“LABOUR WILL RUE THE DAY IT GOT RID OF BLAIR” - DIGBY

19-04-2007

Sir Digby Jones, the Birmingham lawyer who became Director General of the CBIreckons Labour will regret forcing Tony Blair to quit - andsays the only people who think he's unelectable are members of his own party.

In an electrifying speech to members of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce at Opus Restaurant yesterday, Jones gave his blunt verdict on all three major parties, and also handed out heartfelt advice to the chancellor Gordon Brown who is a personal friend.

“On the Saturday he becomes Prime Minister, he should promise to withdraw troops from Iraq within 12 months. On the Monday, he should remove private houses from inheritance tax. And on the Tuesday he should call an election. He’d win it too.”

Sir Digby admitted, though, that the Chancellor’s cautious instincts meant he was unlikely to act so swiftly, predicting instead that he would see out the remaining two and a half years of this parliament - then lose to David Cameron.

Jones’ track record at the CBI and his subsequent appointment as Britain’s skills envoy give him a credibility few can match. Here are some key points from his off-the-cuff 45 minute speech.

On Blair and Labour…

Digby’s analysis is that Blair’s biggest failure was not the Iraq War - which he broadly supported - but his failure to tackle some of Britain’s most serious, underlying problems. But he added, “the Labour party will rue the day when it got rid of Mr Blair”.

He said that only Labour party members thought the PM was unelectable, but was far from flattering in his assessment of Blair’s achievements, especially given the stable economy and the size of his majority.

“I think his lasting condemnation will be what’s he done with it? My answer is he’s done nothing”.

Jones reckons that Blair whenever Blair has been threatened with strikes in the public sector, he’s bottled tough decisions, leaving the fundamental structures of education, health, transport and so on unchanged.

“There’s been this enormous increase in public spending, but I call it the British Leyland school of finance. You put a lot of money in at the top and get an Austin Allegro out at the bottom.”

He also attacked the Prime Minister’s civil liberties record saying, “in the name of security and liberty this government has hindered freedom like none ever has before”

On The United States and The Iraq War…

Digby reckons that Tony Blair had been badly let down by the Americans saying, “I don’t think Bush had a Plan A never mind a Plan B”.

“War”, he said “is God’s way to teaching Americans geography”, while the US he said “was the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without a spell of civilisation in between”.

On Gordon Brown

Digby praised him “I see a chancellor going down in history as someone who has overseen an enormous amount of economic stability” - but the cautioned that this did not mean he’d make a good PM. “Because you’re a good finance director doesn’t mean you make a good chief executive. You know what you get if you put a finance director in charge of your business? You get an awful lot of money and no business”.

On David Cameron and the Environment

“I think he’s a deeply committed green. It’s not fluff to woo the voters” reckons Digby. His own view that clobbering British businesses with eco-taxes is pointless unless India, China and the US are all on board too - and that nuclear power is our only feasible alternative to relying for energy supplies on unstable countries like Russia.

On The Lib Dems

Jones says most of their activists have no real appetite for power - “I think they want the hobby of belonging to a partyof protest”.