Blair says sorry to ejected heckler (82 yr old Jewish escapee from Nazis)

[sabra]

http://www.dailysnack.com/news_article_pa.html?cart=11279990959018485&fSKU=4

Blair says sorry to ejected heckler


Tony Blair apologised to the 82-year-old activist expelled from Labour's conference for heckling Foreign Secretary Jack Straw over the Iraq war - offering Walter Wolfgang his "full apologies".
Interviewed on GMTV, the Prime Minister was asked whether Mr Wolfgang had his personal apology.

Mr Blair said: "Yes, he does. I'm really sorry about it."

He added: "I wasn't in the conference centre at the time myself. It is difficult, the stewards are volunteers, they are not quite sure how to deal with a situation like that and, of course, you should deal with it differently and I'm really sorry for it and it must have been upsetting for him."

Asked on Radio Five Live later what he wanted to say to Mr Wolfgang, Mr Blair said: "I would say I'm very sorry.

more info:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4293502.stm

Wolfgang highlights deeper disquiet



Headlines about an 82-year old Jewish escapee from the Nazis being manhandled out of Labour conference for daring to yell "nonsense" at the Foreign Secretary is probably not the way Tony Blair wanted to end this rally.

But, for many regular conference visitors, this was far from a surprise.

Ever-tightening security and a distinctly intolerant attitude towards "interruptions", as the prime minister called them, meant this was a headline waiting to happen.

...

The picture of veteran peace campaigner Walter Wolfgang - "Wolfie" as he is now universally known - is far more powerful.

[emad]

1. Hope the old guy sues the shit out of Poodle & Co. The cops

arrested him on anti-terrorism charges when he tried to re-enter the hall.

The Labour Party chairman then took 5 and a half hours to apologise.

What a fiasco.

[Henny Penny]

26. That begrudging apology from the Labour party chairman

Mccartney was dreadful! Tantamount to saying "Mistakes happen. Next..."

The irony that the old boy had fled the Nazis... and was a Labour party member for 50 years....

:mad: :mad: :mad: :puke:

[marmar]

2. Our good friend the U.K.....

getting more America-like every day!

:scared: :scared: :scared: :scared:

[Art_from_Ark]

5. George Orwell was very prescient about his home country

Next thing you know, the Labour Party will be renaming itself "Ingsoc"

[IndyOp]

3. Thank you Mr. Wolfgang -

TRUTH TO POWER!

:kick:

[emad]

4. Heckler returns to hero's welcome

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour2005/story/0,16394,1580806,00.html

[Amonester]

6. Ain't there other words than "I'm sorry" these criminals use all

the time to excuse their SORRY a**es??

It's really overused, isn't it? "The Intelligence was wrong: no WMD. I'm SORRY. I really am!" "Thousands of innocents died, we're so sorry, but the world is SAFER now!" "Prisoners were 'mistreated' by a few 'bad apples' (sic), we're so SORRY."

These ABSOLUTE MORONS think we're all as STUPID, and IDIOT as ther R. :mad:

[nodehopper]

13. have you EVER heard * say he was sorry?

[Amonester]

30. No. I'm... sorry (...), I wasn't thinking about THAT criminal when I

posted this...

Yeah. So now I'M sorry for I realize I stopped being obsessed about hating ** for less than one minute or so.

(I'm sorry but, don't worry: I ain't no criminal a**hole.) ;)

[freedom_to_read]

7. at least he apologized

Our dimwit president wouldn't have.

[Javaman]

8. oh moron* would have apologized, it would have sounded like this...

moron*: I, um, want to promote the fact that, um, mr., the gentleman, was removed from the theater, audience first by means, of which he was removed. so wrapping it up, I reiterate, that people, er, responsibility I take. Thank you.

[northzax]

18. San Dimas High School Football Rules! (nt)

[Richard Steele]

25. EXCELLENT!!!

[T_i_B]

28. Well Ian McCartney...

The Blairite stooge who went on TV to apologize did not sound very sincere in the slightest. I for one would not be at all suprised if this sort of thing happens again with the labour party.

[defiant1]

9. Free speech is alive and well....

:sarcasm:

[goodhue]

10. Stifling Iraq dissent backfires for Labour

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-29T135054Z_01_YUE949497_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BRITAIN-BLAIR-IRAQ.xml

Stifling Iraq dissent backfires for Labour
Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:51 PM BST



By Katherine Baldwin

BRIGHTON (Reuters) - Tony Blair apologised on Thursday to an 82-year-old man ejected from the annual conference of his Labour Party for heckling over Iraq, catapulting the divisive war back into the headlines.

The heavy-handed removal of Walter Wolfgang on Wednesday backfired for the Labour leadership, with some delegates saying it reflected an internal climate which put too much emphasis on maintaining control and silencing dissent.

"You cannot stifle debate by hiring heavies," said Wolfgang, who received a hero's welcome as he returned to conference.

"We made a mistake, I believe, in invading Iraq without cause. We've got to rectify it by withdrawing from Iraq. If you try to ignore it, it will not go away," he said.

