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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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 Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 11:06 pm Post subject: What did Tony Blair do for Britain? |
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I'm sure he must have done some good...though I can't think of any off hand. I helped vote (my first vote ever) labour in in 1997. We were so excited and people were dancing in the street. The end of 17 years of Tory (mis)rule. But all we seemed to get was more of the same. Was he Maggie's secret love child? And come September 2001...oh dear. The Chinese called us "America's running dog" and I couldn't really disagree with them. That wouldn't bother me if it wasn't that it has become a worldwide perception. And that worldwide perception wouldn't bother me if it wasn't that it probably has done material damage to us as a nation.
Famed as a favourite attack dog in the imperial kennel
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Blair's first loyalty was to the White House. The result has been a legacy of hatred that ultimately ended his premiership
Blair was always loyal to the occupants of the White House. In Europe he preferred Aznar to Zapatero, Merkel to Schr�der, was seriously impressed by Berlusconi and, most recently, made no secret of his support for Sarkozy. He understood that privatisation and deregulation at home were part of the same mechanism as wars abroad.
If this judgment seems unduly harsh, let me quote Rodric Braithwaite, a former senior adviser to Blair, writing in the Financial Times on August 2 2006: "A spectre is stalking British television, a frayed and waxy zombie straight from Madame Tussaud's. This one, unusually, seems to live and breathe. Perhaps it comes from the CIA's box of technical tricks, programmed to spout the language of the White House in an artificial English accent ... Mr Blair has done more damage to British interests in the Middle East than Anthony Eden, who led the UK to disaster in Suez 50 years ago. In the past 100 years we have bombed and occupied Egypt and Iraq, put down an Arab uprising in Palestine and overthrown governments in Iran, Iraq and the Gulf. We can no longer do these things on our own, so we do them with the Americans. Mr Blair's total identification with the White House has destroyed his influence in Washington, Europe and the Middle East itself: who bothers with the monkey if he can go straight to the organ-grinder?"
This, too, is mild compared to what is privately said in the Foreign Office and MoD. Senior diplomats have told me it would not upset them too much if Blair were tried as a war criminal. But while neither Blair nor any of those who launched a war of aggression and occupation in Iraq have been held to account, a civil servant and MP's researcher were yesterday shamefully jailed for exposing some of the dealings between Bush and Blair that lay behind the war.
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So come on, tell me, what did he do that was good? He surely did some substantial good? Cheer me up and remind me of it.
Last edited by Big_Bird on Thu May 10, 2007 11:08 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 11:08 pm Post subject: |
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| He oversaw London overtake New York as the premier financial center of the world. |
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Panic Button
Joined: 15 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 1:16 am Post subject: |
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| Well, a LOT of progress in Northern Ireland was made under Blair's government. There's no way that Adams and Paisley would be sitting down together if the Tories had remained in power. |
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safeblad
Joined: 17 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 1:44 am Post subject: |
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| free museums in london, and erm gay marriage |
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SPINOZA
Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Location: $eoul
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 1:21 am Post subject: |
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Well he certianly wasn't Thatcher's love child and I generally dismiss comments like "Blair is just a conservative" as lazy tosh.
Blair's desire for change and strong sense of social justice, lack of respect for age-old institutions and his belief in a strong state funded by higher taxation (and the state as protector and provider) clearly distinguish him from most Conservatives.
Good things Blair has done? A new generation of nuclear power stations back on the agenda "with a vengeance".
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| Mr Blair has been heavily influenced by the government chief scientist, Sir David King, who believes nuclear power could in future provide 40% of electricity supply, double the current figure |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 5:01 am Post subject: |
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He just always seemed so sincere, which is what's so hard to reconcile with his decision to go into Iraq. You kept thinking "He must know something the general public don't or he wouldn't be doing this" but it all turned out to be a load of bull. Can't blame anyone for thinking his arm was being twisted behind the scenes...but again, that fervent air of sincerity?
Maybe he's proof of the saying that if you can fake sincerity you've got it made. |
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Grimalkin
Joined: 22 May 2005
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 5:24 am Post subject: |
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Certainly he did some good things.
In the end of the day though he betrayed us over Iraq and that's what people can't forgive. He ignored what the majority of the people wanted effectively giving the finger to democracy. He forgot that his mandate came from the people. |
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stevemcgarrett
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 3:12 am Post subject: |
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Big Bird wrote:
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| The Chinese called us "America's running dog" |
Yeah but they didn't say "paper tiger" this time. Why do you liberals always care what commie governments think anyhow? Even most Chinese don't give a rat's a-ss what their government says these days.
And on the thread topic itself: if you need to ask the question, especially as a Brit, then you're either baiting us or more clueless than I imagined.
The British left is a bunch of mealy-mouthed whiners. If everything isn't precisely as they see fit they bellyache. And they always put partisan politics over country. Well done. |
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safeblad
Joined: 17 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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| stevemcgarrett wrote: |
The British left is a bunch of mealy-mouthed whiners. If everything isn't precisely as they see fit they bellyache. And they always put partisan politics over country. Well done. |
Is there even much of a 'British Left' left anymore? I suppose that is one thing that Tony Blair did for Britain, for better or for worse. Turning the whole of Westminster into a centrist mob, neither right nor left but forward! |
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stevemcgarrett
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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safeblad:
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| I suppose that is one thing that Tony Blair did for Britain, for better or for worse. Turning the whole of Westminster into a centrist mob, neither right nor left but forward! |
Good point, or to use a misapplied intensifier which liberal media types are prone to do--"very true."
But Big Ostrich has her head buried so deep in the ideological sands she won't see that point. |
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