Blair: Britain's changing culture

Speaking in his Sedgefield constituency, Tony Blair today announced that he will step down as Labour leader and Prime Minister on June 27th. I have just received a synopsis of his speech from our parliamentary monitors. Here are some highlights. Feel free to comment. 

Setting out his political outlook, he said that he was born a decade after the Second World War, grew up during the social revolution of the Sixties, and became politically aware towards the end of the Cold War. And he noticed that his country seemed "old fashioned".

He said people now wanted a respectful society but a tolerant one as well. "Britain is not a follower today, Britain is a leader," he declared. He praised a change in culture that had seen the development of paid holiday rights, a minimum wage, thriving arts, and the movements to help Africa and tackle climate change.

He argued that for all the faults of the UK it was now a country comfortable in the 21st century and able to be proud of its past and confident of its future.

Doing the "right thing according to conventional wisdom" was not always the right thing. Instead, he said, prime ministers had to "act according to your conviction" even where that would be attacked as "messianic zeal". He accepted that the pain could never be justified for some people. But he argued that challenging terrorism and global threats of that nature was a battle of wills that had to be won.  

Drawing to a conclusion, Mr Blair justified his mistakes and failures, saying "Hand on heart I did what I thought was right," adding "I may have been wrong, that's your call. But believe one thing above all else, I did what I thought was right for our country."

He gave thanks to the people for his successes, and apologised for times when he had fallen short, and praised them saying: "The British are special. The world knows it. In our inner most thoughts we know it. This is the greatest nation on earth."

Update on Friday, May 11, 2007 by Simon Clark

Yuk! Tobacco Campaigners Bid A Fond Farewell. Pass the sickbag.