The Tony Blair Story

[mumofoneAloneandwell]

Late night with dd - I’ve put it on in the background on +1

is anyone watching? 👀

Very true. There was a dignity in politics before but you have to wonder who would go into politics now with the levels of abuse

I agree. Plus of course no court with any jurisdiction has found evidence enough for this accusation. As PM you have no idea what's going to happen, it's easy to be an armchair critic.

Blair was so infectiously smiley. That easy charm and articulacy is very appealing. It might seem smarmy in hindsight but we are so lacking a young, positive, progressive leader who doesn't feel like a lightweight Polanski.

But I still don’t think they should bow to it. Whatever they come up with isn’t go to be as extreme as what reform say they’ll do. So they’re no point in entering the game. Stick to your values and that if your voters.
And the numbers coming have been vastly reduced but still it’s not enough.

He was like a breath of air after John Major and Margaret Thatcher (18 long years).

Yes, I agree, but they got rattled. Also, many European countries have been changing their migration policies and tightening rules, notably Denmark.
I think KS felt he had to respond to all of that.

Yes agree. But don’t make it the centre. Do the stuff that is at the heart of your values.
the media wouldn’t report it though.

Yes, I wish they'd focus on discussing the core stuff. Again, school budgets have risen which is a positive. They do need Alistair Campbell!

Interesting that they felt the need to pop a little disclaimer about Mandelson at the end!

Oh my god! I thought that about Mandelson. How embarrassing. His contributions were informative, though...

Agreed. It would have been wrong to just remove his bits.

I think Clare Short had TB weighed up - he is not a deep thinker. He thinks he is, he wants to be, but he is not, although he talks a good persuasive talk. Like many champagne socialists, he was definitely a career politician, supported by a wife who had the same desires for herself.

His daughter at the end said he keeps going, even now, because he is 'not finished'. It was then, and still is, him wanting power and control and he does his best to keep himself relevant. He still desires to be a world player on the world stage.

I think he had values though
Also determination and drive. He wasn't completely insubstantial as a politician.

Clause 4.Blair destroyed the Labour Party.Any "vision" of his was an embarrassing pastiche of convenient populist soundbites, discarded when no longer convenient.

So interesting looking back on those times.
The sense of hope he generated in the country was immense in 1997.

Episode two is a hard watch. We marched against the Iraqi I was heavily pregnant at the time and watching Blair sit and still maintain it was the right decision is galling.

It was a hard watch, but I suppose he's standing by the reasons he originally set out. The contribution of Clinton I found interesting.

I haven't seen episode 2 yet but that doesn't surprise me in the least. There was a definite messianic vibe about him in the first programme - all that vision stuff about the death of John Smith? FFS.

Enjoyed his children talking about him. They were all good on the camera got mixed up with his boys don’t know if they all talked

Yes, that was strange. I'd not heard that before.

I'd forgotten what a success Kosovo was. He was a hero. I wonder if that lead to his approach with Iraq.

it's been interesting reading everyone's review's but I think this is whats putting me off watching this (not that I would've expected him to say anything else). My family knew the parents of someone who was killed in Iraq, and I have always flip flopped between feeling sorrow at their loss and anger that he was ever there in the first place.

It's like pre and post 9/11 Tony Blair are two entirely different people and I wonder what his legacy would've been if things had been different.

I would never admit this IRL but sometimes if I'm feeling down or the world feels rubbish then I watch the old news coverage from TBs election 97 victory on YouTube (even though I vividly remember watching it live at the time). Even now it still stirs my soul and feels hopefully.... And then the bubble bursts and reality bites 🤦.

@AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta it's a very interesting programme, and I think generally an intelligent critique. It's certainly not a hagiography.
Your point about 9/11 is a good one, it did seem to change him, it was almost visible on film.

I think I might have to give it a watch and just skip episode two.

I just googled the stuff about the talk of the premonition with John Smith's death and I don't quite know what to make of it. So he had a premonition that John would for of a heart attack and he and Cherie started plotting a leadership bid even though JS was still very much alive.

I know they say that truth is stranger than fiction, but is this was an Agatha Christie then Tony and Cherie would be probably have had Poirot on their trail before they could blink.

My mum has always called John Smith the best prime minister we never had and I suspect she's probably right.

Your mum is right. He really was.