Will Blair take Labour out of the Socialist International?

[Cascadian]

Just a question I have been wondering about for a while. It would seem Tony Blair has forsaken many of the principles of the Labour Party and has brought on policies that are simply "Thatcher Lite". Not too mention making Britain a tempting target for Al-Qaeda in supporting Bush's adventurism in Iraq. I am wondering if Blair is going to eventually take the Labour Party out of the Socialist International? Blair has managed to push the party to the center-right. How far is he going to go? From my view he is hardly what you call a classic democratic socialist.


John

[AlbizuX]

1. indeed...

The British Labour party is the like the U.S. Democrat party...no way it can be considered a Social Democrat party.

[autorank]

2. They should kick Labour out. Bunch of losers, twit technocrats!

Blair is a disgrace and danger to Britain and the world. Bye bye Tony.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. No, they shouldn't.

Don't make the mistake of confusing Blair with his party. The labour party is still the same people it's always been, it's just that currently the far-right wing of it is in controll. When Blair steps down as labour leader, it will swing back to the left.

[Briar]

5. He's taking steps to prevent that

Everything he is doing (sidelining Brown, promoting Milburn, Milliband and other "modernisers", cobbling together a "reforming" manifesto designed to privatise by degrees the the welfare state) is about ensuring the next generation of leaders are New Labour, not old Labour. It's the only legacy he can secure for himself now, and he's determined to achieve it. And the party will let him. As far as I can see, Labour party members think loyalty to the party comes a long way before loyalty to its principles.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised

by the direction the party takes over the next ten years (although I'm afraid you may be right to be cynical about the next five).

[non sociopath skin]

3. To be honest, I guess I'd assumed that the Blairite ChristDems ...

... had left the SI already.

The Skin