Ian McEwan on the PM

Harry and Norm have already posted comments from Ian McEwan's Der Spiegel interview in respect of his comments on Blair, the civil war within Islam and the anti-war protestors.

Harry has some of the following, but it's worth expanding on. McEwan is interesting on the press reaction to the PM after the General Election:

McEwan: Two months ago, he was the villain. The day after he won the election, the press erupted in a furious, spiteful rage. It was incredible. You would think he'd just been found guilty of child murder.

And on the success of the Labour governments since 1997:

McEwan: I take a very unfashionable view of Tony Blair. I think he's the least bad prime minister we've had.

SPIEGEL: The least bad prime minister?

McEwan: There have been gross mistakes, but for those who have nostalgia for old Labour, they must reflect on 30 percent inflation, 3 million were unemployed, public service was a total chaos, the government was constantly on its knees to the International Monetary Fund and there was a sense of real decline. Old Labour was a disaster, an absolute disaster. And I've never forgiven the right for their 18 years in power here, either. The fact that we've now got money pouring into education and we're finally beginning to restore the public health service is a real achievement. If you had told someone on the left in 1975 that there would be a Labour-led government with 3 percent inflation, a 2.5 percent growth rate, 800,000 unemployed and a minimum wage, they would think you were in fantasy land.

This reinforces a point made by E.J.Dionne in the Washington Post earlier this week: the failure of the left ('liberals' in the US argot in the E.J.Dionne piece) to acknowledge its own successes:

In the face of the attack on government since the 1970s, liberals have often fallen mute -- or pretended to be just as anti-government as their conservative rivals.

Alternatively, some on the left worry that saying certain things are working is a form of selling out because it distracts attention from all that is wrong. Ben Wattenberg and the late Richard Scammon cleverly parodied this approach more than three decades ago, when they wrote that liberals often seemed to declare: "Our programs have failed. Let us continue."

He refers to work by a US think-tank which shows that government spending focused on the poorest does in fact work:

It is thus important news that today, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the estimable liberal organization, will release a series of studies showing that programs aimed at lifting up Americans with low incomes actually do what they say they do. The reports reflect a growing recognition on the part of progressives that after years of playing defense against conservative claims, it is time to go on offense.

The fact is that every year 27 million Americans are lifted from poverty by our system of public benefits. More than 80 million Americans receive health insurance through a government program -- Medicaid, Medicare or the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP. Without these programs, tens of millions would be unable to afford access to medical care. As the center notes, government programs reduce both the extent and the depth of poverty.

Time we all spoke upfor success, I think.