Has Tony Blair shifted far right?

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Tony Blair was always a warmonger with Iraq, but he seems to have gone full on far right / Reform now, criticising Starmer for not jumping in with Trump and the US on Iran.

He's saying we should have let them use our bases straight away and "show up" for America no matter what.

He also said Labour has made mistakes by spending more on welfare, focussing on Net Zero, increasing taxes on businesses..

Has he completely lost the plot? This sounds like proper far right policy to me.

I used to think Blair was centre-ground New Labour, but this feels like he's shifted hard right. In fact it's giving me proper far right / racist vibes.

What Blair is good at is being able to decipher the mood of the majority and reflect back whatever he sees in that mirror.

After what he did to Iraq, all I see is someone who cares about his own self interest and has a complete lack of morality and humanity. So he will say whatever suits him most, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s being propped up financially by someone else who has whatever views he decides to share as his own.

He’s truly scum and I’m glad his legacy will always be remembered as the man who is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths and the instability that still exists today (I know it wasn’t solely him, but definitely him from Britain’s perspective).

I wish people would stop using expressions they don’t understand.

Far right, ffs.

Like Starmer then.

That's what makes his position on Trump's Iran adventure so surprising. Starmer's refusal to endorse Trump's decision-making in this respect has done more for his popularity than anything else this year

When Blair first became party leader and then PM he did certainly have this gift. And like many Labour supporters I was soooo relieved that he seemed to create a pleasing combination of principles and electability. But I think that a poster upthread is right in saying that his desire to recover his reputation following his fuck-up over Iraq has poisoned whatever small well he used to offer us, in our thirst for a better labour party.

He may also be suffering from the kind of grandiose delusion that seems to affect a lot of PMs/ex PMs in their older age (cf. Thatcher). A context of endless flattery combined with declining skills in self-monitoring.

Either all that, or, possibly - given the kind of lobbyist shopping list that he seems to be preaching - some kind of weird blackmail scenario.

He has spent years being funded to rebuild what he destroyed, of course he wants it redestroying so he can get more funds to re-rebuild it again.

No. Anti-racism (as in the way the term has been used for the past 15 yrs at least) is bullshit.

Kendi: “the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination”.

There are many ways to disagree with that. Standard liberalism, for a start. Or left wing class critiques (see Adolph Reed if you want a black left-wing scholar on that).

Who in mainstream British politics isn't "pro Zionist" according to you?

Noted that you see being pro Jewish as a bad thing because we all know that people use Zionist and Jewish interchangably now.

Your post seemed logical until the last sentence.

It's just conspiracy nonsense people suggesting Blair is being blackmailed just because they don't like what he is saying re Trump.

Blair has always been pro US.

Thats a word salad!

Blair was always to the right of the centre ground, thats how he got elected with Murdock supporting him, didn't he say he admired Thatcher... & doubtless Trump too.

Blair did nothing to rebuild council housing, nothing to reverse any anti union legislation and his policies lead to the deaths of 100s of the UK finest young men and women in 2 pointless wars.

Policies like Sure Start, investment in education, NHS were what he had to do to become/stay as PM.

But perhaps this unelected multi millionaires lasting legacy will be to ensure the collapse of the Labour party.... he certainly knows how to stir the pot.

He also said Labour has made mistakes by spending more on welfare, focussing on Net Zero, increasing taxes on businesses..
Has he completely lost the plot? This sounds like proper far right policy to me

Ha, ha, you are joking, yes? Are you a 6th form student?

Don't agree with USA, Trump presidency is so extreme we are better to stay far away...Although sending King Charles into the Mad House to placate Trump probably did work, for a short time at least.

If mine is a word salad yours is a Mumsnet "massive salad" .

We agree Blair was always right of centre within Labour.

I was impressed by his article. He recognises how foolish it is for Labour to think about changing leaders this early in the parliamentary term. He recognises some of the sensible economic choices Labour has made. However, he recognises the lack of a coherent plan for key areas of the economy.
The shilly-shallying of policies because Labour leaders dare not go through with sensible albeit unpopular decisions makes the Government look as if it is unable to govern. It makes Labour look incapable as an effective party.
The current Government needs to be brave, make decisions that won’t be popular with old Labour. Recognise to deliver economic growth and jobs for the future, there has to be trade offs with welfare provision. Change has to happen. Tony Blair recognises this need for change.

I think he did a lot of good stuff as PM and there was a real mood of optimism in the country that I miss so much. As well as the Iraq war there are other things that I think his government failed on and left problems for the future. But it was easy to see him as a principled man, doing the best as he saw it even if I wouldn’t always agree.

His career as ex-PM, however, gives a pretty murky picture, as he’s gone wherever the money is - £5 million for ‘strategic advice’ to the then president of Kazakhstan who wasn’t hot on human rights, lobbying the Chinese on behalf of Saudi oil, now working for billionaire Larry Ellison aggressively pushing AI on governments, etc.

I don’t think he’s far right, I think he’s 100% motivated by a combination of money and ego, easily influenced by the super-rich, and his public interventions to promote a fossil fuel company agenda are all part of that.

Agree.

Nope, my post is factual.

The centre ground is never static and Blair on any measure you care to mention, implemented and supported Tory policies, inc Austerity.

The arch Remainer has even become a Brexitier... the UK esp on defence and trade would be infinitely better off inside the EU or even EFTA than its current position.
But his solution is cut Welfare and back AI.....

On business NI, Reeves had no choice, she had to raise taxes, the unfunded spending commitments were/are huge... PO/Blood scandals, previously agreed pay awards, £11billion per year of Hunts NI cuts...

Perhaps Blair would like to tell us how he would have funded these? or how he would fund extra defence spend, needed right now, not in some 10 year time span....waiting for that mythical growth that he only achieved thanks to a world wide economic boom.

My 3 lines was word salad but your much longer post wasn't. Ok ...

Personally I prefer to prioritise quality of life. For everyone - not just for the ones who are able to ‘contribute’…

I must admit to noticing there's a certain section of the population who hold the view:

Not pro-hamas = far right
Not twaw = far right
Not pro-greta = far right

That's what's frustrating. It's the idea that theres no more moderate (also previously known as the centre) views which recognise these conversations are deeply complex and have rights and wrongs from all sides.

Personally I think Blair is being completely self serving on Iran/Iraq.

But on other issues I think he is astute in showing he is capable of listening to more than the pre-approved lefties causes of the moment and realising that there's a bunch of legitimate conversations that the left is failing to have with itself which is leaving a huge number of people out of the tent purely because they want to have these really important difficult conversations about complex subjects which are affecting them daily in crucial ways whilst the Labour party wants slick PR campaigns and to avoid subjects that are in anyway remotely contentious because then they might have to make some difficult decisions and examine their own lack of competence across a wide ranging number of areas and be slightly embarrassed.

However we do need economic growth in order to be able to maintain a functioning society for everyone.

He’s been spending too much time hanging out with US tech-bros and lobbyists and not enough time in the UK. Remember he is on Trump’s laughably titled ‘Board of Peace’.

Tories shutting Surestart centres was one of the worst things they did.
SCs were proven to improve so many areas of child development particularly in more deprived areas.

No. The left are just going far lefter than they ever have

Here we agree 100% but growth takes time, it escaped the Tories for 14 years, its not a magic button.

If there was, it would be housing costs, consumer spending is stifled when 50% to 70% of take home income is spend on rent, council tax, mortgages for so many people.

But so far, Labour aren't addressing this either...

As pp said it is needed for to fund the public sector and quality of life. Just generally.