That he was the Left candidate was not really what people thought at the time, even if most of the Soft Left backed him. This contest feels much more ideological than the 2010 one.
Anyway, this is one of those arguments in which everyone involved is partly right and mostly wrong: elements of the legacy of the Blair government turned pretty toxic over time (because of the approach that government took towards the political process as much as anything else) and are still hurting, but turning sharply leftwards in all respects is most unlikely to be the answer. What I find personally depressing about the 'Blairite' Right is that, much like the Hard Left, they mostly seem concerned with fighting yesterdays battles, which is certainly not something that Mr Tony could have been accused of c. 1995...
There'll be voters in 2020 who won't have even been born in 1997, never mind 1983. The whole old/new Labour thing just makes us look
soooo outdated.
I wouldn't mind a candidate from the Right or the old Left, as long as they weren't covering themselves in the language of 20-30 years ago.
