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.

The war in Iraq was made after a free vote in parliament . The majority of MP s voted for it after a debate where both sides were presented . Every elected MP at the time who voted for I'd equally responsible . And it was all the political parties who voted for it.

Does he seem far right to you?

I listened to the Today programme interview with Tony Blair and the comment afterwards. There was a general feeling that the Labour party must listen to his views. Someone (Justin Webb) described it as a cold shower to wake up the Labour Party.
There is so much nastiness on this thread towards politicians. Some of the comments come across as unhinged. Some really nasty posts. These appear to be far left voters who disregard the well publicised views of the ordinary electorate. They are a group of lefties who decide they know what is best for everyone.
The Labour party grandees need to listen, most of them know that. A number of posters on here just do not get that we live in a democracy. Everyone's views count. We do well to listen to views that may not be our own.

Probably better to read and critique the actual piece than third party commentary about it. Blair's a neoliberal but above all a realist, with a focus on tactics, results, and broad national interests. That's not progressive or hard left, but it's also far from far right.

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 specifically (and correctly) says that the UK was not invited to nor able to take full part. Blair's reasons for his stance on bases are consistent his logic in Iraq. While his actions in Iraq broke international law and should not be condoned, the idea that his goal was simply to kill Muslims is spurious and ahistorical and actually comes across as kind of Islamophobic itself, given the debates going on among Muslims themselves and in and by Islamic and majority Islam countries.

Blair's support of the USA was paramount for him as PM and as you can see it still is, for reasons he explains - but he also details how he sees Trump as a continuation of post-WWII US politics rather than a disruptive break. It's important to read this the way he writes it, from a very carefully and consciously UK-specific perspective, because Trump actually IS a disruptive break for the USA itself. But people also thought that Bush II was a disruptive break when he was first elected, so Blair is on familiar ground.

He also said Labour has made mistakes by spending more on welfare, focussing on Net Zero, increasing taxes on businesses. Correct; he's criticising what he sees as positions that damage the economy and make individual citizens poorer. He grounds this in traditional Labour political philosophy; claims public is confused because the present government still talks like Labour but then undermines Labour values. His point is that there's no value in various leadership hopefuls scoring different little policy points when Labour lacks (in his view) a cohesive high-level policy.

I didn't realise Blair was pro Brexit - makes sense though. He was and is vocally and notoriously anti-Brexit, which was probably to the detriment of the Remain campaign. He says here that Brexit was clearly going to damage the UK and has damaged the UK, but he advocates stabilising the UK economy and business/technology situation to maximise the UK's unique strengths so as to negotiate from a position of greatest strength if proposing rejoining or any other broad formal arrangement with the EU. He's not far off Starmer on this, and neither of them is wrong in terms of current efficacy - although Blair advocates a much more organised longer-term strategic approach.

No, he’s Tory lite though. He always was. He failed to repeal Tory policies like right to buy in the decade he was able to and he pushed the Labour Party firmly to the right. He’s a shape shifter.

“Far right” gets bandied about so often it is meaningless in most contexts it’s mentioned now. Every time I see it/hear it, I just think of this (see attached image).

Yes, a parrot (I chose Iago from Aladdin).

😆. Very good . Not to derail but I think he is even getting that ' cartoon villain living in a hollowed out volcano ' looks ? Like his evil mentor Murdoch. I have a theory that there is a painting in the attic of what he'd have looked like if he hadn't sold out to the oligarchy. A handsome Tony full of light and love. Dorian Gray in reverse....

Huh? Employment rights, Renters Rights, changes to VAWG legislation, Reform of NHS.
Rail & Steel nationalisation... Rebuilding program for Schools and Hospitals, 2 child benefit removal... reduced energy bills for a 3 month period by £117.
Told Trump "No, we wont support your war"

Now, one can argue against all of these and plenty of other things Labour have done but to say they don't make decisions is rubbish.

