Sir Tony Blair

Murf said:
Lifted from a Labour blog I think so has some inherent bias but the below is a pretty decent list. He was the best PM I've lived under (I'm 38) despite the folly of the 2nd Gulf War. I'd rank John Major 2nd, Gordon Brown 3rd, and then honest to God the PM's from 2010, Christ........ I'd rank May (did her best, badly) above Cameron (caused Brexit) and Johnson (most unsuitable candidate for PM ever).

But for some people the Iraq war is just too much. Which I find a little weird. Tories voted for it as well, and we've intervened in many places over the last few decades. Some successful, some not.

1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s.

2. Low mortgage rates.

<SNIP>

49. Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.

50. Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.
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CONS :
1. War criminal
 
adam cool dude said:
The 90's being a good period had nothing to do with him. The 90's was a good period world wide and they rode on that success.
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Maybe for a few more Western countries but certainly not World Wide TBF -

Rwandan Genocide - 800k dead in 100 days - 1994

Somalia Civil War - 500k+ dead - 1991 onwards

Chechen War - 250k dead - 1994-1996 & 1999 onwards

Yugoslavia Civil War - 140k dead, 3 countries wrecked, return of Concentration Camps to Europe - 1991-1999

Afghanistan - Taliban takes over and we know where that ended up - 1996

etc.

The late 90's in the UK was a good place to be it felt, we had "Cool Britannia", money seemed OK, mortgages seemed affordable etc, looking back life felt "good". If only we'd known then what was to be the outcome of those "have fun partying" years.
 
Murf said:
Lifted from a Labour blog I think so has some inherent bias but the below is a pretty decent list. He was the best PM I've lived under (I'm 38) despite the folly of the 2nd Gulf War. I'd rank John Major 2nd, Gordon Brown 3rd, and then honest to God the PM's from 2010, Christ........ I'd rank May (did her best, badly) above Cameron (caused Brexit) and Johnson (most unsuitable candidate for PM ever).

But for some people the Iraq war is just too much. Which I find a little weird. Tories voted for it as well, and we've intervened in many places over the last few decades. Some successful, some not.

1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s.

2. Low mortgage rates.

3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.52.

4. Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales.
5. Cut overall crime by 32 per cent.

6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools.

7. Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18.

8. Funding for every pupil in England has doubled.

9. Employment is at its highest level ever.

10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries.

11. 85,000 more nurses.

12. 32,000 more doctors.

13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards.

14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament.

15. Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly.

16. Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time.

17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice.

18. Gift aid was worth £828 million to charities last year.

19. Restored city-wide government to London.

20. Record number of students in higher education.

21. Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997.

22. Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.

23. Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

24. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to £300 for over-80s.

25. On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

26. Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland.

27. Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.

28. All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday.

29. A million pensioners lifted out of poverty.

30. 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty.

31. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents.

32. Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships.

33. Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard.

34. Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997.

35. Banned fox hunting.

36. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.

37. Free TV licences for over-75s.

38. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals.

39. Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70.

40. Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s.

41. New Deal - helped over 1.8 million people into work.

42. Over 3 million child trust funds have been started.

43. Free eye test for over 60s.

44. More than doubled the number of apprenticeships.

45. Free entry to national museums and galleries.

46. Overseas aid budget more than doubled.

47. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000.

48. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent.

49. Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.

50. Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.
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The crazy thing is why the hell did he need to do all those things in the first place? What sort of uncaring government must we have had before for all those things needing to be brought in.
 
cheesyboy said:
There was good, there was bad.

Here's a thread of some of the more insidious stuff that really was quite damaging in the long run. Much of it laying the groundwork for both the lengthy Tory government and the Brexit disaster:

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Haha why cheesyboy why? You have just reminded me why I disliked those people at the time. I had totaly forgotten those policies.

Im glad for the reminder though.
 
Tony Edwards said:
Haha why cheesyboy why? You have just reminded me why I disliked those people at the time. I had totaly forgotten those policies.

Im glad for the reminder though.
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It always surprises me how much of a total **** Blunkett was! I wasn't paying enough attention at the time I suppose.
 
The worst day of my life was watching mr slime ball walking up the step into No 10 with that snidey smirk on his face and now it's the second worst day of my life with sir slime ball. - I hate and loath that - I was going to say man but that's insulting to men.
 
