AIBU to ask why Tony Blair is so unpopular?

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AIBU to ask why Tony Blair went from being fairly popular to being very unpopular?

I completely understand that factors such as the Iraq War have a huge part to play in why TB became unpopular, but would be interested to hear if there are also other reasons.

On a side-note, I'm quite impressed despite myself by the fact that he, as well as Alastair Campbell, is still in the media so muxh, despite the fact that they are so unpopular. The electorate and the media have lost a lot of respect for him and those close to him while he was in power, but we still can't seem to get enough of them in a way. It's odd

I was 5 when TB came to power and 15 when he left government, so it's so interesting to come back to it all now and think about his time in power from an adult perspective and with hindsight.

Mainly destabilising the Middle East with George W Bush giving ISIS the political vacuum and fuelling hated of The West to create the mess that's been going on for years with no signs of improvement.

The invasion of Afghanistan can be arguably justified as the Taliban actively supported the 9/11 attacks and there'd been serious concerns about women's rights for years. Saddam Hussein while being a ruthless dictator to opposition hadn't been particularly antagonistic internationally for a number of years and did maintain a fairly stable state. The 2003 invasion was unnecessary.

The late 90s and early 00s saw a large amount of much needed investment following the Conservative years. Teacher retention improved, waiting lists were cut etc. Unfortunately we are still paying for this.

I was a student at the time and we were persuaded to vote tactically up and down the country to get Blair in - as he promised to bring back the grants and get rid of the student loans. We believed him. Students were out in force to get him into power and then he completely and utterly reneged on it when he got into power.

For those who don't remember, we were a generation who thought our education would be paid for by our parents taxes. We didn't have savings accounts for FE as it wasn't needed. And then wham all of a sudden we were told no more grants, we would have to take out loans. Then Tony Blair came along and said he would reverse it all, it had only been place for a couple of years - it was reversible.

A generation despises him just for that. He sold us out.

YABU for asking this unless you live under a rock and have no clue how to use the internet. Ffs - seriously

Which religion is that then? He was CofE while he was PM and then became Catholic. Which do you object to?

I object to his hypocrisy. He toed the Establishment line (CofE) whilst PM and then turned Catholic practically the moment the removals van arrived.
His Government was so amoral, shifty and full of spin that one of the minions thought that it was OK to suggest that 9/11 was "a good day to bury bad news".

there’s an overwhelming sense that TB thought of the countryside as someone’s else’s problem

This is an old article but might provide an alternative insight for some of you.

IMO Labour, old and new, don’t give enough thought to the rural population.

I think his education policy is supposed to have worked very well especially in inner city schools.

He also won another election after he (wrongfully) invaded Iraq.

I would still like him were it not for the war. I don't agree that he is a red tory.

I agree with him on Brexit.

I agree with him on Brexit.

That's funny because his open door policy on workers from the accession states was part of the cause of Brexit.
He likes the EU because he had ambitions to be Emperor of Europe one day.

Lying war criminal. Utter contempt for international norms and UN conventions.

Raving ego and arrogance.

I hope history judges him as harshly as he deserves. The repercussions of Iraq will be felt for generations.

How long have you got, OP? If I was having this discussion face to face with a friend I could probably summarise it quite succinctly. In the written word I don't know how to do it justice without typing an essay.

I think it's trendy to dislike him, tbh.

The lying thing is bollocks. Blair had no reason whatsoever not to believe the information about WMDs in Iraq, especially since Hussein had fairly recently slaughtered tens of thousands with Sarin gas and had the capacity to create more. We know he had that particular WMD because Rumsfeld sold it to him in the 80s. People have no idea what it was like in Iraq pre-2003. Under Hussein, 1.2 MILLION Iraqi civilians died through violence not even counting effects of eg the Iran/Iraq war. Since the war, the toll has plummeted to a total of 180,000. The ME was hardly a peaceful paradise before Blair, was it?

He also did a hell of a lot for us working classes. Minimum wage - I remember working for 60p an hour in the 90s. Tax credits helped too. Sure Start. Free entry to museums and galleries.

I think he'll be judged very well in time tbh. You can't compare the total pillocks we have in parliament now on both sides to the calibre of politicians like him and those around him.

