Tony Blair

[Antynwa]

What do you think of Tony Blair?

 

Was he a good or bad Prime Minister?

 

(Mainly for citizens in the U.K) Did he improve your life? Or do you feel he did?

[Section_31]

I think he was a pretty awesome politician with a fierce intellect who made some massive, massive errors of judgment. He also passed up the biggest mandate a post war politician has probably ever had to turn the country around but instead followed what was in effect a 'Tory light' agenda, despite what some people will say about public spending (which was relatively restrained until Brown took the reins).

 

I often wonder what influence Mandelson had on Blair, or at least to what extent he influenced his world view. I've seen interviews with Blair where he's ridiculed the idea of schools and hospitals being run along market forces, but then months later - literally months - he's reversed his opinions. Why this was I've no idea, but at some point Blair became a slave to the idea of fame and celebrity, I don't know where it came from but I'm willing to bet good old Pete played a part in it. As George Galloway said roughly a year ago on Questiontime "You will never find two people more enamoured with wealth than Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson."

[PestiRed]

The night he was elected was brilliant. Watching the tories getting destroyed & realising that there would be a labour govt for the first time since I was old enough to understand the difference between political parties. And, of course, the "Portillo Moment"

It was fantastic but it all kind of went downhill after that. I was selling into public sector so my bonuses went up for a few years thanks to him. Unfortunately having Clinton replaced by Bush seemed to be a turning point for the third way & then after 911 & Iraq it went completely pear-shaped

[Antynwa]

When I look at what his government achieved. I look around Liverpool City Centre, I see a city transformed, but I still see deprivation in the suburbs.

 

When I look back to my education, I had fantastic teachers and just recently new schools, sixth form centres and other initiatives have taken place right on my door step. Obviously the war was a massive error of judgement, but will history look upon him kindly in terms of domestic issues?

 

That being said, I think he would have won the election again had he stood. I would have voted for him.....

[zigackly]

Champagne Socialist. And arguably a war criminal.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

I hope he isn't as remorseless as he pretends to be. If it wasn't for the wars - the horrific and unforgivable wars - then his time as PM would have been fairly acceptable.

There were problems, and many things he didn't have the vision to change for the better, but in general it was a fairly good 10 year spell for Brits. He was Tory light in a lot of ways, but in a few other ways he listened to those in the party who were more left than him, so it wasn't a total disaster at home.

 

However, his legacy is the wars; for which he'll rightly be remembered as a liar and a man who is responsible for unspeakable slaughter.

[Liverpool lad]

I look at what he is up to now and it doesn't sit right with me

[Pony Princess]

When he was elected I was 17 and I felt good about him. All I remembered before was the conservatives about being told how they had destroyed britain.

 

I remember Radiohead's OK Computer was the best album I'd ever heard around the time Labour got into power.

 

Tony was pretty slick, wasn't the embarrasing 'grey man' that John Major was but I think Tony will go down in history as a war criminal. He was forever Dubya's bitch.

[Redder Lurtz]

Smarmy, lying, fake. Drops the odd 't' when speaking to appear more like a great bloke. A tactic many of his former colleagues have since adopted, most notably Ed Balls and that dickhead nobody who "leads" the labour party these days. Irritates the hell out of me, that.

[dennis tooth]

I think he was a pretty awesome politician with a fierce intellect who made some massive, massive errors of judgment. He also passed up the biggest mandate a post war politician has probably ever had to turn the country around but instead followed what was in effect a 'Tory light' agenda, despite what some people will say about public spending (which was relatively restrained until Brown took the reins).

 

I often wonder what influence Mandelson had on Blair, or at least to what extent he influenced his world view. I've seen interviews with Blair where he's ridiculed the idea of schools and hospitals being run along market forces, but then months later - literally months - he's reversed his opinions. Why this was I've no idea, but at some point Blair became a slave to the idea of fame and celebrity, I don't know where it came from but I'm willing to bet good old Pete played a part in it. As George Galloway said roughly a year ago on Questiontime "You will never find two people more enamoured with wealth than Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson."

 

Then you need to watch this episode:

Eight People Sipping Wine In Kettering. This episode explains how politicians turned to the same techniques used by business in order to read and manipulate the inner desires of the masses. Both New Labor with Tony Blair and the Democrats led by Bill Clinton, used the focus group which had been invented by psychoanalysts in order to regain power.

