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The Death of Ideology?
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Dr Anthony Seldon, political biographer, TV & radio broadcaster and also Head of Brighton College, visited St Catherine’s School this week to deliver this term’s Sixth Form Lecture. Dr Seldon was educated at Tonbridge and then went on to do PPE at Oxford followed by a PhD at LSE. His book, ‘Blair’ is his latest political biography which Cherie Blair has referred to as ‘that work of fiction!’ and is to be followed up in March by a work entitled ‘How the Tory Party Revives’ which will, as the title indicates, focus on the future of the Conservative Party. Dr Seldon’s favourite personality he said was John Major whom he claimed was ‘a very nice chap, very genuine and absolutely obsessed with cricket’.
The main topic of the evening was the death of traditional ideologies and how Tony Blair has moved the political goal-posts, now occupying very firmly the centre ground of British politics. He compared the formation of New Labour to the ‘ultimate boy band; there were five stellar characters namely Blair the presentational genius, Gordon Brown ‘the brain’, Peter Mandelson the image maker, Alastair Campbell handled the press and Philip Gould was the ideas man. It was Gould who had seen how Bill Clinton had revitalised the Democratic Party in the US transforming it into a party which attracted a much wider support base; the same could be done for the Labour Party and so New Labour was born. A decade later, only two of the original five members are still performing, but their relationship has deteriorated both publicly and privately. ‘Brown hates and despises Blair. He can no longer go along with the policies which Blair espouses.
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They were supposed to be temporary to ensure Labour won power, not permanent’. Dr Seldon predicted that Blair will be forced out within three years of the next election and Gordon Brown is the most likely candidate to succeed the leadership. Blair himself is priming Alan Milburn for this role as he fears that Brown will ‘ruin his legacy’.
And the future for the Conservatives under Michael Howard? They will pick up another 15-20 seats at the next election which he predicts will be May 5th but Labour will still command a very comfortable majority. Howard, is ‘out at sea, looking back to shore through a telescope, there is nowhere for him to go. Salvation for the Tories will come, when Brown takes over New Labour and shifts their policies further to the Left’.
At the end of his address Dr Seldon took a number of questions from the floor which prompted him to talk further about Iraq, the necessary prerequisites of an effective political leader, Labour and the single currency and how to deal with voter apathy. After the formal part of the evening, Dr Seldon stayed to answer more of the girls’ questions, commenting favourably upon their interest and overall political awareness. Government and Politics is one of the fastest growing departments in the School, seeming to belie the polls which indicate that young people have no interest in politics. He was warmly thanked by Politics student Louise Mitchell for a genuinely interesting and accessible talk which engaged the audience throughout and left the Sixth Form with a lot to consider.
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Blair by Anthony Seldon - now available in the school library
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Blair by Anthony Seldon
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When Tony Blair entered Downing Street on 2 May 1997 Britain seemed a different place. On that brilliant spring day the country suddenly appeared fresher, brighter -- a marked contrast to the greyness of the dog days of the Major government. That early optimism was in large part a reaction to the personality of Blair himself. The acceptable face of a Labour Party he had already modernised beyond recognition, his charisma and drive won two successive three-figure majorities. But with the triumphs have come allegations of arrogance, of hubris. Was this an inevitable consequence of supreme, almost presidential power, or were these traits always there? We know Blair is a religious man, but what really motivates him? Rejecting the constraints of formal biography, Anthony Seldon has produced a profile of the Prime Minister that rewrites the bibliography of Blair studies. Focusing on the curious interplay between the key episodes of his life and career and the key advisers he has courted so ardently, it assesses the Blair psychology in all its forms, including his pathological fear of alienating middle-class voters and his unprecedented contempt for the media. Gripping and revelatory, it is a major book about the man who has shaped modern Britain.
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