Guardian Rebukes Blair's 5,700-Word Labour Blueprint as 1990s Centrism
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 27
Guardian Rebukes Blair's 5,700-Word Labour Blueprint as 1990s Centrism
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 27
Summary
The Guardian says Tony Blair’s 5,700-word essay misreads Labour’s electoral problem by prescribing a “radical centre” while predicting the party will lose the next election without it.
Blair’s prescription includes opposing capital gains tax rises, curbing workers’ rights and welfare spending, sidelining net zero goals and expanding oil and gas — positions the paper says amount to rejecting progressive ambition.
The editorial argues Blair’s New Labour model was built in a more benign, debt-fuelled era that ended with the 2008 financial crash, after which growth, wages and productivity stagnated and inequality deepened.
Andy Burnham sharpened that critique on Wednesday, saying Blair’s essay never mentions inequality and therefore misses what is now driving British politics.
For Labour, the paper says, voter anger over decisions such as restricting winter fuel allowance shows the party’s next election prospects hinge on proving it can deliver a fairer economic settlement.