or GSCE results or the latest crime or jobs figures.

Look at our economy - at ease with globalisation, London the world's financial centre. Visit our great cities and compare them with 10 years ago.

No country attracts overseas investment like we do.

Think about the culture of Britain in 2007. I don't just mean our arts that are thriving. I mean our values, the minimum wage, paid holidays as a right, amongst the best maternity pay and leave in Europe, equality for gay people.

Or look at the debates that reverberate round the world today - the global movement to support Africa in its struggle against poverty, climate change, the fight against terrorism.

Britain is not a follower. It is a leader. It gets the essential characteristic of today's world - its interdependence.

This is a country today that for all its faults, for all the myriad of unresolved problems and fresh challenges, is comfortable in the 21st Century, at home in its own skin, able not just to be proud of its past but confident of its future.


I give my thanks to you, the British people, for the times I have succeeded, and my apologies to you for the times I have fallen short

I don't think Northern Ireland would have been changed unless Britain had changed, or the Olympics won if we were still the Britain of 1997.

As for my own leadership, throughout these 10 years, where the predictable has competed with the utterly unpredicted, right at the outset one thing was clear to me.

Without the Labour Party allowing me to lead it, nothing could ever have been done.

But I knew my duty was to put the country first. That much was obvious to me when just under 13 years ago I became Labour's Leader.

What I had to learn, however, as prime minister was what putting the country first really meant.

Decision-making is hard. Everyone always says: 'Listen to the people.' The trouble is they don't always agree.

When you are in opposition, you meet this group and they say: 'Why can't you do this?' And you say: 'It's really a good question. Thank you.' And they go away and say: 'Its great, he really listened.'

You meet that other group and they say: 'Why can't you do that?' And you say: 'It's a really good question. Thank you.' And they go away happy you listened.

In government, you have to give the answer - not an answer, the answer.

And, in time, you realise putting the country first doesn't mean doing the right thing according to conventional wisdom or the prevailing consensus or the latest snapshot of opinion.

It means doing what you genuinely believe to be right.

Your duty is to act according to your conviction.


All of that can get contorted so that people think you act according to some messianic zeal.

Doubt, hesitation, reflection, consideration and re-consideration, these are all the good companions of proper decision-making. But the ultimate obligation is to decide.

Sometimes the decisions are accepted quite quickly. Bank of England independence was one, which gave us our economic stability.

Sometimes, like tuition fees or trying to break up old monolithic public services, they are deeply controversial, hellish hard to do, but you can see you are moving with the grain of change round the word.

Sometimes, like with Europe, where I believe Britain should keep its position strong, you know you are fighting opinion, but you are content with doing so.

Sometimes, as with the completely unexpected, you are alone with your own instinct.

In Sierra Leone and to stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, I took the decision to make our country one that intervened, that did not pass by, or keep out of the thick of it.

Then came the utterly unanticipated and dramatic - September 11th 2001 and the death of 3,000 or more on the streets of New York.

I decided we should stand shoulder to shoulder with our oldest ally. I did so out of belief.

So Afghanistan and then Iraq - the latter, bitterly controversial.

Removing Saddam and his sons from power, as with removing the Taleban, was over with relative ease.

But the blowback since, from global terrorism and those elements that support it, has been fierce and unrelenting and costly. For many, it simply isn't and can't be worth it.

For me, I think we must see it through. They, the terrorists, who threaten us here and round the world, will never give up if we give up.


The British are special. The world knows it. In our innermost thoughts, we know it. This is the greatest nation on earth

It is a test of will and of belief. And we can't fail it.

So, some things I knew I would be dealing with. Some I thought I might be. Some never occurred to me on that morning of 2 May 1997 when I came into Downing Street for the first time.

Great expectations not fulfilled in every part, for sure.

Occasionally people say, as I said earlier: 'They were too high, you should have lowered them.'

But, to be frank, I would not have wanted it any other way. I was, and remain, as a person and as a prime minister, an optimist. Politics may be the art of the possible - but at least in life, give the impossible a go.

So of course the vision is painted in the colours of the rainbow, and the reality is sketched in the duller tones of black, white and grey.

But I ask you to accept one thing. Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right.

I may have been wrong. That is your call. But believe one thing if nothing else. I did what I thought was right for our country.

I came into office with high hopes for Britain's future. I leave it with even higher hopes for Britain's future.

This is a country that can, today, be excited by the opportunities not constantly fretful of the dangers.

People often say to me: 'It's a tough job' - not really.

A tough life is the life the young severely disabled children have and their parents, who visited me in Parliament the other week.

Tough is the life my dad had, his whole career cut short at the age of 40 by a stroke. I have been very lucky and very blessed. This country is a blessed nation.

The British are special. The world knows it. In our innermost thoughts, we know it. This is the greatest nation on earth.

It has been an honour to serve it. I give my thanks to you, the British people, for the times I have succeeded, and my apologies to you for the times I have fallen short. Good luck.

[Markulous]

Good in the early days, then New Labour kicked in and moved more to the Right than the Tories

Iraq - Disaster

ID Cards - Showing every sign of being a disaster ('unbreakable' biodata on passports hacked within 2 hours, 'unbreakable' Chip and Pin broken - not too good!)

