The Blair Project is the Problem

Blair & Blairism's two-finger message to voters

'The big debate will be about what, rather than who, follows Blair'

Labour dissidents will give full vent to their anger over Mr Blair's leadership tomorrow with the launch of 40 Bills for the next session of Parliament. The MPs are furious that Mr Blair is showing no let-up in his reforming zeal despite the "bloody nose" he suffered at the general election. Instead Blair is pushing ahead with "bringing the private sector into public services" and the authoritarian "managing" of people.

For example, just two controversial Blairite policies include:

• Private Academy Schools: a 'trojan horse' for the privatisation of schools

• Compulsory ID Cards: a £6 billion project based on 'falsehoods' and a 'dangerous fallacy'
  

In today's Independent, Labour MP Alan Simpson said: "The failure (or liability) is not Blair the person, but Blairism the project. It cuts across all areas of policy. To move beyond the war, we have to take ourselves out of the war zone. If today's market obsessions reduce people to commodities, we need to set out alternatives to these obsessions rather than call for a different figurehead to pretend that they work. If climate change is the serious priority of this parliament then it has to change policies far more profoundly than it changes leaders."

He added: "I am as overwhelmingly disinterested in Blair, the person, as I am in Brown, the knee-jerk alternative. The manner of Blair's departure matters not one jot. The big debate will be about what, rather than who, follows him. This is where the conflict is unavoidable."