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AIBU?

To not understand the Tony Blair hatred thing

325 replies

smashedinductionhob · 25/03/2017 16:00

I remember Tony Blair being very popular in his day and recall him doing reasonably good things.

I do remember very clearly the run up to the Iraq war and saying to my husband that I did not agree with it as there was no actual plan and the US public seemed to think Saddam Hussain was connected to 9/11 which he wasn't.

I remember passionate supporters of ethnic minorities in Iraq supporting him and only a few brave clever people like Obama calling it as a mistake.

I failed to demonstrate. The dossier was identified in Parliament (by a small minority) as dodgy before the war started but most of us went along with it.

It was clear to me at the time that the PM was supporting the US as a matter of principle (a lousy principle but fairly obvious).

How did we get from there to TB as hate figure? Is he just a scapegoat?

OP posts:

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badabing36 · 29/03/2017 11:56

However, it does baffle me how anyone can like the way they are treating disabled people.

badabing36 · 29/03/2017 11:49

Sorry to reiterate not all conservative voters are sheep.

armpitz · 29/03/2017 11:48

But then you say that you aren't suggesting that conservative voters are sheep - but that is what 'many of Trump's voters will be worse off under him' implies :)

Many conservative voters know exactly what they are voting for and do so because it benefits them.

Gulsink · 29/03/2017 11:45

The 'Tony Blair =war criminal' tag is a massive bandwagon that a lot of people seemed to jump on. Of course those who protested at the time thought that from the off, but i've heard so many people casually adopt the view just because everyone seems to say it.

In Kosovo he's viewed as a hero and many have named their children after him.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/20/kosovan-albanians-name-children-tony-blair-tonibler

badabing36 · 29/03/2017 11:38

I was suggesting that if you vote Tory because they are honest when they screw you over then you are still getting screwed over.

Some people I know say this, they know they would do better under a labour government, but won't vote labour because they (especially TB) are 'dishonest'.

Not sure why that was difficult to grasp. This is quite a famous cartoon from last years presidential election, highlighting the fact that many of trumps core voters will actually be worse off under him. I thought there were parallels here.

armpitz · 29/03/2017 11:26

I'm not really clear what the poster was suggesting, then :)

badabing36 · 29/03/2017 11:23

That's what I was saying too really. I'm not saying all people who vote conservative are sheep.

armpitz · 29/03/2017 11:06

That assumes we're all sheep.

We aren't. Voting conservative may result in being eaten (or worse off) but for many people they are in fact in favour of the conservative policies. Hence why conservatives are in power.

Personally, I feel the 'we expect it from the conservatives but not labour' argument misses the point somewhat.

honeyroar · 29/03/2017 10:37

I actually met him last year. He was absolutely fake, no warmth to him, and changed drastically when the press was around.

I voted for labour once in '97, I believed what he said as a student. I learned my lesson! I detest him for the war we didn't want. I hate that he's still around poking his oar in.

Oh and I'm nearing 50 too.

badabing36 · 29/03/2017 10:31

I don't really understand the whole 'at least Tories are honest' argument.

To not understand the Tony Blair hatred thing

unlucky83 · 28/03/2017 15:59

bemore I think Blair was worse than that - because it was all 'things are going to get better' etc with no reason behind that.
I know a couple of people who voted for him - when I pointed out the reasons they gave weren't actually in his manifesto said 'but he will' . It was like blind faith ...and then I guess they felt betrayed.
I didn't trust him - and the more people told me why they were voting for him the more I didn't like him ... the whole thing made me uncomfortable - it was a front - dishonest/fake. All things to all men.
I feel similar about the SNP ...

wasonthelist · 28/03/2017 15:20

Exactly Bemore - and they did say they were going to do things differently - but then didn't.

Prescott was especially foul to some of the philandering Tories (can't recall which but there were plenty to choose from) but of course this was forgotten when it transpired he'd been playing away as well.

BeMorePanda · 28/03/2017 15:14

I've thought about this quite a bit.

My summation is while we expect Tory PM's to be utter cunts and they rarely fail, we all expected more of the all too rare Labour PM's. And then they turn out to be just a different flavour of utter arse.

