Blair knighthood

[Mummyrowland]

Nearly half a million people have signed a petition over his knighthood in 48 hours.

It should be removed and he shouldn't be awarded it.

After all what did he do that was good?

What about all the squaddies he sent to their deaths over the supposed wmds?

High ranking members of the armed forces are threatening resignation if his award isn't reconsider

Can’t really get overly fussed. John Major has the same, and I don’t think he’s particularly better or worse than Blair.

And no I don’t excuse Blair, I just think it seems to be that all ex PMs get one eventually.

I’d happily get rid of or massively overhaul the whole system but I wouldn’t make an exception for Blair.

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing

And no I don’t excuse Blair, I just think it seems to be that all ex PMs get one eventually.

I’d happily get rid of or massively overhaul the whole system but I wouldn’t make an exception for Blair.

I agree - I object to Blair getting one but I objected to Thatcher and Major as well (for different reasons); and as for Lord Pissing Archer and Cecil bastarding Parkinson........

@Doomscrolling

But you condemn Johnson for giving contracts that were intended to save lives

Precisely. Johnson gave contracts to cronies for billions, when they were entirely unable to fulfil those contracts - PPE, track and trace etc etc - costing thousands of lives because feathering Tory chums’ nests mattered more than actually taking action in a pandemic.

Whereas Blair took deliberate action to suport his chum which cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Either both deserve condemnation or neither do.

It was the Queen's to give and she's given it. Can't say I was ever keen on him but not my business what she does.

So you excuse Blair for a war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives because it was tough for him and politics is dirty. But you condemn Johnson for giving contracts that were intended to save lives. Where's your sympathy for him over tough decisions? So hypocritical

One could argue that Blair acted to save lives too? i see the motive for Johnson and giving billions to his chums but i fail to see Blairs motive? he was popular in the polls and had no political reason to go to war, unlike Thatcher.
Bush wanted to avenge what he thought was unfinished business, that his father started.

Look i think the decision to go to war in Iraq was totally wrong but i also accept that when you have the USA (our supposed greatest international friend) supplying intelligence that states Iraq still has the means to use or make WMD, plus just 2 years after 9/11, with Saddam not fully cooperating.

The tragedy is that the troops that fought there have had so little help and support, relying far too much on charity.

@GrandDuchessRomanov

Starmer continues to dig his party's own grave.

Totally unelectable.

Sadly. Such a shame. I had hopes for him. But if he's going to defend Blair.... Oh dear.

Didn't realise that Brown had a "war on disability" wasn't that Osbourne and his freezing rebranding of DLA... after Cameron no longer claimed it that is!

It's both. Like I said, Blair (and Brown's) war on the disabled was continued by the heirs to Blair - i.e. all who came after him.

Brown cut housing benefit (at a time when Blair's disability benefit cuts and private company medical"assessments" meant landlords were already turning away disabled benefit recipients).

Blair (and Brown's) war on the disabled opened the door to what came next. Blair changed public attitudes. It was Blair that encouraged the prejudiced narrative that the disabled were 'scroungers'.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/british-people-stopped-believing-in-the-benefits-due-to-tony-blair-researchers-claim-9753824.html

Look at the meaning behind actions.

Blair changed the name of the Department of Social Security to the disabled erasing Department of Work and Pensions.

@flowerbubbles

I don't agree with it. And what he did to the university system has ruined the job market and ridiculous competition to go to h ive is when previous time the fees system it was much much easier to get a very good job without all this debt.

Yes. The terrible legacy of Blair extends far beyond the war crimes (bad enough, of course).

Blair's education, education, education has cost the taxpayer many billions - huge numbers of graduates will never earn enough to repay student loans...because they're doing the same job they would have done pre Blair but without the debt and a piece of paper saying degree.

It also devalued non academic but actually vitally important jobs - like HGV drivers. Which were also affected by his policy of exploitation of cheap labour.

Such a shame because pre Blair we used to have good access to well funded excellent adult education opportunities. People attended cheap evening, weekend, and part-time courses to pursue an interest or broaden their minds. It was very inclusive and catered to a wide variety of interests from flower arranging to history to woodwork.

Yes, Thatcher and Major's Britain, pre-Blair, was a veritable utopia where everyone flocked to well-funded adult education courses and no one went without. Then he came in an ruined it by trying to get a more diverse range of people into university, introducing the national minimum wage and other dastardly tricks. The utter bastard. Yes, and all the people doing graduate jobs in various corporations would have merrily signed up to be HGV drivers if he hadn't ruined that too.

And yes, Kier Starmer absolutely should distance himself from the most successful leader his party has ever had. Ee don't want people thinking Labour is trying to emulate crazy shit like actually winning elections do we?

He made skilled jobs like coded welding a unskilled progession flooding the market with cheap labour and poor quality welding. Made it impossible for good qelders to get the wages they deserved

@Mummyrowland

He made skilled jobs like coded welding a unskilled progession flooding the market with cheap labour and poor quality welding. Made it impossible for good qelders to get the wages they deserved

Yes this.

As for national minimum wage. Pretty useless when it's no way close to enough to meet the rising costs of affordable secure housing - which Blair significantly reduced availability of.

He very enthusiastically continued right to buy. By the time he got in, it was impossible to claim it wasn't an enormous problem. It also wasn't, in 1997, too late to reverse a lot of the damage.

