Tony Blair for new PM. would it really be so bad?

[mumnosbest]

I'm not the most politically minded so please all opinions welcome. Apart from 2 poorly thought out wars, was he so bad? The recession wasnt all his fault but a culmination of years of bad lending, high bonuses and the decisions of various governments.

AT least with TB it felt like we had a real government and pm. now we seem to have a bunch of clowns playing out their schoolboy fantasies and making us a laughing stock imo.

What do you think?

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/27/nick-cohen-tony-blair-kazakhstan

See article above. I'm no fan of the current government, but there are limits...

"Ed Milliband's approach to politics must have his father spinning in his grave."

I agree, but he is not as bad as Cameron or Blair. As far as I can tell.

I agree that David Cameron is only there for his mates and the well off and doesn't give a toss about the UK as a whole, let alone ordinary people.

However, Tony Blair lied, cheated, helped his cronies and ruined the economy. There are still many more skeletons in the cupboard thanks to all his shady off balance sheet debt structures (PFIs, PPPs etc. - a disaster waiting to happen, and he was warned but didn't give a toss!).

LibDem are also losing all credibility IMO.

Not sure what/who is left???? Time for a change? But who?

Dikker
"but who"
Easy - coalitions - lots of them - for years to come.
Hamstring the bastards into compromise. Stop them bringing out "initiatives".
Look how well Belgium worked for 14 months without a government.
If you have a stable civil service and an open media, politicians are just a self serving arrogance. Sack the bloody lot for a while.
THEN bring in PR to make every voice heard on the replacements.

Talkin

Things barely function in Belgium with a government!

mamma
I defer to your better knowledge, BUT did the sky fall in during those 14 months?

He is being blamed for essentially being a victim of the zeitgeist and to a certain extent a stooge of GWBush and Dick Cheney. Fair enough criticism to a certain point.

I think a lot of voters were bamboozled and are now having serious second thoughts about Cameron and Clegg; this sort of thread and the sentiment behind it indicates the level of odium Cameron and Clegg have incurred. Clegg in particular perhaps. Nobody can look into the future -- how many here would vote the same way they did last time they had a chance?

talkin sack the lot of them sounds good. We dont have a stable civil service anymore though.

mathanxiety
TB created the ferkin "zeitgeist" - he was the king of spin and soundbite. He and Mrs Mandleson were happy with people being "filthy rich" cos they wanted to be. The ONLY reason he's not been shredded is because RM and he are family and DC wants to be him.
Some day John Major will say "bollocks to it" and dish the dirt.
And I say that as somebody who hit the champagne in 1997.
If there was EVER a discreet and gracious ex PM its been John Major
and maybe its time he let rip. Underpants and all.
He could influence politics (for the good) if he spoke out well and clearly ....

Blair wanted to take us in to the euro - thank goodness brown wouldn't let him.

Don't like either, but things would be a lot worse now if brown had let him have his way over the euro

He didn't create the zeitgeist, the climate that encouraged banking deregulation, the climate that encouraged the jingoism about Iraq. That drifted across the Atlantic like all the other ideas that dominate Britain today, even down to how reading is taught in schools, the no child left behind baloney..
It all originated with Ronald Reagan. It was nurtured by voters who elected Margaret Thatcher to three consecutive terms. Toadying up to Reagan was a specialty of hers and her successors have taken great pains not to mess up their chance to play with the big boys, including not throwing in Britain's lot with the Euro. Everyone who embraced MT embraced what was drifting east from the America of Ronald Reagan. There is not a whole lot of original thought behind any policy or trend in Britain today. It is mostly swallowed whole from the publications of think tanks in the US.

TB's presidential style even drifted east.

Would love to see John Major letting it rip though..

bear in mind I'm a yank - Manhattan born and bred
you mahossively over estimate the balance between Ron and Maggie

JM - if you or Norma lurk - your time is NOW

I'd love to see John Major 'let rip' too but I can only envisage his spitting image character!

History will be kinder to Blair than people are now.

John Major?

Yeah, maybe. Was he involved in any major scandals/corruption?

If not, then yes, John Major would be a good candidate.

I think it's high time for a woman labour prime minister.

It seems that the Labour Party is dominated at the top by career politicians like the Milliblubs and the Ballsups.

We need a good down to earth Female PM such as Harriet Harman, Tessa Jowell, Maria Eagle, Mary Creagh.

Ed Milliband is OK, but always too apologetic to be effective.

I think what we're lacking is any credible alternatives. We need someone brave to step up, preferably labour and living in the real world. I think they also need to be stronger and more charismatic than john major.

Harriet Harman - career politician, married to a politician, daughter of a peer.
Tessa Jowell - career politician, married to lawyer who was for many years involved with Berlusconi
Maria Eagle - Oxbridge educated lawyer
Mary Creagh - Oxbridge educated career politician

same old same old

Nor really they are women, so very different. And, what is wrong with being Oxford educated?

but it does not promote confidence in awareness to how the other 99.7% live

In principle there shouldn't be anything wrong with an Oxford educated lawyer, but the issue is that it is time for a change. So fewer Oxford educated politicians for a change, a little less of a cosy club, who like to surround themselves by their mates (male or female).

Yes. For all the reasons on TalkinPeace's list. Leveson, Iraq, Afghanistan, banking scandal. Doagree we'd Ny more?

agree Oxbridge shouldn't be a bar, although public school probably should be - it was obvious to us state school types at Cambridge who the hooray Henry future leader types were right from the get go, and they were all public school educated)

Vince Cable would get my vote.

Or, someone totally new to politics.mmWe really need an entirely new political party, truly committed to reducing income inequality, fundamentally reforming the banking sector and promoting a new uk economy which is not dependent on the financial services market.

I agree with exexe please if he and that woman he is married too start appearing in our papers and on tv i may have to emigrate...he took us into an (illegal) war, he loosened the authority the bank regulators had, so they had no power, he was so far up bush's arse he almost disappeared, He had a publicity machine, and used and abused spin doctors, he was such a self serving egotist, who left office, sucked up to the American institutions, and made millions, and now he needs his ego massaged again, as he is (mr rich) nobody, so he will try and inflict himself on the British public again. I could go on.