Road Charging by the mile - Just a variation on ID cards

SuperCasinos - Whaaaaaaaaat?!

I could "discuss" Gordon Brown but I don't want to be banned from the site! Hated him following some crass Objective 1 decisions, Pensions mismanagement, etc

Oh, and I used to be staunchly pro Labour - it's a shame that the Tories are still a shambles but maybe they'll pull themselves together before the Elections (sadly, I think we've all suffered through having a poor Opposition the last few years, irrespective of the Politics)

[ralph]

The shepherd has gone to be replaced by the sheepdog! The alternatives aren't any better! Haven't seen anyone lately who actually seems like they can LEAD the country! Maybe it's time they consider a job share!

[stepheno]

Brown......don't talk to me about Brown (in best Marvin voice)

[Matt F]

Tories = low tax, crap services
Labour = high tax, crap services

I despise New Labour and their spin. I was no fan of old Labour but at least they were honest and you knew where you were with them.

Personally, the last 10 years has seen me pay more and more tax plus an attempt to discourage me from working on a free-lance basis thanks to their ill-judged IR35 legislation. Free lancers like me work under the constant threat of an Inland Revenue investigation, despite me paying myself a decent salary and paying way more tax than I would if I worked for a company on a permanent basis.

Having failed miserably to tax free-lancers as employees (and horay for that) they are now upping small company corporation tax from 19% - 22%. This is a typical "sledge hammer to crack a nut" reaction - they are trying to collect a bit of extra tax from free lancers (who pay a proportion of their profits via dividends) but this move also increases the tax on lots of other small businesses (corner shops etc) who may buckle under the pressure. No, New Labour and Gordon Brown are hardly the friend of small businesses.

Gordon Brown's raid on pensions funds makes Robert Maxwell look like a saint. Every year he's been fleecing pension funds for £6bn and he's still doing it. In the next breath he's telling people they will have to wait 'til 68 for their state pension and yet making unafordable pension promises to state workers. Result is that workers in the private sector seriously struggle to make adequate pension provision for themselves whilst ironically their taxes go towards providing the kind of final salary benefits for state workers that disappeared from the private sector years ago.

Then there's the reluctance to re-aslign stamp duty bands in line with house price inflation dragging millions of average house buyers into the 3% band. Had the £250K 3% band (note this was 1.5% band prior to New Labour) been increased in line with house price inflation it would now be in excess of £600K.

And as for wasting all that parliament time on fox hunting - christ what a joke and all the time battery chicken farming (far more cruel IMO) continues with impunity.

And that's all I have to say on the matter.

Matt.

[fionaB]

he has been no worse or better than any other prime minister. at the end of the day no matter who gets in they will follow their own agenda no matter what has already been promised which means it doesnt really matter who you vote for.

thats the main reason i didint vote in the recent scottish parliamentary elections....
a farce all of it!

Fi

[_MB_]

Iraq has indelibly stained his record.

[Dave Canon]

As someone who has been around a while (I can still remember Harold Macmillan when I was at school), I can look back over 8 Prime Ministers. It is easy to be critical of all of them because it is an impossible task . However, I would have to say Tony Blair is the worst. Apart from the fact the the health systems seems to continue to come up short of the demand. Education is a shambles. Law and order non- existant in some places and patchy in others. The worst and key issue is taking this country into an unnecessary war. I cannot understand what his motives were and the fact that the rest of Europe and the UN would not support it should have suggested something was wrong. I am not just saying this in hindsight as history has shown the dangers of interferring in this way (did the US learn nothing from Vietnam). It seemed to me at the time that Sadam was bottled up by UN resolutions, UN Inpeectors, sanctions and no fly zones and was under reasonble control. It was clear that an invasion woud only destabilise the area. The world is now a much more dangerous place.

In contrast, Harold Wilson was under considerable pressure from the US for the UK to send troops to Vietnam but Harold held out and it did not seriously damage the relationship with the US.

[Charlotte]

Well, I will certainly miss Tony Blair, I think he's done a sterling job Yes, he's done some stoopid things, but let's remember he is human and, like the rest of us, is not perfect by any means. I do believe he's done what he thought was right all along. I trust him ... as far as one can trust a politician, of course I have felt that Britain is "safe + secure" under his leadership ... nearly felt otherwise re: giving up the British currency, but that hasn't happened, so ... and we should all remember that "you can please some of the ppl all of the time, + all of the ppl some of the time, but you can't please all the ppl all of the time", hence whatever he has done about anything is going to p**s someone off! Same with every other PM Britain has ever had or ever will have ... that's the way it's always been + will always be, no matter who is PM, ppl will always complain (as if they could do a better job ).

Lastly + most importantly, I strongly admire Tony Blair for always keeping a level head + good humour, no matter what was thrown at him, no matter who has challenged him, well no matter what

As for Gordon Brown ... ... can't stand the man ... something about him I dislike intensely ... wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him ... have him as our PM? Noooooooooooooo!

[Dave]

Well last nights episode of "Have I got News for You" managed to get quite e few digs in