Hello everyone.
I have have compiled here a text which comprehensively criticises Tony Blair's New Statesman article. In my view, it is filled with issues that stem from a lack of class analysis, as well as potentially a lot of nostalgia for a political world which no longer exists. Here is the article in archive form if you would like to read it first:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210512082602/https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/05/tony-blair-without-total-change-labour-will-die
I will ignore his stints on other centre left parties and on Joe Biden and his win versus Trump. Though I think there are issues with his takes, I really don't find it holds much direct connection to the rest of the article, other than him pointing out that left parties are fading accross Europe, which is true and relevant. He even tells us to leave the US situation to one side, which I find quite interesting given Biden is acting in quite a progressive manner compared to expectations (though in my opinion, still not enough). Maybe he'd like us to ignore that? In any case, I do not find it massively relevant, other than a couple of connecting threads to do with BLM and "defund the police".
Blair goes to talk about how the UK left today is advocating for a "watered down" the Big State. This is not correct, in so far as I can tell. What the left is arguing for today is greater economic and social power for individuals and communities, rather than big institutions and the already powerful, including "Big Government". This notion that all we're looking to do is "tax and spend" betrays a lack of understanding of today's left-wing politics on the part of Blair.
There is a point that Blair makes regarding "defund the police" which you can start to agree with from an electoral perspective, in that it is a very provocative message that may not be pallatable to all voters. However, him putting it in the same category as "dictatorship of the proletariate" is far off the mark, as by doing so, he shows a failure of understanding why it is that the slogan gained traction among not just the radical left, but also among more moderate left figures. Let's remember too that this traction picked up far more in the US than the UK, due to differing situations. By dismissing the slogan as just another "marxist line", he wants us to ignore the fact that there are problems with the police in terms of the forceful power it has and is often used for. Those issues do need to be fixed, and if w
... keep reading on reddit β‘OK, showing my age - I carried this paper on a route when I was in middle school and high school, it has always been iffy at best. But recently, having been bought by Gannett (one of the worst) and the USA Today network (the worst) things have gotten horrible - no delivery, no one answer phones or emails, the primary phone number on their website has been disconnected. What was once a humiliating sign of a backwater small college town in Texas has become a travesty and mockery of American journalism. I like their columnists, local stories, local sports, etc. but they cannot even get a paper to my house on a regular basis, yet they charge me hundreds of dollars for their day late and dollar-short coverage.
βA lot of people have an alternative view of the world β and a lot think that because capitalism is bad, Bitcoin is great,β says Walker. βBut no. With Bitcoin youβve taken the worst bits of capitalism, concentrated it in one thing, and totally divorced it from anything real.β
https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/fintech/2021/04/bitcoin-future-money-or-speculative-bubble
I assume you are all familiar with the current Russian leader so I will not focus on the semantics or the political background of modern Russia. Vladimir Putin became the president of the Russian Federation in 2000, with a brief hiatus in 1999-2000 and again in 2008-2012 when he served in the position of prime minister. He has managed to win every single election ever since and as of 2021, Vladimir Putin is the second-longest serving European president, after Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus.
What is your informed opinion on this particular political figure, and do you believe that overall his contributions to Russian society are beneficial and a net-positive, or that he is an impediment to progress for decades to come?
