Blair's legacy

Magnus Linklater has a strange op-ed in Scotland on Sunday today on the subject of Blair's legacy. In it, he points out the obvious - namely that Blair will be remembered for telling a lot of lies. He also thinks that for some "viscerally hostile critics" the buying off of New Labour by Ecclestone et al and the selling of peerages might also be remembered as having eclipsed the "stunning victory" of 1997.

But, according to the sage of Princes Street, this is

a simplistic, and ultimately misleading view, which ignores the way that Blair has fundamentally changed politics and political perceptions in Britain. Behind the scandals, the spin and the whiff of corruption lies a legacy of reform which no future government can possibly ignore. No Tory party would now dream of attempting to reverse the foundation hospitals, city academies, welfare-to-work programmes, Private Finance Initiatives, pension reforms, Sure Start initiatives or the bids to end child poverty which have been the hallmarks of New Labour. There will be arguments about how effective they have been, as well as complaints about their fairness; but they are now an indelible part of modern society.

Eh? Run that by me again. It is unthinkable to reverse the policies of foundation hospitals ( expensive, bureaucratic and inefficient according to some), city academies (among the worst schools in the country), welfare to work (what welfare to work?), PFI (ludicrously overpriced), pension reforms (you mean causing the closure of just about every final salary scheme in the country - what planet are you on Magnus?), Sure Start (ha, ha ha), and bids to end child poverty (which have completely failed)?

Mags says that there will be arguments about how effective these policies have been. Too bloody right. So why then is it unthinkable that they should be scrapped?  Out in the real world, if something doesn't work it is usual to try something different. Only in the wacky, unaccountable world of Westminster is a policy failure met with a claim that to change is unthinkable. It's this sort of head-in-the-sand attitude that is going to kill the mainstream parties, and hopefully their acolytes in the mainstream media too.

Then again perhaps it's something else. Are you after a knighthood or something Magnus?