Labour have said they want Welfare reform have promised greater defence spending and have gone out of their way to increase AI investment.... all the things Blair says Labour need to do.

Blair hates the idea he isn't in Govt, so seems hell bent on destroying any remote chance Labour had of getting back in 2029.... his "wisdom" should have been delivered privately but he wants to cause issues and become "relevant" again.

Is Blair "Far Right?" Sunak supports everything Blair has said and Sunak was for many years, on the far right of the Tory party.

On blaming others, you mean like Blair did for many years after 1997... and the Tories did and still do after 2010....

All Govts do this and rightly so, the economy, skills, healthcare, housing etc cannot be fixed in 2 years, anyone who thinks that is an idiot.

We don’t tax billionaires - right.

Thats obviously not true, plus they invariably create wealth, plus they are mobile - many of have already fled, plus welfare is not ‘growth’ etc.

If you want to live in a welfare state, where there are declining living standards - carry on.

Many of us do not - and we are not prepared to be taxed to death whilst also being kicked in the nether regions.

As regards right vs left tribalism, I think it is useful to remember than sanity is mostly found somewhere in the middle.
Tony Blair did a lot of good for this country as a centre left politician.
It’s sad that many refuse to acknowledge that because of the WMD debacle.
I’d love us to have another PM of his stature.

I agree that Labour have completely forgotten that they have to govern a whole country and have U turned from tough policies that are good for the country as a whole but unpopular with the loudest elements of their base.

They are blind to the fact that they won on an anti-Tory rebellion. It wasn’t an ideological swing to the left. The mass mood was a desire for less corruption, stability and investment in health and education. Something Labour were able to produce from 1997 to 2010 (you don’t have to agree with all of their policies during that period).

I don’t agree with everything Blair said (definitely not regarding Trump) but I agree Labour is absolute disconnected with the reality of government and how they are reinforcing the downward economic spiral.

Oh and another leadership battle at this point is unforgivable.

What the Labour Party of the 90s and 00’s understood is that you can fundamentally do far more good IN government that out of it and that means you need to govern the whole country. What we are currently seeing is the student politics of shouting loudly and trying to shame people who don’t agree with you. People you shame will rarely vote for you.

Yet the UK has had (over the last 2 years) and is predicted to have the 2nd highest growth in the G7.... only behind the USA... most countries are struggling with how to get growth and so did the Tories over 14 years.

Labour have inherited a Debt to GDP of 100%, Blair inherited one of 37%, UK could trade friction free with the EU, he imported skills from Europe, took adv of a world economy in boom times...

Labour nor anyone else can pull the "Borrow More" lever.

Yep 100% agree, a leadership battle is the last thing we all need, i ve a feeling there wont be one, Burnham will lose and Starmer will have to step up.

Good points re the debt and Europe situation.

I really hope the outcome is no leadership battle.

However I fundamentally disagree that increasing the cost of employment and tightening the screws on average people with tax and stealth tax moves is good economics.

If you think Blair is Far Right, you have no idea what that term means
(Edit - I vote Green and Labour, depending)

But this poster said he wasn't far right because I asked upthread

I was asking the question to @MissyB1 and I won't be answering her question before she answers the one I asked her first.

How is he disagreeing with anti-racism?

This is very true !!

How is this so hard to understand?

The Labour party have people who are left of centre and right of centre in their party.

The Conservative party have people who are left of centre and right of centre in their party.

Clearly not. But the op doesn't seem to realise that she's spouting far left retoric so we cant expect too much from her

Tont Blair reminds me a bit of the unhinged uncle you have that calls you out aggressively on your folly but actually in the end it turns out he's right

But Labour also has at least one neo-con, Mosleyite, dictatorial fascist in the form of Sir T. Blair.

And there are others in the Party who are the running dogs of this monster of the far-right. Or they might be wicked capitalist wreckers unschooled in the truth of dialectical materialism. I forget which.

Anyway…Freedom For Tooting!