What on earth does Blairite mean? Depending on who you ask, a Blairite could be a supporter of Tony Blair, who wants to defend New Labour’s record of Sure Start centres, civil partnerships and, well, the only elected Labour government of the past several decades – or, it could be a warmongering, MSM-controlled neoliberal who prioritises a slick media operation over political integrity.
Things have got even more confusing in recent years. After the release of the Chilcot report, Owen Jones wrote that Blairites who want a political future “need to divorce themselves from Blair” – only to be called a “Blairite traitor” himself after publishing an in-depth analysis of the weaknesses of the Corbyn administration. There were even tongue-in-cheek headlines branding Corbyn a Blairite and comparing Seumas Milne with Alastair Campbell, even though “in Corbyn-land, Blair is a byword for Satan”.
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