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

@Mummyrowland

Colourfulpuddles mind my own business should I despite being married to a ex bomb disposal squaddie directly affected by the Conflict??????

I am too. I’m pleased he’s getting his knighthood at last. It’s well deserved.

@Theeyeballsinthesky

Take it up with The Queen - the Knighthood he is receiving is entirely within her gift and hers alone

No it's not. She bestows it but she doesn't decide them. Trust me I know

Wow they have picked the absolute best picture for that petition

He was initially mislead by the contents of the dossier but surely he should have withdrawn sooner when he found out it was untrue

Signed.

He's also to blame for the higher education system becoming commodified.

@luckylavender Churchill did not start WW2. Blair did start the Iraq war that led to the ME upheaval that is still being suffered by millions of people today.

Seriously you must be married to one of the few squaddies who do support this. After having most of his unit blown up by ieds I know my husband hates him

Seriously, you're comparing Churchill to Blair!

Quite. Who would want to be compared to somebody who personally killed freedom fighters? Who supported concentration camps? Who said they wanted to use chemical warfare against poorly armed natives? Who said in Parliament that 'the Aryan stock is bound to triumph' and as such, further invasions and oppression should go ahead?

@PlanetNormal

It’s such a difficult issue.

I was a very proud Blairite when I was a Labour activist in a very important marginal constituency in the 90s. After decades in the wilderness, Labour had finally decided it was serious about winning, and I wanted to do my bit. I met Blair several times when he campaigned in our seat and he is by far the most charismatic person I have ever spent time with. When we won in 1997, the feeling of elation made all the hard work worthwhile.

What followed over the next six years made me even prouder : The minimum wage, massive investment in schools & hospitals which slashed waiting lists, a strong economy, Sure Start, civil partnerships, Britain at the heart of Europe. The list of achievements goes on and on. For six years Blair was by far the best PM of my lifetime.

Then he lost his mind over Iraq, and I left the Labour Party in protest, totally disillusioned and betrayed that the government I campaigned for could launch an illegal war based on a dossier of lies. Does he deserve a knighthood? In many ways, yes. Does he deserve to be in jail? In many ways, yes. And that is why he will always be such a divisive figure.

This may be the only sensible post on this thread.

The Blair/Brown government made a huge difference to some of the poorest people in society. Something that every other government in my lifetime has singularly failed to do.

Iraq was very ill-judged. However you cut it, it's in the nature of being PM that you have to make difficult foreign policy decisions that may cost many lives. But that fact doesn't get you off the hook when they are wrong.

@Lucycantdance

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Blair has been cleared of lying. The USA would still have invaded Iraq.

Saddam had used WMD on the Kurds, killing '000s, at one stage he had them!
So lets say the 'west hadn't invaded Iraq and Saddam and used nerve agent in a European city, would you now be demanding that Blair shouldn't get a knighthood because he was a sleep at the wheel?

A better petition would be to rid the country of the honours system

I think he did a lot of harm to this country. We are still reeling from the effects of his open-door immigration policy. He presided over and encouraged a very welfare-dependent society which will have implications for generations to come. He dragged us into a phoney war.

That said, don’t all PMs get knighted eventually?

@Mummyrowland

Seriously you must be married to one of the few squaddies who do support this. After having most of his unit blown up by ieds I know my husband hates him

I didn’t say my husband supported it. I said I do. We’re actually separate people, capable of individual thought.

@NeverDropYourMooncup

Seriously, you're comparing Churchill to Blair!

Quite. Who would want to be compared to somebody who personally killed freedom fighters? Who supported concentration camps? Who said they wanted to use chemical warfare against poorly armed natives? Who said in Parliament that 'the Aryan stock is bound to triumph' and as such, further invasions and oppression should go ahead?

WC also ordered the bombing of historic wooden German cities at the end of WW2 when the Nazis were all but defeated, the firestorms that followed where so intense the people literally melted away.

It was a war crime and there was zero justification.

He got Labour into power and they did a lot of good. Iraq was awful, I joined the protest marches at the time and think it was criminal to lie as he did, however if I knew he was lying and there were no WMDs I’m pretty sure the rest of parliament did, but they all voted for it.
May has blood on her hands over Windrush, over 150k people estimated to have died over Cameron’s austerity agenda before you get the the brexit shitshow.
Leaders do awful things and then they get a knighthood, that's just how it works and a petition won’t change it.

@luckylavender

Iraq was a terrible error of judgement - but supported by the Tories, a fact that many people chose to overlook. Other than that he won 3 elections and did an awful lot of good, not least the GFA. Compared to the current government he was a saint.

True

I agree he shouldnt get the award. Cant stand him. Such a fake.

I'd like to see a petition to get rid of the honours system. Why would anybody want to be anything of the British empire, with all its links to colonialism and slavery.

That said, seeings as it exists, I'm glad Blair has been recognised. Best PM of my lifetime who did an awful lot of good for this country.

Why do people assume that an honour signifies something good? That's pretty delusional!

@NeverDropYourMooncup

Seriously, you're comparing Churchill to Blair!

Quite. Who would want to be compared to somebody who personally killed freedom fighters? Who supported concentration camps? Who said they wanted to use chemical warfare against poorly armed natives? Who said in Parliament that 'the Aryan stock is bound to triumph' and as such, further invasions and oppression should go ahead?

This is conflated and out of context. Blair started wars with devastating outcomes. Churchill defended his country from a dictator. I agree, no comparison.

[quote madisonbridges]@luckylavender Churchill did not start WW2. Blair did start the Iraq war that led to the ME upheaval that is still being suffered by millions of people today.[/quote]
We all know this. But the reality of these two PMs is not defined by these 2 events. You're deliberately painting very narrow portraits of them both.

This is conflated and out of context. Blair started wars with devastating outcomes. Churchill defended his country from a dictator. I agree, no comparison

Have you forgotten about the twin towers and 3000 people who died terrible deaths, many jumping out of the building, preferring to die through impact than roasting to death?

Or the 1000s of Kurds gassed or 10s of 1000s of Marsh Arabs killed and relocated.

Saddam and the Taliban caused these wars, not Blair or Bush.

David Kelly
Alastair Campbell
Tony Bliar
I totally believe there is so much more to come out about his death and I totally believe Bliar and Campbell are complicit in it

How can you support himnifnyour husband is a squaddie? I deal with fall out from this day to day and could never support him

@Alexandra2001

This is conflated and out of context. Blair started wars with devastating outcomes. Churchill defended his country from a dictator. I agree, no comparison

Have you forgotten about the twin towers and 3000 people who died terrible deaths, many jumping out of the building, preferring to die through impact than roasting to death?

Or the 1000s of Kurds gassed or 10s of 1000s of Marsh Arabs killed and relocated.

Saddam and the Taliban caused these wars, not Blair or Bush.

But Blair didn't go to war over the gassing of Saddam's own people. He didn't go to war over the Twin Towers. He went to war over Saddam having WMD. WMD that Hans Blix said didn't exist. And as he'd spent months looking for them, he should know. He went to war because he thought it was right to be on the side of the Americans (at least that's what he has said). And he went to war on the evidence of lies.

@Mummyrowland

How can you support himnifnyour husband is a squaddie? I deal with fall out from this day to day and could never support him

It’s easy. The war in Iraq was supported by the Tories, we’d be where we are regardless of who was in power. My bloke was shot at in the Falklands and defused bombs in Belfast under Thatcher, nobody protested when she got her honour, did they?