Tuesday, April 27, 2004
If Latham's not willing, why should Blair be?
No great and powerful friends for our esteemed opposition leader, eh?
"The federal Opposition Leader, Mark Latham, has been embarrassed by an email sent to Australia's major companies claiming that the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was likely to attend a Labor Party seminar in Australia when he has no plans to do so.
"The email was sent by the Labor-linked consultancy Hawker Britton to companies requesting amounts of money ranging from $5000 to $20,000 to attend the seminar.
"Mr Latham was aware of the plan to invite Mr Blair and other senior British Labour figures to a Labor Party seminar in July but had not spoken to the British Prime Minister about it."
Isn't it ironic that Tony Blair, this once great new hope of social democracy (the Third Way and all), now seems so much closer to politicians like John Howard and George Bush? Conflicts that define an era - like the war on Islamo-fascist terror is turning up to be - do make for strange bedfellows. Many on the left, like Blair himself, realise that what's at stake here goes far beyond the petty everyday concerns of partisan politics. Others, like Latham, just don't get it.
Then again, maybe Tony Blair should come down to Australia to host a seminar for Labor Party on how to get some spine transplants.
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"The federal Opposition Leader, Mark Latham, has been embarrassed by an email sent to Australia's major companies claiming that the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was likely to attend a Labor Party seminar in Australia when he has no plans to do so.
"The email was sent by the Labor-linked consultancy Hawker Britton to companies requesting amounts of money ranging from $5000 to $20,000 to attend the seminar.
"Mr Latham was aware of the plan to invite Mr Blair and other senior British Labour figures to a Labor Party seminar in July but had not spoken to the British Prime Minister about it."
Isn't it ironic that Tony Blair, this once great new hope of social democracy (the Third Way and all), now seems so much closer to politicians like John Howard and George Bush? Conflicts that define an era - like the war on Islamo-fascist terror is turning up to be - do make for strange bedfellows. Many on the left, like Blair himself, realise that what's at stake here goes far beyond the petty everyday concerns of partisan politics. Others, like Latham, just don't get it.
Then again, maybe Tony Blair should come down to Australia to host a seminar for Labor Party on how to get some spine transplants.
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