"Values don't change, but times do"

September 27, 2005 10:26 AM

Tony's Blair's keynote speech to the Labour Party conference today [wmv]. Text summary from Channel 4 news.
posted by nthdegx (19 comments total)

A lot of speculation about, once more, about Blair and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown; specifically when Brown will succeed Blair as Labour leader.

Brown gave his conference speech to the conference yesterday, and was interviewed [wmv] by the ever excellent Jon Snow that evening.
posted by nthdegx at 10:30 AM on September 27, 2005

Thanks for the Jon Snow link.
posted by godawful at 11:51 AM on September 27, 2005

...and?
posted by the cuban at 11:51 AM on September 27, 2005

Did he sign off with "God bless America"?
posted by Artw at 11:56 AM on September 27, 2005

I used to think that Gordon Brown would make a good successor to Tony Blair. After watching his speech, I don't think so. He ended by saying the Tories would still be the same old Tories, but that they'd be New Labour. He could just have said Labour.
posted by xpermanentx at 12:01 PM on September 27, 2005

He could just have said Labour.

Are you getting misty eyed for the good old days of mounting rubbish, rotting cadavers, power cuts.....?
posted by Ugandan Discussions at 12:58 PM on September 27, 2005

...mounting rubbish, rotting cadavers, power cuts...

...not getting involved in Vietnam...
posted by Artw at 1:02 PM on September 27, 2005

... plans for a "radical extension" of police and local authorities' summary powers to take on wrong-doers.

Uh oh.
posted by grahamwell at 1:18 PM on September 27, 2005

I'm usually pretty lenient, but what the fuck was the point of this?
Newsfilter without the filter.
posted by NinjaPirate at 2:16 PM on September 27, 2005

Agreed, totally pointless newsfilter, sans-filter.

Godawful: if you want more Jon Snow, sign up to Snowmail - it comes out daily about 1.5-2 hours before the Channel 4 evening news and is an excellent read.
posted by TheDonF at 2:42 PM on September 27, 2005

Gordon Brown looks ill these days, in fact does anyone else think he's starting to look more and more like Viktor Yuschenko?

Don't forget that Tony Blair came to power after the surprising death from a "heart attack" (claims of poisoning were quietly forgotten) of the widely-respected leftwing Labour leader, John Smith, age 55, whose policies were a world away from lickspittle rightwing poodle Blair.

Robin Cook, the main Labour Party opponent of Blair's Iraq policy, also recently died of a heart attack, aged 59.

Again, no conclusive evidence of foul play has emerged - which would, of course, be entirely consistent with the idea of assassination by a technologically advanced organization such as the CIA, which certainly can arrange "heart attacks" without leaving any evidence behind.

Then again, it could be a coincidence that British politicians opposed to the American Empire just happen to die young.

Let's wait and see - but even though he's been effusive recently in his support for the USA, I still wouldn't sell Brown life insurance.
posted by cleardawn at 3:33 PM on September 27, 2005

I'm with cleardawn on this one...
posted by runkelfinker at 3:48 PM on September 27, 2005

Did the CIA engineer Smith's 1988 heart attack too?
posted by fleacircus at 4:14 PM on September 27, 2005

Yay, look it's Tony's Blair's keynote speech to the Labour Party conference today!
posted by tomplus2 at 4:34 PM on September 27, 2005

Actually, I heard some of this on the radio this morning and was hoping I could find it posted on Metafilter, so nah nah ne nah nah to the whingers.

It struck me as completely nonsensical. The man cannot fucking speak english - at least Bush is understandable, if a bit confused. Tony Blair no-longer makes any sense.

Some samples:

The question now:
How do we secure the future
For our party and
For our country?
...
I hear people say we have to stop and debate globalisation. You might as well debate whether autumn should follow summer.
...
It is replete with opportunities, but they only go to those swift to adapt, slow to complain, open, willing and able to change.
Unless we "own" the future, unless our values are matched by a completely honest understanding of the reality now upon us and the next about to hit us, we will fail.
And then the values we believe in, become idle sentiments ripe for disillusion and disappointment.
...
That Britain was a country not just with memories but with dreams.
But such nations aren't built by dreamers.
They rise by the patient courage of the change-maker.
That's what we have been in New Labour. The change-makers.
That's how we must stay.

It sounded like a mix of bland, confused corporate-speak, new-age mysticism, and motivational paperback, and it posessed an almost complete lack of verbs.

When you can spout that much inane bullshit, you must be running out of real ideas.
posted by Jimbob at 6:10 PM on September 27, 2005

This isn't newsfilter because it's a link to a primary source, not a news story. My presumption was that there were people who would have liked to have seen it that were otherwise unable. This seems to have been the case even if such people are in a minority compared to miserable moaning moaners.

Further, there are often comments from Americans welcoming sources they would otherwise have been unable to see. No comments to that effect, here, though.
posted by nthdegx at 12:16 AM on September 28, 2005

He's a poet but he doesn't know it.
posted by tommyc at 3:46 AM on September 28, 2005

blairfilter
posted by blue_beetle at 6:13 AM on September 28, 2005

Are you getting misty eyed for the good old days of mounting rubbish, rotting cadavers, power cuts...?

No. I am just pissed off that a Labour government that I have voted for seems committed to a right-wing agenda and wasting money. As my evidence I present the proposed national ID card scheme (white horse or nefarious invasion of privacy), the detainment of terrorist suspects without trial, the introduction of ASBOs (not guilty of any crime, just slandered by busy-bodies and curtain-twitchers, and you lose your freedom), restrictions on free speech (state prosciption of "terrorist" organisations) all of these ridiculous PFI schemes whereby hospitals and schools are poorly built, poorly maintained and abandoned after 12 to 18 months!
posted by xpermanentx at 6:13 AM on September 28, 2005