What do you think of Tony Blair ??

[kentuck]

If there are any British readers today, feel free to give your opinion. But, since he went along with Bush on the war in Iraq, and the lies about the war, can he be held in much higher esteem than what many hold George W Bush in this country? How popular is he in Great Britain?

[MasonJar]

1. Not much any more. He can at least speak proper English.

[FreedomAngel82]

19. And debate quite well

I love to watch the "Common Times" question's every once in a while and it's really fascinating stuff. Bush could never do that so I do respect Blair for being uptodate on everything on with the bills and stuff. Didn't he recently pass the National ID act just like we did here last year?

[Voice1]

21. ID card scam not passed yet

Blair & Co still have a fight on their hands to get this passed. It's upto the Lords now whether or not they'll cave in.

[Greeby]

2. It's worse than just the war

Now he isn't running again, he's determined to dump "anti-terror" laws on us that look like they were taken piecemeal from the PAtriot Act. I believe he's turned into a total neo-con psycho.

Oh, and as for his political survival last summer, chalk it up to people not voting out of disgust. It was victory by proxy, because not enough people turned up to vote against Labour

[leveymg]

5. Why doesn't Labour kick him out?

It's as if Biden or some other Democratic centrist party leader was elected President, went mad and embraced a radical right Brit who dragged both countries into a ruinous war misadventure and declared a forever war against the Muslim world.

How does Labour tolerate Blair?

[Greeby]

7. Because Blair and co stacked the PLP....

...with gutless, mindless New Labour ideologues (I should know, I'm lumbered with one).

The ranks of what might be dubbed "real Labour" are dwindling either through death or retirement.

[Voice1]

16. You're right there

And then, we mustn't forget also, at the last election Labour Party MPs were caught lying about whether or not they supported the illegal attack on Iraq. Hardly any of them wanted any mention of Blair in their election leaflets did they. My guess is that if Blair would have taken a higher profile in last years election, their majority would be a lot lower, we'd maybe be in hung parliament territory right now.

[FreedomAngel82]

22. Hey just like the republicans today

[FreedomAngel82]

20. Maybe he's always been one and just now showing it

:shrug: Maybe he did like Bush did the republican party with the Labour party and hijacked it. Maybe he had enough to pass for a Labour member. Or maybe he got offered some sweet deals and is pushing through the neocon agenda. There are neocons in Britian too.

[AverageJoe]

3. Not British

But I despise the son of a bitch. He and * manufactured an illegal and horrific war. May he vividly dream of his murders--especially the children--every night forever.

[w8liftinglady]

4. he is a shoo-in for the Carlyle Group

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2005/250805blairexpected.htm

[Art_from_Ark]

18. Just like his predecessor,

John Major?

http://www.carlyle.com/eng/news/l5-news716.html

[FreedomAngel82]

23. And here I thought

you weren't supposed to link to him. :eyes:

[Burried News]

6. A man with a fine mind and education who chooses to serve evil.

[Voice1]

8. Oh, I just noticed this one, before logging off

I couldn't resist answering, as a Brit.

Blair is an egomaniac, obsessed with courting power. I watched a documentary about him, screened over here I think the year before last now about his childhood, apparently he craved attention.

That may well explain his snivelling lackey tendencies. He definitely doesn't have any respect with the majority of Brits, at last years election, although his Labour Party won the majority of seats in the general election, only 20% or so of elligible voters actually voted for them. There was, straight after the election wind in the sails of those of us who had been calling for electoral reform for some time, when polls proved we were supported by over 60% of people who wanted a fairer system.

Before Blair first got to power he claimed there was only so much time left to save our NHS, and other public service, personally, I wasn't taken in by his appeal to the Labour grassroots, but many were, they realised in 2001 that he had betrayed the grassroots of Labour, and the election of 2001 saw record low turnout, the 2005 election wasn't that much better.

Since getting to power, Blair has destroyed our NHS, bringing in legislation to privatise the NHS by the back door, there has already been 1 confirmed death reported because of his scheme to privatise oxygen supplies for NHS patients receiving care at home.

Of course, there's also the Orwellian id cards (including iris and fingerprint scans), the databse state, politicising the police, police being allowed to shoot pepople on the spot, British soldiers caught torturing and abusing Iraqis, one report today that soldiers executed an unarmed Iraqi, Blair's involvement with the whole so called "war on terror", and the invasion of Iraq is very unpopular.

Sorry for going on, rant over.

[Greeby]

9. It's not a rant until you use the machine

:rant:


;)

[Voice1]

10. Handy

I'll have to remember that one for the future :)

[FreedomAngel82]

25. Something I'm wondering

Was there anyone the people could support to vote against Blair when he first ran? And would any of them have supported Bush's Iraq nonsense? I have read besides Carlyle the reason why Blair supported Bush is because they (meaning the British) got some military aircraft they've been wanting for a long time. And isn't the Queen helping the CIA with the torture flights?

