Unions send Blair off in disgrace
Union leaders have universally condemned Tony Blair’s speech to the TUC in Brighton today, seeing it only as the final words of a defeated prime minister.
His annual address to trade unionists has never been Mr Blair’s favourite event and when announcing last week that he would quit Downing Street within a year, he noted this would be his last TUC – “to the relief of both of us”.
And the reaction to his speech this afternoon, which focused on the challenges facing Britain from globalisation, proved how true his quip was.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, T&G general secretary Tony Woodley said the prime minister had spent “a lot of time trying to justify the unjustifiable” – namely his reform of public services – ” and a lot of time looking in the past”.
“I don’t think there was any comment made to give us a feel-good factor that suggested the privatisation of our health service would be slowed down, let alone stopped,” Mr Woodley said.
He noted: “Actually I found it to some degree quite sad that a prime minister who has led us for nine years and indisputably gave us a situation today that is a damn sight better than under the Tories, is talking about the past, with no vision.”
And he added: “The most important thing was what he said at the end, that we need to remember that we need a vision for the future to stay in power and he is absolutely right.it is time for a fresh vision, fresh ideas, and a fresh leader.”
GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said Mr Blair’s speech was a “golden opportunity to say that privatisation is not the only answer, but it was just more of the same, despite it being quite clear that there’s massive opposition to it”.
He continued: “I was left with a sense of anti-climax. Ten out of ten for the courage to come, and he’s a great showman, but the reality is he’s leaving the stage here without any Oscars from the TUC.”
Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, also highlighted Mr Blair’s failure to properly address the concerns of his civil servant members.
“I felt he was somebody who was so out of touch with the problems of our members.somebody whose time has come and gone,” he told politics.co.uk.
The message from Bob Crow, the general secretary of the RMT, was short and to the point: “He expelled our union from the [Labour] party, he wouldn’t listen to our views – why should we listen to his?”
Clare Short, the prime minister’s former international development secretary, warned that the government’s reforms were “destroying morale”.
“To put all this money in and yet destroy morale.it’s a tragedy. There are big cuts at my local hospital but the morale right across the health service is rock bottom.
“This is a supposedly Labour prime minister who is a neo-conservative in foreign policy and a neo-liberal in public sector policy – he’s getting away with things we would have stopped Thatcher doing.”
