goodbye.
He has timed this announcement to align with the historic developments in Ireland, which he has repeatedly tried to frame as his true legacy. But the shadow of Iraq is long and it may darken him yet. I hope it does.
…what he deserves: to fall from grace, spectacularly, hugely, humiliatingly, with all his self-delusions laid bare…
Good riddance.
6 thoughts on “Goodbye Bliar,”
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dude not so sure.
Morgue, question for you – what do you think the real reasons for the war were?
James – that’s a longer answer than we have space for. Short answer: the PNAC members in the Bush administration seized the opportunity to push ahead with their long-stated agenda to reshape the Middle East, with Afghanistan and Iraq first. Bush did as he was advised because he’s more tool than human. Blair went along with it because he became enamoured of himself and his opportunity to reshape the world.
Morgue, he also did a hell of a lot of good. Yep, the war was wrong wrong wrong, I don’t disagree. But please be more balanced and give him some credit where credit is due. The UK moved from the dark ages to relative enlightment in the last 10 years. The social agenda has been brilliant and the economy is booming. Educated Kiwis now have an almost unlimited opportunity to live in the UK, the EU has successfully enlarged etc…I don’t know I would say that I wouldn’t give it up if the war in Iraq hadn’t happened, but he has led and/or been part of some great developments in the UK and Europe.
I was always saddened by the fact that Blair has tried to take the credit for the change in Northern Ireland when, IMHO, John Major was acutally the main driving force behind that and is not given enough credit for it.
As far as I know the UK is now taxed more than we were 10 years ago, our children are tested more often than 10 years ago, the NHS is is a far worse state than it was 10 years ago, petrol prices are at an all-time high and the economy is so booming that the pound is too strong for our own economic good.
The war was wrong, it was illegal and still Blair will not conceed that maybe he wasn’t 100% right on that score. THIS is the point about why we are happy to be rid of Blair – his arrogance. Over the last 10 years he has constantly pushed through unpopular – both with the people and with MPs – Bills and pursued some fairly dictatorial Policies.
Granted determination is a good quality in a leader, but not when it ignores, or worse squashes, fair debate, reasonable questions or evidence to the contrary of what the leader desires.
Blair has left a large proportion of the country with at least as much, if not more ill-feeling towards politicians than there was when he came to power. He is a creature of gobsmacking presumption and possessed of an urge for absolute power the like of which we have not seen, and which I hope we will not see, for a very long time.
T, what about Thatcher??? I’m not disagreeing with your harsh critique, but Thatcher seemed to me to possess a similar gobsmacking presumption… and she wasn’t wrapped up in as nice a package as Tony Blair is/was.