Uber-Blairism (continued)

Paul Linford is sceptical about the value of my putting too much serious thought into an ideological definition. He goes on to offer a pithy defintion of his own, but says that:

Uber-Blairism, to my mind, is not so much a serious political philosophy, as belief in a sort of political parallel universe in which Tony Blair still retains the support of the overwhelming majority of the public, Gordon Brown and his cohorts are a group of unpersons quietly fulminating on the backbenches, and the Labour Party, far from being a "moral crusade," is no more than a vehicle for the permanent retention of power at whatever cost.

Ironically, Andrew Grice reports that the Independent/ComRes poll today shows that Tony Blair would be the one leader to close the poll gap considerably. But that is primarily a reminder to take hypothetical leader polling with rather more than a pinch of salt. In some fantastical parallel universe where Labour tried that, the outcome might be rather different. T

The Independent's political editor also begins his week in politics column today with a fascinating glimpse of Blair as Don Corleone:

The last time I went to see Tony Blair in Downing Street, the first thing he said was: "They tell me you have gone over to Gordon." I was taken aback.

But it is worth remembering why the prefix "uber" came from. The uber-Blairites have always been more Royalist than their former King.

Tony Blair was never prepared, as outgoing Prime Minister, to try to scupper the transition and sponsor the "stop Gordon" efforts of the small group formerly known as "outriders".

Nor did the policy of his governments follow the eye-wateringly Blairite policy diet prescribed by the handful of Labour voices who make the anti-state argument. And remind me who the Prime Minister was when Brown as Chancellor raised £8 billion for the NHS with a discretionary tax rise?