It’s only you Brits who don’t appreciate me, insists Tony Blair [View All]

[charlie]

Think again, Tony...

Tony Blair has hit back defiantly at his British critics, insisting that he is appreciated overseas much more than at home. He also defended his money-making activities.
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Interviewed for today’s News Review, the former prime minister said: “You get to a position where the criticism you get, you just have to live with. It’s the way it is. When you are someone like me, you create a lot of controversy one way or another. You just decide to do what you are going to do and let that speak for itself.”

He blamed his negative image in Britain on the press, saying: “They don’t approach me in an objective way. Their first question is how to belittle what I’m doing, knock it down, write something bad about it. It’s not right. It’s not journalism. They don’t get me and they’ve got a score to settle with me. But they are not going to settle it.”

He added: “It’s not true that nobody likes me! Reading the papers in Britain, you’d end up thinking I’d lost three elections rather than won them. There is a completely different atmosphere around me outside the country. People accept the work that you are doing, as it is. They don’t see anything wrong with being successful financially and also doing good work.”
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He is expected to go before the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war in the new year, when critics hope he will face charges of manipulating intelligence. Ken Macdonald, QC, the former director of public prosecutions, accused him last week of “deceit” and “subterfuge”, but Blair said the critics were “doing it more for effect than anything else”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6962872.ece