Bliarspeak

Amazing how quickly Blair has receded from public consciousness. After dominating the headlines for a dozen years, he has pretty much disappeared.

Probably too early to really know what his legacy is, but currently,  it feels incredibly shallow. A continuation of Thatcherite policies of promote free-markets and centralise the state. The Thick Of It style aggressive, tribal politics.

I guess his real legacy will be reinventing the Labour Party - no small achievement (for good or ill). And the war in Iraq.

Anyway, while thinking about writing a play about him, I've dug out some Conference speeches. And I find them strangely compelling. As Simon Hoggart has pointed out, he favoured verbless sentences. So it reads like a collection of haikus that teeter on the edge between meaning and nonsense.

Here's his conference speech from 2004:

Labour is working.

Britain is working.

The longest period of economic growth since records began, an economy now bigger than that of Italy and France.

The lowest unemployment and highest employment rate of any of our competitors for the first time since the 1950s.

Living standards up, for everyone, and for the poorest up most.

The biggest reductions in child poverty and biggest increases in investment for decades.

This isn't a country in decline.

The British people aren't a people on the way down.

We are winning. They are winning.

And why did they vote for change? Because we had the courage of our convictions and we dared to change....

For so long, we knew only the importance and futility of Opposition.

But because we dared to change, we dared to dream that we could win again.

And we did.

And now we stand, in a position no Labour Party ever dared to dream of standing before, with a third term Labour Government beckoning.

With the values for today and the ideas for tomorrow, and a policy programme that will change the country for better and for good.

Power, wealth and opportunity in the hands of the many, not the few.

That was and is our mission and our purpose.

I want us to win a third term not so that we can go in the history books.

But so that we can consign Britain's failings to the history books.

Build on the progress we have made.

Give everyone the chance to make the most of themselves.

Deliver better lives for working families.

United in our values, proud in our record, optimistic about the future.

With the courage of our convictions, we can win the third term, deliver the lasting change.

It is worth the fight.

Now let's get out and do it. 

And this, from 1999:

We know what a 21st century nation needs.

A knowledge-based economy. A strong civic society. A confident place in theworld.

Do that and a nation masters the future. Fail and it is the future's victim.

The challenge is how?

The answer is people.

The future is people.

The liberation of human potential not just as workers but as citizens.

Not power to the people but power to each person to make the most of what is within them.

People are born with talent and everywhere it is in chains.

"The Future Is People" would make a good title for a play, I think.