DXP55 said:
The worst day of my life was watching mr slime ball walking up the step into No 10 with that snidey smirk on his face and now it's the second worst day of my life with sir slime ball. - I hate and loath that - I was going to say man but that's insulting to men.
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Can I take it you didn't send him a Christmas card this year?
 
DXP55 said:
The worst day of my life was watching mr slime ball walking up the step into No 10 with that snidey smirk on his face and now it's the second worst day of my life with sir slime ball. - I hate and loath that - I was going to say man but that's insulting to men.
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You must have lived a very charmed life if those are the worst two days of your life.
 
MagicBoy said:
CONS :
1. War criminal
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LOL sure

cheesyboy said:
There was good, there was bad.

Here's a thread of some of the more insidious stuff that really was quite damaging in the long run. Much of it laying the groundwork for both the lengthy Tory government and the Brexit disaster:

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Wait, all of those things are supposed to be bad???

Jacqui Smith – As Home Secretary banned unskilled immigrants from outside the EU, with a points-based Australian-style immigration system
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Oh no, not letting in unskilled immigrants????

Liam Byrne – As immigration minister made employers check job applicants’ passports to make it harder for undocumented migrants to work
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So illegals then? The immigration minister wanted to better enforce immigration law?

Jack Straw – As a member of the Cabinet told Muslim women to stop wearing veils
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That's false, he didn't say any such thing about veils in general, he was talking about a case where he couldn't see someone's face because they were wearing a full-face veil. He didn't tell people what to wear, he's outlined how he (in the presence of a female staff member) asks women who come to see him wearing full-face veils to lift their veil in order to make communication easier.
 
The whole knighthood thing is ridiculous arcane nonsense that should be scrapped, I would never in my life refer to someone as "sir" or "lord", pretentious as hell, citizens are equals.

The Iraq War, sanctioning torture, detention without charge, the RIPA act and surveillance state that stripped away human rights were such a stain that it overshadows any good that was done under his leadership, he absolutely should not be knighted. Not to mention the constant fearmongering about terrorism, even putting up posters telling people to report their neighbours if they had DIY chemicals in their rubbish bins. It was an incredibly authoritarian government that constantly sought to increase state power.

I also find it astonishing some of the things people attribute to Tony Blair, like low mortgage rates, as if he really played any role in that. The prime minister has limited impact on things like the economy.

andicole0 said:
So 700,000 don't want him knighted, that leaves nearly 65,000,000 that are ok, the majority wins doesn't it
Regardless, it's the Queen's choice so what say should we have?
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There aren't anywhere near 65 million adults in the UK, and you haven't polled them, just because they haven't signed a petition they probably haven't heard about doesn't make them ok with it...
 
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It's over 760k this morning and the momentum hasn't stopped for the last few days. This could well break a million by the end of the weekend. It's funny when people say the petition is pointless. I suspect those signing it know very well that it won't make a blind bit of difference to the knighthood. But they also know it's sending a huge **** you middle finger to him. When it reached 500k it was mentioned on several news outlets and it's being talked about on various forums including this. So the petition has already been very successful.

I'm of the opinion most governments ride on the economic coat tails of the previous government, at least at the start of their tenure. Economies rarely change overnight; they are like supertankers that take a long time to turn. In this way Labour of the 90's benefitted, at least at the start, from the economic situation setup by the previous government which they inherited. I do think they did some good and certainly they were better than the current aweful rabble (can't wait to get this lot out). But the Iraq war tainted his legacy and he is therefore responsible directly or indirectly for the administration which caused a huge number of deaths - not least including Dr David Kelly.
 
It's crazy how much hate people have, Blair did a lot of good things but did make a questionable decision on Iraq. It's not like it's cut and dry that it was a bad decision though, it seemed fairly reasonable at the time to remove Saddam regardless of WMD's, Saddam committed war crimes undoubtedly, not many people predicted the rise of ISIS afterwards, but yes the post war planning was bad. I'm not some Tony Blair fanboy but I don't think he was a bad PM for our country at the time.
 
ianh said:
The late 90's in the UK was a good place to be it felt, we had "Cool Britannia", money seemed OK, mortgages seemed affordable etc, looking back life felt "good". If only we'd known then what was to be the outcome of those "have fun partying" years.
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90s was crazy even if you were on benefits you could get a TV on buy now pay later :D

it was never going to end well, I guess it's where everyone started buying multiple houses too and becoming landlords.

every city has that one lady who buys a new house every week.

probably does nothing with the vast fortune shes made etc... hope they die a lonely old death with no family or friends around
 
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