Back on that fateful May in 1997 Who would have believed that Blair would have given us so many wars and so little action on social justice and the environment?

I will be very glad to see the back of him but fear the worse Gordon Brown is on his way with more neo-liberalism, little care for the environment and regard for liberties.

With interest rates rising his monetarist experiment at the Bank of England is failing and he is unlikely to be tested by election contest amongst Labour members'


IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING: GREENS WELCOME BLAIR RESIGNATION

10 YEARS OF RISING EMISSIONS: A DECADE OF FAILURE ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Green Party Principal Speakers Dr. Derek Wall and Siân Berry today reacted to news of Prime Minister Blair's resignation:

Dr Wall criticised his record on climate change and failure to narrow the widening gap between rich and poor: "Who would have believed that Blair would have given us so many wars and so little action on social justice and the environment?

"He lost our trust a long time ago. Far from seizing the initiative on climate change, and responding to public demand for action on this issue, he has presided over rising emissions.

"In the future, this will be remembered as his biggest failure. Iraq was - and still is - a travesty, but the effects of inaction on climate change will be felt for millennia to come.

"Blair failed dismally to narrow the gap between rich and poor, focussing his energies instead on frenzied reform and disastrous privatisation of our public services."

Green Party Principal Speaker Siân Berry highlighted Blair's relentless pursuit of environmentally devastating policies and erosion of civil liberties:

"The government's £30 billion road building plan, their sponsorship of the biggest expansion of aviation seen in a generation, and their consistent attempts to squirm out of fully implementing EU legislation on the environment have all ensured the UK is lagging behind Europe on tackling climate change.

"Blair also squandered the opportunity to make the UK - and the world - a safer place during his tenure, forcing through Trident renewal and trying to bring in a new round of nuclear power stations through the back door.

"On the ground in Britain, there are now more incinerators than there were in 1997, as the Blair government refused to adopt a policy of reduce, re-use and recycle, preferring instead to burn more rubbish than ever.

"Thanks to Blair, we are rapidly becoming a database state, with encroaching curbs on our civil liberties and a more monitored existence than ever before.