That's career politicians for you.

wasonthelist · 28/03/2017 14:50

If it helps, I dislike Mandelson and Alastair Cambell even more.

wasonthelist · 28/03/2017 14:44

I voted for Blair (well our local Labour candidate actually) in 1997.

I have never voted Tory, but sometimes tactically or on account of policy voted for other parties. In the most recent election I voted green despite there being zero chance of getting a Green MP.

I am nearly 55 and regard Blair as a sellout warmonger. My two main complaints are Iraq and ID cards, but I have others.

The reason I dislike him is explained in an earlier post - I expect Tories to do stuff I don't approve of - I didn't expect it from Blair, and it's not just Iraq. I also find it instructive that he seems to have no appreciation of any of these views held by many - he doesn't even think he was in any way wrong on Iraq.

My Labour MP, bless him, voted against the war (I emailed him at the time to express my opposition and I was far from alone).

armpitz · 28/03/2017 13:58

Agree :)

BakeOffBiscuits · 28/03/2017 13:56

Yes, armpiz, many people have done very well but the people he was supposed to represent- working classs were totally forgotten about. They were given benefits but no jobs, housing allowances for renting but no low cost housing to buy etc etc

armpitz · 28/03/2017 13:38

I was 16 in 1997. I can see why older generations might be more inclined to feel benevolent towards Blair. If you were a home owning, public sector worker who had already been to university (so if you were perhaps over the age of thirty) you probably did very well indeed.

unlucky83 · 28/03/2017 13:13

tinkly I'm also 50ish - and hate him... I thought people who didn't would be younger -who weren't around when he was ...
I think a lot of people who voted for him in 97 (I didn't) felt let down - came to realise they had been fooled by the spin...

BakeOffBiscuits · 28/03/2017 12:16

Tinky, I'm over 50 and hate Blair, as do most of my friends, many of whom were Labour voters.

Also my student DDs hate him as do many of the other students,, there doesn't seem to be many who do actually like him, except on MN perhaps? He seems to be universally hated regardless of age, sex and socio economic group.

I don't understand how anyone can like him! Any 'good' he did is outstripped by the bad- housing, jobs, war, widening gap in wealth- he didn't look after the people who he was supposed to look after.

user1485166754 · 28/03/2017 12:10

watch this documentary - it will sum it up for you

www.theblairdoc.com/?page_id=555

TinklyLittleLaugh · 28/03/2017 12:04

I would be interested to know whether this hatred of Blair is more a younger person thing. DD is studying politics A level and tells me that Blair is universally loathed by her classmates.

Whereas I am over 50, have lived long enough to see many governments and PMs come and go and seen many reputations destroyed by the Tory press. Blair is the best PM we have had in my voting lifetime. And I say that as someone who never voted for him.

unlucky83 · 28/03/2017 11:43

cross post was - same point...which you put more succinctly...

unlucky83 · 28/03/2017 11:42

dear probably one of the biggest problems in the UK - in fact all the developed world - is wealth inequality - the difference between the richest and poorest. Blair did nothing for that....
It was narrowing in the 1970s -to its lowest level then (under Thatcher) widened steeply from the 1970s to the 1990s - then (under Major) it was starting to narrow...
Until 1997 ....when it started widening again.
It was at it's highest in 2008-9 (but to be fair the economic crash played a part in that) then it came down in 2010....
So under Blair (or rather the whole previous labour government) the gap got wider and never went back down to the pre 1997 level when it had been narrowing. The nearest it got back to that level was in 2010 ...
So much for being a great socialist PM ...

To not understand the Tony Blair hatred thing

wasonthelist · 28/03/2017 11:18

Er, we certainly didn't get more equal.

It's true that the Blair governments cut pensioner and child poverty by spending more on pensions and benefits like tax credits, but the gap between rich and poor accelerated. I don't think that made us "more equal" at all, and in the longer term Tax Credits seems to have kept wages down for ordinary folk, whilst the super rich are forging well ahead, just like they did in the Blair years.

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