Ah, the usual "sidetrack the argument down your favourite street" trick Minty? This is a discussion about why Blair would or wouldn't get re-elected, you've decided to make it yet another rant about PFI, not me.

It's minor in comparison to the state of the country's finances, certainly. Minor in relation to Blair getting re-elected too.

I'll give you that PFI may be an almost terminal blow to the NHS, no argument there, but that isn't something that will worry the average man in the street, they simply don't understand what PFI is about.

I'll spell it out in simple form to give myself a chance of not getting redirected by yourself:

Blair will never get re-elected for the following reasons:

The majority of the press is against him.
People are concerned about troops coming home in boxes.
People are concerned about the state of the pound in the pocket.

People are not concerned about how the NHS is being run, only those in the ivory towers of academia and/or politics are really worried about that. Yes, as a journalist you have a very good insight into how it's all going wrong, but those are not insights that the average Joe shares.

Feel free to pick odd words out of that post to back up your personal gripes, you often do it with others so I'm expecting it, but at the end of the day PFI is not something that will stop Blair getting re-elected.
Blair will stop Blair getting re-elected.

Hang on – this is about Blair, yes? And whether we (the electorate) would have him back if presented with that option, yes?

And you've quoted things about his legacy as PM that concern people, yes?

And you acknowledge that the state of the NHS does concern people, yes?

But you don't think that reasons for that concern people – right?

Or is it just that things that concern me (or, presumably, any other poster here, if they don't tally with your own list of top concerns) are not to be considered in a thread on this subject?

PFI is one of the ways in which Blair took up the baton of Thatcher, in terms of economic ideology.

Are you saying that, for Joe and Joanna Public, economic ideology is not a big concern? So would they not be concerned (one way or the other) about the austerity programme?

As has been pointed out, he'd have to be selected first anyway, and then elected leader. Let's assume that would be by the Labour Party. As has been said, that's a tad unlikely. I suspect that economic ideology might have something to do with that.

And his having headed a government that paved the way for what is going on now, as a result of economic ideology (including but not limited to PFI) would be a substantial factor in that.

And when people see their hospitals going bust because of PFI, will you still assert that 'it's a minor issue"? What happens when, because of "the country's finances", those hospitals are privatised? Still "a minor issue"? It is an aspect of the financial situation when the taxpayer is expected to continue paying for, say, a hospital building (and outsourced 'soft' services) instead of having stopped doing that when the initial costs of building were paid. You don't buy a home through a mortgage and then, when the mortgage is up, continue paying it for a further 25 years. This is a financial issue. And with the austerity programme, hospitals going bust as a result will not be rescued by the state.

And it won't be a minor issue when people's jobs are sold to some private company, that then decides they're going to take the axe to pay and conditions in order to make more profit.

PFI is part and parcel of why Blair was Thatcher's child. That is exactly what I said. [uI didn't claim it was the biggest issue – I said it was a part of the situation[/u. Which bit of that do you consider to be factually incorrect?

Frankly, I can't see what your problem is. What do you consider to be inaccurate in what I have posted? Or put another way, what do you actually disagree with?

Hilary Benn
Alastair Darling
Michael Gove
David Davis
Menzies Campbell
Charles Kennedy

I doubt that Blair would be re-elected, four main perceptions prevent it ...

1. The right wing hate anyone who is not "one of us" (except Louise Mensch who liked him and briefly changed sides because of it ... say no more!).
2. The left wing still feel let down by him.
3. Many of the left and centre can't forgive him for his capitulation to Bush and the Iraq War.
4. The Labour Party are still waiting for the memory of Blair to wear off, they won't want his real or apparent "mistakes" aired again.

There are many more arguments for and against him but I see those as the big blockers.

Falstaff on honour
"Who hath it?
he that died o’ Wednesday"
Henry IV Part 1.

[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/who-does-tony-blair-think-he-is-7901922.htmlSomeone else thinks he's a deluded narcissist[/url

That Shakespeare bloke had a lovely way of putting things.