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When a young Blair called for a compromise
Last updated at 09:37am on 02.04.07Labour has long been ambivalent about a military success so closely identified with Lady Thatcher.
The then Labour leader, Michael Foot, supported the sending of a task force to the South Atlantic, but a number of his own MPs questioned his approach.
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A young Tony Blair, pictured here in the mid 90s with former tory MP Alan Howarth, called for compromise with Argentina's military dictators
Tony Blair, who has claimed recently that going to war was 'the right thing to do', was far from an enthusiastic supporter of the conflict at the time.
Then a young barrister fighting a by-election he called for compromise with Argentina's military dictators.
Mr Blair said: 'I have a tremendous sympathy with the Falklanders' cause but if it is the case, which I think it is now, that we are faced with an option between compromising and really a full-scale war, then I think realistically we have got to say that we are prepared to compromise.'
Mrs Beckett, then a Left-winger, was not an MP at the time, having lost her seat in 1979. She was returned to the Commons in the 1983 general election, even though Labour under Mr Foot was soundly defeated by the Falklands factor.
Reader views (1)
Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains. - Winston Churchill
Thank goodness Blair changed his mind - what a fool he would have been to have continued.
- Democracyrules, Canada, 04/04/2007 00:44
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