* * *

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-29T135054Z_01_YUE949497_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BRITAIN-BLAIR-IRAQ.xml

[saigon68]

11. Poodles Thugs should go to Iraq-Nam and fight the "people there"

And get their asses kicked soundly

[goodhue]

12. kick

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

14. I am no fan of Mr. Blair

and what happened is crazy. He got interviewed afterwards on the BBC. If you heard it, you heard the interviewer asking tough, hard questions. I have to hand it to Tony, he asnwered each one, though at times you could hear the gears turning as he attempted to get out from under this outrageous action.
No way would the Chimperor have survived the interview without melting down or resorting to a a 'fuck you I don't have to answer for my actions' retort........

[LizMoonstar]

15. question:

once the action was already taken, what should Blair have done? He apologised, which seems appropriate, but people here are angry at him for doing so. Can someone explain how he should have made good?

[LivingInTheBubble]

16. He could have started by...

explaining how he has turned the country into a place where heckling one of the government means you are arrested on TERRORISM charges.

[fedsron2us]

17. Here is a photo of this major terror threat

It is lucky the law was on hand to protect Blair and company from people shouting 'Nonsense' or 'Lies'.
Who knows what damage might have been done if this heckling had continued unchecked.

[northzax]

19. technically, he was arrested

for trying to reenter the building after being booted. and that's probably the rule on the books to deal with people trying to enter public buildings without permission. stupid, but I'm sure it gets dropped.

if you climb the white house fence yelling at chimpy, I bet you get nabbed on something close to terrorism.

[Guaranteed]

21. He was charged with TERRORISM?

That would make this an entirely different story.

[Guaranteed]

20. I think he did the right thing. I imagine that the man

accepted his apology.

It should be enough.

[Nihil]

24. He did

Wolfgang accepted the apologies of the party chairman and said he
is "happy to draw a line under the incident so far as I am personally
concerned" but is still unhappy about the party approach to free speech.

The man is honest and an admirable contrast to the politicians he
"dared" to criticise so politely.

[saskatoon]

22. how he should have made good

He should not be Bush's no 1 asshole backer to begin with.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. He could have allowed his party to debate the Iraq situation

at their conference, rather than pretending that they support his policy. Walter Wolfgang's heckling was the only comment on Iraq they we heard from the membership. It wouldn't have been needed if a political party had actually debated the main foreign policy issue at this time.

[LizMoonstar]

32. again, good, but not what i was asking. see below, minus the snark.

[muriel_volestrangler]

34. No, I do mean after the incident.

If he was really sorry, then he would have given Wolfgang a chance to speak to the conference about his views on Iraq (which are very typical of Labour members), and for a few other views from party workers.

There were 6 speeches on the final day by senior ministers - 3 of which were about very similar subjects - "Reconnecting people and politics", "Improving policital engagement", "Recreating voting as a badge of pride". The irony of them wittering on asking why people are getting cynical about politics, and not bothering voting, the day after the party chucked a member out of its conference for daring to shout about an issue they had decided there could be no debate about, is huge. That section lasted an hour and a half. If they chucked the talking heads, and let members say something, they'd reconnect more in one session than they will in the rest of this parliament.

[LizMoonstar]

35. ok, thanks for the explanation!

[Henny Penny]

27. Are you mad woman????

Blair is responsible for ensuring that the conference was policed by heavies who's job was not to ensure that terrorists did not attack the leaders! But who, instead where instructed to stop the party members showing any form of dissent.

This old boy was pounced on by 4 or 5 thugs for shouting "Nonsense!" at some nonsense about Iraq from that idiot Jack Straw!

Back to the clouds... or Millbank with you!

[LizMoonstar]

31. wtf?

all i did was ask a question. your criticism is valid in general, but not to the question I'm asking, which is:

AFTER IT HAD ALREADY HAPPENED, what would you rather Blair have done?

please at least read what I'm asking before you decide I'm stupid.

[Peace Patriot]

37. "What would you rather Blair have done?" Well, if it had happened over

here--not that Bushites are often found in situations in which an honest Republican (or anyone) might shout "nonsense!" at their bullshitting politicians--Bush or Bushites would have ignored it and not apologized, and would further have wished him ill--and maybe gotten Rush Limbaugh or Michael Reagan to state that he should died in the ovens. What do they care? They have Diebold and ES&S selecting them with SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code in electronic voting systems, with, curiously, not a word of objection from the Democratic "opposition."

Nothing to fear from the voters. No apologies for anything, not even for the worst lies and crimes.

They must not have Diebold and ES&S in England, and politicians must actually have to do something for people, to get their votes. I recall that Blair just lost 100 seats in Parliament. Not a good time to be mistreating venerable Labourites.

Pure, cynical, slime-ass politics, on Blair's part.

I almost prefer Dick Cheney's snarl at Leahy, "Go fuck yourself!" At least we know we're dealing with Darth Vader and not with some airbrushed, glib mannequin.

[T_i_B]

29. How about kicking out the security goons who did this

and the people who ordered them to kick the guy out in the first place? They are the ones who should be detained under terrorist charges.

[xxqqqzme]

33. "...It is difficult, the stewards are

volunteers, they are not quite sure how to deal with a situation like that..."

Wow, imagine that - overzealous 'volunteers'. Same on both sides of the pond.

[Divine Discontent]

36. yeah, talk about overzealous (1984ish!)

they could have ignored him and if he said anything else, asked him to please wait for comments until after the address.

thank God they have patience over there in the UK... not.