“Sir Michael Spicer: What are the characteristics of old Labour that he dislikes so much?
Tony Blair: I am afraid that the Hon. Gentleman will have to repeat that.
Sir Michael Spicer: What are the characteristics of old Labour that he dislikes so much?
Tony Blair: Basically, that it never won two successive terms of Government and, perhaps, that it never put the Conservative party flat on its back, which is where it is now. Thankfully, we are running an economy with low inflation, low mortgage rates and low unemployment; fortunately, we are doing a darn sight better than the Government of whom the right hon. Gentleman was a Member, who had—I thank him for allowing me to mention this—interest rates at 10 per cent. for four years, 3 million unemployed and two recessions. Whether it is old Labour or new Labour, it is a darn sight better than the Tories.”

—  Tony Blair

Hansard http://archive.is/20130707074457/http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmhansrd/cm050126/debtext/50126-03.htm%2350126-03_spnew24, House of Commons, 6th series, vol. 430, col. 302.
In the House of Commons, 26 January 2005.
2000s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Sir Michael Spicer: What are the characteristics of old Labour that he dislikes so much? Tony Blair: I am afraid that …" by Tony Blair?
Tony Blair photo
Tony Blair 75
former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1953

Related quotes

Tony Blair photo
Henry Campbell-Bannerman photo

“We are keenly in sympathy with the representatives of Labour. We have too few of them in the House of Commons. …The Liberal party, high and low, have discovered, if they ever forgot it, that the real road to success…lies in adhering to the old principles of the party.”

Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1836–1908) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech to Liberals in Belmont (2 January 1903), quoted in John Wilson, C.B.: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (London: Constable, 1973), p. 394
Leader of the Opposition

Alex Salmond photo
Margaret Thatcher photo

“The right hon. Gentleman is afraid of an election is he? Oh, if I were going to cut and run I'd have gone after the Falklands. Afraid? Frightened? Frit? Couldn't take it? Couldn't stand it? Right now inflation is lower than it has been for thirteen years, a record the right hon. Gentleman couldn't begin to touch!”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Prime Minister's Questions (19 April 1983) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=105294. The use of 'frit', an unusual Lincolnshire dialect abbreviation of 'frightened' which Mrs Thatcher evidently recalled from childhood, was missed by MPs in a noisy chamber but heard very distinctly on the audio feed from the chamber.
First term as Prime Minister

Patrick Modiano photo

“Then again, the term “Jew” meant nothing to the fourteen-year-old Dora. When it came down to it, what did people understand by the term “Jew”? For himself, he never gave it a thought. He was used to being put into this or that category by the authorities. Unskilled labourer. Ex –Austrian. French legionnaire. Non- suspect. Ex-serviceman 100% disabled. Foreign statute labourer. Jew.”

Patrick Modiano (1945) French writer

Source: The Search Warrant (2000), p. 43
Context: Then again, the term “Jew” meant nothing to the fourteen-year-old Dora. When it came down to it, what did people understand by the term “Jew”? For himself, he never gave it a thought. He was used to being put into this or that category by the authorities. Unskilled labourer. Ex –Austrian. French legionnaire. Non- suspect. Ex-serviceman 100% disabled. Foreign statute labourer. Jew.

Jeremy Corbyn photo
Robert Mugabe photo

“We are now being coerced to accept and believe that a new political-cum-religious doctrine has arisen, namely that there is but one political God, George W Bush, and Tony Blair is his prophet.”

Robert Mugabe (1924–2019) former President of Zimbabwe

Accusing President Bush and Tony Blair at the UN General Assembly in New York on the US-led Invasion of Iraq. 2004-09-23 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3682352.stm
2000s, 2000-2004

Timothy Geithner photo
Enoch Powell photo

Related topics