13 April 2012

Tony Blair set his sights firmly on a full third term in power but acknowledged he had hit a "rough patch" recently.

In his keynote conference speech, Mr Blair said: "It's my privilege to be the first Labour leader in 100 years to speak to our conference six and a half years into Government.

"We've never been here before. We've never come this far. Never governed for so long. Now with the prospect of a full third term. But it's a testing time."

Mr Blair confessed he was surprised it had taken so long for things to get tough and insisted it was time to try again.

"Up to now there has been a ritual to Labour Governments. Euphoria in victory. Hard slog in Government. Tough times. Party accuses leadership of betrayal.
Leadership accuses party of ingratitude. Disillusion. Defeat. Long period of Tory Government before next outbreak of euphoria.

"We've been far better at defeating ourselves than the Tories have ever been.

"Apart from 1974-79, which was fragile from the first, each Labour Government has been a spasmodic interval punctuating otherwise unbroken Conservative rule.

"For too many of our 100 years we have been a well-intentioned pressure group."

He said now was the time for the party to show it had the mettle not just to be
a longer or better Labour Government than those that went before, but to usher in a "political era where progressive politics is to the 21st century what conservative politics was to the 20th.

"I do not just want an historic third term. Our aim must be an historic realignment of the political forces shaping our country and the wider world.

"Here we are poised, six and a half year in, with a fantastic opportunity to use to to lose.

"Yes, this is a testing time. But it is a test not just of belief but of character. And the time is for renewal, not retreat."

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