Do not under estimate the impact that the last 28 years has had on you?
When Tony Blair came to power in 1997 the atmosphere in England was one of elation, everyone saw an end of a tired Conservative tenure and things could only get better. The “Third Way” brought in by Blair’s New Labour, promised a blend of left and right thought. It indeed seemed new, modern, appropriate and exciting, but now the cracks are plain to see.
We’re not going to explore what happened here, men like David Starkey and Peter Hitchins can give you the forensic detail on what went wrong and how.
What we are going to explore is how it’s affected all of us, honestly and openly.
I am a millennial, born in 1988, and when New Labour came to power I would have been roughly 9 years old. My entire secondary and tertiary education was delivered in the crucible of Blairism, as was the case for millennials at large.
I once heard Nigel Farage say - Forget about millennials, they’re gone! And I think he’s broadly right when it comes to challenging the status quo. New Labour made huge changes to the education system and the curriculum, and it affected the way millennials think the most, I call it Blair-Brain.
Do you want a definition of Blair-Brain? Well, if you’ve lived in the UK, I think you know exactly what I mean!
But while millennials are the most affected by it, every generation has been affected by it. Even those who firmly criticise Blair’s reforms, still echo Third Way sentiments and feelings when they talk about it. Those who seek to turn the tide on the Third Way must examine how it’s affected them personally.
It is impossible to think that living within Blair’s paradigm for 28 years has had no effect on one’s own political psychology.
So I’ve devised a rough test, a quiz if you will, so you can assess for yourself, how bad is your case of Blair Brain.