[Voice1]

28. Some history on Labour leadership

Thought this page would be useful for you freedom Angel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_leadership_election,_1994

John Prescott's now our deputy PM, many feel he's betrayed his roots, coming from a working class background, he's helped Blair to rubber stamp some very right wing policies, Margaret Beckett was the stand in leader after the former leader, John Smith ( a man who I thought had real principles, a much better man than Blair) died.

Prescott and Beckett are still members of the cabinet, and as such, they are heavily involved in the decision to invade Iraq illegally. The same with Brown, who, it's believed is likely to take over from Blair, but Labour leftwingers aren't happy about it, because Brown would not really be much more different than Blair.

I've not read about getting the military aircraft from Carlyle business, i'll certainly try to find some information on that, but there's certainly something dodgy about the sell off of Qinetiq:

http://www.forbes.com/2006/02/10/qinetiq-blair-carlyle-cx_po_0210autofacescan10.html

As to the Queen helping the CIA with torture flights, I really haven't read anything about that.

[catmother]

11. back during the clinton years, i really liked tony blair. i believe

he and big dawg were good friends. but since he's aligned himself with bush, my opinion has changed. he does have a beautiful speaking voice but i don't want to hear what he has to say anymore.

[RoyGBiv]

12. Poodle comes to mind ...

And I loathe poodles. But really that's not correct because he's more of a lapdog, and the poodles I've known don't make good lapdogs.

More objectively, he's vastly more intelligent than Bush and does seem at least capable of speaking English. That excuses nothing, though. He is complicit in many of the crimes of the Bush regime and should be held equally accountable.

[BooScout]

13. Not British, but living in the UK....

I can't stand him. He's Bush's lap dog. I agree that as he draws near to exiting office he's getting much worse with raming anti-terrorist crappola down the throats of Brits and systematically taking away civil liberties.

It's like the Patriot Act fiasco all over again over here lately.

What's really bad is he is from the Liberal Party and yet is a horrid Conservative in sheep's clothing.

[FreedomAngel82]

26. So I wonder why

he went to the Liberal party. Maybe the conservatives didn't want him. :shrug: I find it strange.

[roguevalley]

14. he's scum, pure and simple.

[collegegirl211]

15. He's a piece of trash

the man is bush's little puppet hopefully he'll be gone by next year

[tenshi816]

17. I can't stand the lying little weasel.

I've never liked him, ever, since long before the war. I'm not even sure why he's in the Labour Party, other than maybe he saw it as his best chance to become Prime Minister. He became a politician when he realized he would never be a rock star and saw it as his chance to be somebody. Blair cares as much about public service as George W. Bush does, which is to say not at all. He's in it for himself, and the British public are an afterthought.

Did I mention that I don't like Tony Blair? Or that publicity hound he's married to.

[Disturbed]

24. He's power hungy weasle on meth.

Would you buy a used car from this guy?

[tenshi816]

27. I've never bought anything he's said, so no,

although I know you didn't mean it literally!

[Voice1]

30. I don't think Gordon Brown would

He can't trust a word Blair says, they've made so many deals about a handover of power over the years, apparently.

[Nomen Tuum]

29. He's more like Ramsay Mac Donald everyday

AND if he could, he'd dump the Labour Party and cast his lot with the Tories, just like Mac Donald did!

[Michael_UK]

31. I'm generally favourable

Perhaps I'm naive. I think Iraq has been a disaster, but I genuinely believe that Blair went into the affair, knowing that Bush was going to war and he thought he could be a restraining factor. It's been UK policy to strongly support the US on foreign policy. I think any british PM, from any of the three parties would have gone along with Bush.

On social issues, despite things I disagree with, Blair has introduced a minimum wage, reduced poverty, delivered near full employment, we've got gay civil ceremonies, etc, etc.

[Voice1]

32. Blair didn't try to restrain Bush

Michael, we have the evidence now which proves that Blair & Co went along with Bush, despite all available facts:

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=147192006

The book, by London University law professor Phillipe Sands, said Mr Blair gave his total support to Mr Bush at the secret White House meeting in January 2003. After the meeting, the two leaders gave a press conference where Mr Bush appeared to support going for a second UN resolution to give specific approval for a war.

But Prof Sands' book, entitled Lawless World, claims that president Bush had earlier displayed open contempt for the UN during the summit, made wild threats against Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein and displayed astounding ignorance of the likely post-war problems.

Blair apparently did not speak up at this meeting to raise any objections whatsoever, according to people present at the meeting Michael.