Political junkies are reminded that the coverage of the 1997 general election is being shown on the BBC Parliament Channel from 9 a.m. on Monday 4th September. I won't attempt to watch it all, but I will dip in and out.
I voted 'None of the Above' in 1997, although the party I voted for only got off the ground in one sense by practising yogic flying. I didn't trust Tony Blair and I think that subsequent events showed that I was right.
I was also suspicious of New Labour's attitude towards the public sector which is not to say that there was no case for reform. Some of the data suggests that New Labour actually moved to the right of the median voter which is where I would locate myself.
Again I think my suspicions were justified. One New Labour aide told a friend who was a primary school head that the public sector had had too easy a time for too long. Another was working in No.10 and went in to see TB with a plan for reform of part of the public sector. Tony was sitting there with his yellow legal pub and said 'Yes! Let's screw them!'
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