He not only didn't end right to buy, he heavily plugged buy to let - to any old Tom, Dick, and Harry (dodgy crims included). Made millions out of it himself.

And then mass immigration. Not a problem....if he'd funded the infrastructure and additional housing required for several million additional residents. Except that he didn't. He could have, but he chose not to - because his policy was to enrich slum landlords and exploit cheap labour (British and migrant alike).

Agree about the right to buy. I know people who got a council house in ilkley and then promptly sold it making a fortune whilst others struggled to get on the property ladder due to him devaluing their jobs.

[quote Tealightsandd]Didn't realise that Brown had a "war on disability" wasn't that Osbourne and his freezing rebranding of DLA... after Cameron no longer claimed it that is!

It's both. Like I said, Blair (and Brown's) war on the disabled was continued by the heirs to Blair - i.e. all who came after him.

Brown cut housing benefit (at a time when Blair's disability benefit cuts and private company medical"assessments" meant landlords were already turning away disabled benefit recipients).

Blair (and Brown's) war on the disabled opened the door to what came next. Blair changed public attitudes. It was Blair that encouraged the prejudiced narrative that the disabled were 'scroungers'.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/british-people-stopped-believing-in-the-benefits-due-to-tony-blair-researchers-claim-9753824.html[/quote]
But they also introduced tax credits, so you suddenly found yourself in a position where, instead of losing Income Support, Housing Benefit and everything else the moment you got more than a dinner lady type of job, you saw a significant improvement in your finances from getting a job (particularly when you went from part to full time within a six month period), even with childcare costs or when you were working with a disability.

OK, it got misused by employers, landlords and the like, but it did give a lot of people an incentive to actually get a halfway decent job.

Tax credits aka the taxpayer supporting exploitation of cheap labour (the taxpayer of course including the recipient of the tax credits!).

And still not enough to fund decent housing.

Vitally, how did tax credits help the most vulnerable in society? Those too ill or disabled to work.

Hmmm. Instead of supporting a low wage economy that requires taxpayers to prop up exploitative employers, better that employees receive a decent wage, good working conditions - and affordable housing.

it got misused by employers, landlords and the like

Yep.

it did give a lot of people an incentive to actually get a halfway decent job

A decent job wouldn't need tax credits

more than a dinner lady type of job

An essential job - devalued by Blair (and Brown). We need dinner ladies/men.

We needed council housing, not tax credits.

@Tealightsandd what on earth are you on about????

All you ve done over your last few posts is blame Blair for things that the Tories did either before 1997 or during austerity.

An essential job - devalued by Blair (and Brown). We need dinner ladies/men

Jobs like these and indeed carers/nurses were always looked down upon and very poorly paid, whether under Blair or Churchill.

We needed council housing, not tax credits

Don't vote Tory then. Starmer wants a far larger council house sector, Bojo doesn't.

We need to look forward, not gaze backwards.

I though the main problem re Blair snd the war was that there has since been released the recording of Bush effectively admitting he knows there are no weapons of mass destruction and it’s all about the oil. One has to assume Blair knew about that. It’s more about him sending people to war over a lie.

They need to scrap the automatic honours for PMs anyway. Theresa Field of Wheat May definitely doesn’t deserve one either, for being a laughing stock

It's an absolute disgrace that he is being given a Knighthood. He should be in the Hague. He caused the deaths of so many people and destroyed the UK. I really don't understand why the Queen has done this and it feels like absolute disrespect for all those who died in Blair's wars and are suffering from his arrogance and intransigence and just shows that you can get away with appalling behaviour if you are in the "club".

@Mummyrowland

He made skilled jobs like coded welding a unskilled progession flooding the market with cheap labour and poor quality welding. Made it impossible for good qelders to get the wages they deserved

How? Thatcher demolished the entire UK industrial landscape. Whole communities destroyed in mining areas, steelworks, manufacturing. There was fuck all left to destroy by the time Blair came along. You’re blaming the wrong person here.

After the army my husband was a welder. Directly under Blairs government it was taken from a skilled decently paid profession to an unskilled profession and the wages dropped massively. Its only just now recovering

@Mummyrowland

After the army my husband was a welder. Directly under Blairs government it was taken from a skilled decently paid profession to an unskilled profession and the wages dropped massively. Its only just now recovering

How? This makes no sense whatsoever. Lots of things happen during a term of office that are in no way connected to the government.

@Mummyrowland

After the army my husband was a welder. Directly under Blairs government it was taken from a skilled decently paid profession to an unskilled profession and the wages dropped massively. Its only just now recovering

Skilled welders have always commanded high wages, salaries went up 22% from 2004 to 2010. Compared to an average of 11%, this also included the GFC of 2008/9.

Obviously talking about certificated welders, not someone who has an Arc welder in their garage.

Salaries overall under Blair did very well, as he poured a lot into public services especially NHS, didn't have 4m waiting for treatment under Labour (pre pandemic) its now heading towards 13m (from 6m now) according to Javid.

Same old suspects trying to re-write history and blame Labour (and Blair) for all evils while carefully whitewashing the Conservative governments 🙄

This petition is highly suspect, coming as it does during a drop in popularity for Johnson. Blair has been a useful hate figure for the Conservatives ever since their "demon eyes" poster was banned.

I'm surprised people are still falling for it.