Tony Blair is the man who started the decline through which we now suffer, according to columnist Virginia Blackburn, who has criticised those who look back on the Cool Britannia era with nostalgia.
Writing in the Daily Express, Blackburn responds to Mary Portas's account of turning Harvey Nichols into a household name in the 1990s, including her joyous reaction to the election of New Labour in 1997. Portas described Blair as young and one of us, unlike Margaret Thatcher with her Launer handbags and pelmet hairstyle.
Blair's legacy under fire
Blackburn points out that Blair defeated John Major, not Margaret Thatcher, and argues that 1997 was the year that started Britain's decline. She claims Blair opened the gates to mass immigration, undermined probity in public service, turned universities into money-making machines churning out useless degrees and leaving a generation in debt, and led the country into a Middle East conflict with repercussions for decades.
The columnist argues that the success of Portas and Harvey Nichols had nothing to do with Blair, but came about because of the policies Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet put in place. Without Thatcher, Blackburn suggests, Portas and her cohorts would have had nothing like the careers they had.
Thatcher's policies credited
Blackburn credits the Tories with slashing taxes, encouraging entrepreneurs, cutting red tape, bringing the unions under control and creating a climate where success was celebrated and hard work rewarded. She describes Britain as a basket case in the 1970s and suggests the current Labour party seems to want to take the country back there.
Portas is described as exactly the sort of person the Conservative Party encouraged, having made something of her life after a very rough childhood. Blackburn questions why Portas and many others cannot understand the debt they owe to Margaret Thatcher, and advises Andy Burnham to take a leaf out of her book, concluding that people like Portas should grow up.
