September 29, 2004
Opinion:
An import that we might just need
By Jack GrantAfter seeing UK Prime Minister Tony Blair speak at his party convention, I realize that I like the British style of politics much better than the US style. He doesn't call his political opponents evil, and he uses sophisticated humor to make his points. None of the blunderbuss, two-by-four to the face, ham-handed, over-the-top blustering as I have seen from both George W. Bush and John Kerry.
His response to heckling is outstanding as well, pointing out how at least they live in a country where people can speak their minds. I haven't seen politicians in the US (including the current candidates for President) be able to handle themselves so well. Possibly the rough and tumble question time in Parliament has allowed him to learn how to keep his choo-choo from derailing under pressure and deviation from the "script" that rules all major political activity in the US.
Finally, the way that Blair is addressing the Iraq issue, admitting very bluntly that the intelligence was wrong regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction capability versus potential to develop and actually apologizing for that mistake. He then tempered that statement by saying that he could not apologize for removing Saddam Hussein from power, which was a head on acknowledgment that the information was wrong but that the war was in his view still the right thing to do. Admitting error is the first step in learning and critically important in not repeating mistakes. Although I don't agree with the entire Labour agenda in the UK, especially many of the social welfare provisions, I could vote for this man as compared to how I have always had to vote in Presidential elections, which is against the worse of the two candidates. Too bad we have no one like Blair in the US willing to run for President and actually get nominated by a major party.
How odd... a nation without a written constitution seems to have evolved a political style that is much more sophisticated than the nation with the oldest written constitution still governing the country.
Posted by Jack Grant at 09:11 on 29 September 2004this post on Tony Blair and the one above it on the lack of debate in American politics are sadly accurate!
Posted by: kevin at September 29, 2004 09:15 PMFirst of all - I really do enjoy hearing Mr. Blair speak. The political speaking style in Great Britain is tremendously different from that here in America - and I like it much better. They aren't always pausing for applause lines. They are very quick thinking speakers. We are much more stilted with planned out speaking styles - not nearly as enjoyable.
Second - I haven't heard either Bush or Kerry call the other one evil (or the other party evil for that matter)... Now granted I haven't listened to all of their speeches. But it seems to me it's the 527 groups and many online groups that are spewing out the "evilness" in the other party. Quite a different matter. Since you were listening to a convention speech by Blair, in this instance, have you heard other political speech by other groups in GB that lead you to believe they don't have lots of name calling, etc in their campaigns? I was under the impression that their campaigns can be just as heated and nasty as ours - we just don't hear about it over here...
Last of all - you do remember that they don't elect Tony Blair individually. He is the head of his party (Labor) and to get him in as PM - his party has to win the majority. It works for them, but I don't know that I like the system - it means the government is pretty homogenous - one party totally in power. We've done the best things in this country with one party in the executive office and the other party in power in the Congress. Just my 2 cents - FWIW.
Posted by: Teresa at September 29, 2004 11:52 PM