He's a creepy-eyed warmongering cunt. I think that covers it.

I blame him for lots of things, very well put by previous posters like fc.
Of course Education, education, education is a good thing but I was thinking of him watching Question time last night when an audience member asked was a university education was worth it. Of course it is for some students but TB pushed for 50% of teenagers to attend, when the reality is, 50% aren't suited to it. It was the start of Mickey Mouse courses, dumbed down education and young people getting into debt when they would have been far better off working. It also, as mentioned on Question time, undermines some aspects of degree education and jobs which shouldn't need a degree applicant requesting one because employers know they can. The mood does seem to be changing though but not much consolation to thousands who studied for dubious degrees and wish they hadn't bothered.

Who can forget a distressed tearful Cherie Blair's insensitivity discussing her son's departure to Bristol University and move into a plush apartment worths thousands when young men the the same age when leaving for Iraq?

Where on esrth did you work for 60p an hr in the 90,s Alltheprettyseahorses? I worked in a nursing home which notoriously pay staff badly as a care assistant before i started my nurse training between 91-93 for £2.10 an hr still very crap but not 60p.

alltheprettyhorses fair play, what we have now is 10000 times worse. I don't think it's trendy to dislike him, there were a lot of people me included - who genuinely felt let down/hoodwinked by TB. The evil we have now doesn't pretend to be anything else, we have the devil in charge of the country and she relishes it.

I can’t forgive him for taking the country to war on a lie.

I remember them saying they were going to give nurses a 9% payrise this was just after i qualified so late 90,s ish what they failed to say it was nurses on top E grade (top band five5) which normallly took six years to get to top of just a small example of his spin.

Maybe because he's a war criminal? It's a tad off-putting.

He did nothing for homes for the poor, ie build social housing. Virtually none were built under him or Brown.

Why didn't he ban "right to buy"? They hardly built any new social homes in 13 years of power.

Instead house prices rocketed, buy-to-let boomed, the benefits bill went crazy paying huge amounts of housing benefit to private landlords and Tony "Socialist" Blair now owns multiple homes and is a multi-millionaire.

He is also a war criminal.

There's a really interesting documentary on netflix called the killings of tony Blair, the man has made a fortune of the back of an illegal war, and he is still selling his soul for money this day.

The reason why I'm asking this, even though there are such good resources already out there to tell me why he is popular/unpopular, is because I've read through a lot of those resources and still can't make up my mind.

I think that his government did a lot of good things but also many awful things, which explains why he's so controversial, but I'm still unsure about what my opinion is of it all. It annoys me that he's still so self-confident and still has so much self-belief, though. It's as if he thinks that everything that he did was right and that he can justify it all.

I also agree with PP who've said that it's now trendy to hate him. I don't want to just dislike him because it's fashionable or whatever, I'd like to find out as much as possible about him and his government and then to make up my mind about it all.

I was 5 and living abroad when he got into power, and only moved back to Britain when I was 9, so I didn't really have any clue about his government or anything like that until I was a teenager.

I was 11 when he decided to invade Iraq and disgusted with his decision at the time (as I am now). I'm still trying to understand all of the other things that he and his government did though. I think his investment in public sector jobs was very good. Right now, understandably, it's a shambles.

I still think that his press team were bloody good at their jobs though, and that their work played a huge part in his success at elections.

I'll have a look at the documentary stella - thanks.

Not with me.

A lot of people were on a high when labour got in after nearly 2 decades of awful tory regimes. Blair went on a massive power trip cosying up to corrupt businessmen. corrupt sleazy politicians like Berlusconi, he got some things done but damaged many institutions with the use of ppi and contracting out. The Iraq war was a shocking betrayal - no matter how he likes to portray it now it was quite clear at the time that he had decided to go in with Bush whatever the opposition.

Alastair Campbell, who now likes to portray himself as misunderstood and sinned against was a notorious bully and backed Blair to the hilt in all his excesses. As you say OP the media still seem addicted to them, god knows why.

Not with me.

Do you mind saying why, thecat?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2886959-To-not-understand-the-Tony-Blair-hatred-thing