In response to the knighting of Tony Blair, Steve Richards asks whether he was “our last great PM or a leader with a shameful legacy” (News Review, last week). Surely the events of the past few days have demonstrated yet again that, while Blair is no saint, he is head and shoulders above all the prime ministers we have had.
Defending Blair is a thankless task, but I have childhood memories of listening to the television or radio for those daily reports of another IRA bomb and another dead policeman, prison officer or soldier in Northern Ireland. For his sheer determination to secure peace in Ireland he should be given credit.
It’s a peace deal that we have treated with an air of complacency — and a deal that Boris Johnson seems happy to rip up. He does so at his peril.
Dean Beckett, Southampton
Centre of excellence
True blue Conservatives always hated Blair because he was a destroyer of Tory votes; left-wing Labour supporters hate him because he marginalised the Militant Tendency. Those of us who represent the centre of politics in this country recognise him for what he is: our last great prime minister.
David Middlemiss, Beverley, East Yorkshire
Filthy rich
As someone who was once a fervent admirer of Blair, I was almost persuaded by Richards that history will be kind to him. But I had to wonder why he omitted to mention Blair’s relentless attempts, since leaving office, to join the super-rich with whom he’d rubbed shoulders when in power; and his willingness, in this pursuit, to work for odious autocrats like Nursultan Nazarbayev, the former president of Kazakhstan.
Bill Jones, Beverley, East Yorkshire
Misleader of the house
Richards gives Blair a rather easy ride. He ignores the way, in writing and in speeches, Blair manipulated intelligence in the build-up to the Iraq war. In his preface to the “dodgy dossier”, information that undermined the case for war was left out, caveats were ignored and doubts became certainties. To mislead parliament and the country in this way for the purpose of taking us to war was unforgivable. He should not have received a knighthood.
David Simmonds, Woking
Bush booboo
Blair is indeed the best postwar PM. The mistake he made was the one many British leaders have made before and since: he supported the president of the United States.
Maureen O’Brien, Sutton, London
Devo hacks
I was surprised Richards did not refer to either Kosovo or devolution. I always thought Blair’s decisions and actions in the Balkans showed real bravery. By contrast, through his policy on devolution he is responsible for the rise of Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish independence movement. Because of it, in this time of Covid we are plagued practically every day by Sturgeon’s statements and those of her dreary Welsh counterpart.
At the risk of being facile we can seperate Blair into pre and post 9/11.
The former was one of the most effective and forward looking leaders we have ever had, the latter was a disaster who did some serious damage.
And yet, despite Boris Johnson’s massive list of fuck ups, he hasn’t dragged the country into an illegal war.
Sir Tony is a piece of shit, who’s most significant achievement is the final degredation of knighthoods to the status of worthless trinkets.
Are you dumb.
What’s great about a guy who is the main reason behind why the Middle East is so fucked up.
Life can still move on here like corona never happened… Try do that in a country where it’s all been turned to rubble
For his sheer determination to secure peace in Ireland he should be given credit – I thought Mo Mowlam was the one that did that.
Best PM in my lifetime. If only we could clone him and let him be PM now too.
David Cameron. Hated the guy at the time, but I’d jump at the chance of a competent pro-europe progressive conservative leader right now.
[removed]
Yeah no, for all of his fuck ups Boris hasn’t dragged us into illegal wars that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent iraqis. He is a bad PM dont get me wrong but if hell exists there is a special place in hell for tony blair
None of his successors is a war criminal although Syria.
Brown was the baby thrown out with the New Labour bath water. Not everyone’s favourite but light years better than Johnson and was already proven in a time of crisis. Instead we got 12 years of decline across the board.
11 comments
Will history be kind to Tony Blair?
In response to the knighting of Tony Blair, Steve Richards asks whether he was “our last great PM or a leader with a shameful legacy” (News Review, last week). Surely the events of the past few days have demonstrated yet again that, while Blair is no saint, he is head and shoulders above all the prime ministers we have had.
Defending Blair is a thankless task, but I have childhood memories of listening to the television or radio for those daily reports of another IRA bomb and another dead policeman, prison officer or soldier in Northern Ireland. For his sheer determination to secure peace in Ireland he should be given credit.
It’s a peace deal that we have treated with an air of complacency — and a deal that Boris Johnson seems happy to rip up. He does so at his peril.
Dean Beckett, Southampton
Centre of excellence
True blue Conservatives always hated Blair because he was a destroyer of Tory votes; left-wing Labour supporters hate him because he marginalised the Militant Tendency. Those of us who represent the centre of politics in this country recognise him for what he is: our last great prime minister.
David Middlemiss, Beverley, East Yorkshire
Filthy rich
As someone who was once a fervent admirer of Blair, I was almost persuaded by Richards that history will be kind to him. But I had to wonder why he omitted to mention Blair’s relentless attempts, since leaving office, to join the super-rich with whom he’d rubbed shoulders when in power; and his willingness, in this pursuit, to work for odious autocrats like Nursultan Nazarbayev, the former president of Kazakhstan.
Bill Jones, Beverley, East Yorkshire
Misleader of the house
Richards gives Blair a rather easy ride. He ignores the way, in writing and in speeches, Blair manipulated intelligence in the build-up to the Iraq war. In his preface to the “dodgy dossier”, information that undermined the case for war was left out, caveats were ignored and doubts became certainties. To mislead parliament and the country in this way for the purpose of taking us to war was unforgivable. He should not have received a knighthood.
David Simmonds, Woking
Bush booboo
Blair is indeed the best postwar PM. The mistake he made was the one many British leaders have made before and since: he supported the president of the United States.
Maureen O’Brien, Sutton, London
Devo hacks
I was surprised Richards did not refer to either Kosovo or devolution. I always thought Blair’s decisions and actions in the Balkans showed real bravery. By contrast, through his policy on devolution he is responsible for the rise of Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish independence movement. Because of it, in this time of Covid we are plagued practically every day by Sturgeon’s statements and those of her dreary Welsh counterpart.
At the risk of being facile we can seperate Blair into pre and post 9/11.
The former was one of the most effective and forward looking leaders we have ever had, the latter was a disaster who did some serious damage.
And yet, despite Boris Johnson’s massive list of fuck ups, he hasn’t dragged the country into an illegal war.
Sir Tony is a piece of shit, who’s most significant achievement is the final degredation of knighthoods to the status of worthless trinkets.
Are you dumb.
What’s great about a guy who is the main reason behind why the Middle East is so fucked up.
Life can still move on here like corona never happened… Try do that in a country where it’s all been turned to rubble
For his sheer determination to secure peace in Ireland he should be given credit – I thought Mo Mowlam was the one that did that.
Best PM in my lifetime. If only we could clone him and let him be PM now too.
David Cameron. Hated the guy at the time, but I’d jump at the chance of a competent pro-europe progressive conservative leader right now.
[removed]
Yeah no, for all of his fuck ups Boris hasn’t dragged us into illegal wars that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent iraqis. He is a bad PM dont get me wrong but if hell exists there is a special place in hell for tony blair
None of his successors is a war criminal although Syria.
Brown was the baby thrown out with the New Labour bath water. Not everyone’s favourite but light years better than Johnson and was already proven in a time of crisis. Instead we got 12 years of decline across the board.