Print

Mail

wiki links

Blair's speech baffles Britain's labor leaders

Britain's increasingly restive union leaders were left baffled yesterday after Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared to pull back from making strongly-worded comments about opposition to his government.

Blair addressed the Trades Union Congress's annual conference at a private dinner in Brighton, south England, on Tuesday night following a series of attacks over the past few days by union leaders over government policies.

Extracts from Blair's comments were released to journalists earlier in the evening, hours before the prime minister spoke.

In the extracts, Blair was due to say: "The idea of a left-wing Labour government as the alternative to a moderate and progressive one is the abiding delusion of 100 years of our party. We are not going to fall for it again.

"Sensible trade unions and most Labour Party members know this government is doing its best for working people."

Blair was due to say that if Labour turned away from reforming public services it would be making as big a mistake as when the 1970s Labour government rejected the sale of council-owned houses.

But union leaders insisted later that Blair did not make many of these comments during his speech.

Leader of the Amicus manufacturing union, Derek Simpson, said he believed the tone was far less confrontational than suggested in the extracts released to the press and said Blair was actually quite conciliatory.

Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, said it was extraordinary that Blair did not deliver the speech handed out to the media: "It is quite clear they are spinning certain messages. Those who thought the end of spin was nigh have been given a nasty shock. None of the language was used," he said.

Downing Street confirmed that Blair did not use the exact words in the text released to journalists but insisted that the underlying message had remained the same.
This story has been viewed 2178 times.