Anyone else think Tony Blair is talking sense?

[Bleachedjeans]

And I have read his full essay online (twice)not just the cherry picked headlines in the papers. and I watched the interview on Radio 4 today.
I doubt Keir Starmer could have performed as well in an interview.
He makes a lot of good points, especially the one that this government doesn’t have clear policies for improvement.

Can the man who led us all in the ‘weapons of mass destruction’ debacle be trusted?
I am very interested in hearing other people’s opinions.

Why would anyone want to listen to him.
He started an illegal war and has got blood on his hands.

I agree with much of what he wrote and his old friend Alister Campbell has been saying much of the same

And if anyone believes and hopes that if Andy Burnham becomes PM he will move the party to the left they are going to be very disappointed. If he becomes leader he will go where the votes are the centre stories are failing at the moment many in the centre have moved to reform and many on the left will stick with Zack’s party as he is happy to ignore antisemitism and play identity politics

Funny thread

OP: anyone else think Tony Blair is talking sense?
Everyone else: no, he took us into war

To answer OP's question - his interview makes perfect sense to me, I wish Labour listened.

To be fair that war was voted for by parliament and Michael Howard who was leader of the opposition said he’d have done the same thing. We’d have gone to Iraq whoever had been PM at the time.

hello! did I change my username and posted this?

1000000% agree

Would you trust a man who claims he can hypnotise women so their breasts grow bigger?!

Agreed. In no particular order:
He's had his shot at running the country and he took us into an illegal war when he was PM. He's part of Trump's hideous 'Board of Peace' with other war criminals, trying to skirt around the UN, all he cares about is enrichment of his family (Digital ID anyone?) He has been heavily involved in rhe Middle East for years, whilst everything got worse.
When I see him I think: 'one may smile and smile and be a villian'. Hideous creature.

What’s that got to do with Blair?

He also said that going into Afghanistan would help Afghani women. He is not always right.

Blair has just been co-opted by the billionaire class and the 'think tank' that's getting £100 millions of funding and generally corrupted by his own hubris.

I've not seen any indication that Burnham is hard left - by the sounds of it he'd continue the same direction as Starmer whilst being a better communicator about the successes.

Well I would count myself in this group:

UK centrist voters eg right wing Labour plus one nation Tories?

I voted for New Labour while TB was the Labour leader. I would say I am the classic floating voter. Over the course of my adult life I have swung between the Conservatives and Labour, generally going for whichever seemed to have the most centrist views at the time. For me, centre is good!

It was very difficult when Corbyn was leading Labour but the Conservatives had become a disaster, I think I went reluctantly Lib Dem. But it always feels as though when Labour are in power, if things didn't go well the party urge is to move further left, which never goes well with voters. Blair was the most successful Labour leader in history in terms of time in power. I really don't get the hate for him. I would still trust him more than the shit show who followed.

I guess he thought the Afghan men would actually want to help the women.

have you read his interviews?

How much harder Labour left can be? moving into Green territory?

What specifically? He's always struck me as centre left but not Corbyn or Green levels of thinking

It did help Afghani women. For 20 years. But in the end, the withdrawal was botched and the Afghan army were not equipped to cope with the Taliban.

I wasn't a particular supporter of Blair at the time as I wasn't politically engaged but I read his essay and he talks a lot of sense. The policies should come before the politics. Andy Burnham challenging Starmer for leader is politics. If he doesn't have the policies to move the country in the right direction, he won't last long.

I shuddered when a picture of Gordon Brown outside Downing Street with Starmer. Ugh!

I don't have to like TB, But I acknowledge having read the essay that he's right.

So far his policies are to borrow more and increase taxation.
The main issue he wants to fix is inequality and he's going to do this by redistribution.
Don't think he shared more than this.

ETA: and nationalisation as well. Funded by borrowing and higher taxes.

But that's a different argument... I've yet to see why he's perceived as hard left

I suppose it's too early for him to be discussing policies but I've only seen that he'll likely continue down the same direction as Starmer but as a better communicator.

Cannot stand the sight or voice of Blair…..took us into a catastrophic war.Remember those years well.So not interested in anything he has to say now.He only wants money for his family,slimy git.

Hard left is a silly label along with far right and fascists. We never used to talk like this but I guess that's part and parcel of a fractured political landscape - something Tony Blair never had to deal with.

I am sick of all the vibes nonsense. I hope Burnham makes clear some of his ambition for the future of the country so the Makerfield electorate have something real to consider. Him being a better communicator isn't really the point. As Blair said on the News Agents podcast, he could have been the best communicator in the world, but if his policies were shite, it would have only got him so far.

We know the Tories would have taken us into war alongside George Bush. But we had a Labour government at the time and should have been able to expect better.

It has been interesting reading all these replies. Thank you. Tbh I think I’m politically naive which is why I am interested in other people’s opinions. I think one of the strongest qualities for a politician is disinterest. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of it about. I absolutely cannot stand the hypocrisy of self interest masquerading as helpfulness. So maybe that is what TB was doing.

I really don’t know why. It was put before parliament and a majority of MPs voted for it. It looks inevitable from where I’m sitting.

We need billionaires to pay more tax not warmongers like him to shit on poor immigrants.