IT was the 1994 Labour Party conference in Blackpool and a youthful Tony Blair, "Bambi" as cartoonists portrayed him, was delivering his first speech as leader.
It was a workmanlike rather than an inspirational effort – until the end, when he went off-script and announced he was going to redraft, ie scrap, clause four of the Labour Party constitution, the one that committed it to nationalising the means of production, distribution and exchange. Delegates rose to applaud, apparently unaware that Blair had just abolished socialism.
Please enable cookies in your browser to display the rest of this article.