Thatcher: still making news

Tony Blair has called on voters to move beyond Thatcherism and vote for schools and hospitals.

Speaking in the key Labour marginal of Birmingham Yardley on Tuesday, the prime minister said the country had to decide whether it wanted to move "forward to back".

"For us the future is not something to be afraid of but to embrace and shape as a confident, forward looking nation. For the Conservatives the past, and in particular the 1980s, is a happy retreat from facing up to the tough challenges of today," he said.

Despite claims on Tuesday that he was the true heir of Margaret Thatcher, Blair said that William Hague wanted to resurrect the policies of the 1980s.

"It is no coincidence Margaret Thatcher is out again campaigning for Mr Hague today. Thatcherism is the place where the Conservative Party is stuck. A party that is so firmly stuck in the past cannot be trusted with the country's future," he said.

The Labour leader said that Britain under Thatcher had left groups of society behind saying he wanted to give everyone a "fair chance in life".

"This election really, really matters because it can, if the people decide, mark a real and historic turning point - a clean break with the politics of the 80s, which left so many of our people behind," said Blair.

The agenda pursued by Margaret Thatcher was not all bad, said Blair. But he said her governments had "four fundamental failings".

He claimed her government had presided over economic instability, under-investment in public services, social division and isolation in Europe.

He claimed that the Conservatives under William Hague would encounter the same problems. "The Conservatives have repeated those four failings, added to them, accentuated them, and have campaigned up and down the country for them, campaigned to take Britain back to the 80s," said Blair.

He was also dismissive of the Conservative strategy of urging voters to protest against a large Labour majority.

"At first, the Conservatives stood proudly for tax cuts at the expense of investment in schools and hospitals. Now, having switched their strategy day by day, knowing they have lost the arguments, they ask for a protest vote. I say the only protest votes that should be cast are votes against £20 billion of cuts," he said.