reflections on Tony Thatcher�uh�Margaret Blair�

This won’t come as much of a shock to regular readers, but I was an over-serious child who thought about things far too much. The downside of that was getting the s**t kicked out of me by other kids at school. The upside is that I have good memories of all sorts of peculiar things from my childhood like, for example, my parents’ attitudes to politics.

I remember very clearly my parents moving from delight when Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party was elected, which continued for four or five years, through growing worries, to final disillusionment. Or, as my Dad put it: �She was great when she started and now she’s gone completely bonkers�.

Even as I celebrated Tony Blair’s victory back in ’97, a little voice in my head said �history will repeat itself�. And guess what? It was right. A party riven by in-fighting? Check. A leader attempting to hold on to power, even if doing so will damage the party? Check. An opposition in the ascendant once more? Check.

It’s no wonder that even true followers of New Labour are finding the current situation hard to stomach.

I truly hope that Labour manages to resolve these problems quickly and move on, because I’d hate to see history repeat itself yet again, with the Conservatives with a massive majority and a weak, fragmented Labour unable to oppose them. I truly believe our democracy works better with a strong opposition not too far behind the ruling party in the polls.

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