 

Here

The Century of the Self | Watch Free Documentary Online

 

The rest is a revision of history, one of the first steps taken by the Blair government was to take public control of the banks and hand it over to private entities which where the banks themselves. We are still paying the price now and will never get that control back,except from the bankers cold dead hands.

[Jairzinho]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choke_pear_(torture)

[Xherdan]

How rich is Tony Blair?

 

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair's socialist ideals have not prevented him from becoming a multi-millionaire since he left office. We track the rise of his earning potential...

 

Tony Blair: Making serious money

'I am a socialist […because] it stands for equality'. So said the Rt Hon Anthony Charles Lynton Blair in his maiden speech in the House of Commons on July 6 1983. However, as Tony Blair is now a millionaire several times over, it would appear that some people are more equal than others.

Blair graduated in jurisprudence from St John's College, Oxford and later qualified as a barrister.

He was elected as the Labour MP for Sedgefield in 1983 (current parliamentary salary: £65,737), and enjoyed a rapid ascent, with his first front bench appointment coming a year later. He was appointed Labour leader in 1994, following the sudden death of John Smith.

At the age of 43 years old Blair became the youngest Prime Minister (current salary: £197,689) since 1812, following a landslide victory in the 1997 General Election. Victories in the 2001 and 2005 elections meant that when Blair resigned the premiership in 2007 he was the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister and the only person to lead the party to three consecutive General Election victories.

However, it is Blair's post-PM activities that have made him a serious financial heavyweight, and it has been estimated that he has earned at least £15m since leaving Number 10.

He is a senior advisor at investment bank JP Morgan (salary estimates range between £500,000 and £2.5m) and advises the Swiss insurance firm Zurich Financial Services on climate change issues for a reputed £1m a year, not to mention his consulting role with luxury goods firm LVMH. And he was said to have been paid an estimated £1m for writing a report for the government of Kuwait on the future of the oil-rich state.

Indeed, such is the demand for his advisory services that he has set up a commercial consultancy firm, Tony Blair Associates, which has banked at least £2m advising foreign countries and businesses.

Although still dogged by certain decisions made when PM, such as his unpopular wars, Blair is cashing in on his popularity and has received an estimated £5m for his memoirs, although he has vowed to give the money to charity with the Royal British Legion the beneficiary.

The royalties from sales – autobiographies by former PMs Margaret Thatcher and John Major sold around 500,000 and 200,000 copies respectively - are likely to earn millions more for the charity.

And for those that couldn't wait for the memoirs to be published, Blair has been active on the after-dinner speech circuit. Signed to the Washington Speakers Bureau for £500,000, Blair typically commands up to $250,000 for a 90-minute speech.

He is widely believed to be the highest paid speaker – commanding even more than former US President Bill Clinton – and has reportedly earned over £5m for his speaking engagements. Last year he earned almost £400,000 for two half-hour speeches in the Philippines.

On top of this, Blair receives £84,000 of taxpayers' money to run a private office, and he is also entitled to draw a pension of £63,468.

Most recently, the former PM named as the 2010 recipient of the annual Liberty Award in the US - including a £67,000 cash prize.

Blair's vast property portfolio

Finally, Blair, who is married to Cherie Booth QC, the barrister daughter of actor Tony Booth, also boasts an enviable property portfolio.

Most recently, the Blairs paid £1m for a house for a three-bedroom maisonette in a Georgian townhouse in central London for their daughter. It becomes the eighth home in the Blairs' seemingly ever-expanding portfolio.

It was bought mortgage-free in the names of Mrs Blair and her 22-year-old daughter Kathryn, Land Registry documents revealed in August 2010. Their three eldest children now each have a £1m home in central London, all bought with substantial help from their parents.

Kathryn and her older brothers Euan, 26, and Nicky, 24, all live within striking distance of their parents' £3.7m mansion in Connaught Square.

The Blairs have amassed property worth £15m since Mr Blair entered Downing Street in 1997. Mrs Blair is understood to have paid for the two-storey property for Miss Blair, who until recently studied European law in Strasbourg, where she had a scholarship. She previously studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. It follows the purchase of a £1.3m Grade II-listed townhouse for Euan and a £1.13m 'lad's pad' for Nicky.

Since leaving Downing Street in 2007, Mr Blair is estimated to have made £25m from lectures and lucrative consultancy deals. Claims that he has earned up to £60m have been dismissed by his office as 'simply ludicrous'.

The true figure for Mr Blair's wealth is impossible to pin down. He has set up a complicated web of companies through which he channels his earnings without having to declare them publicly.

 

 

Read more: How rich is Tony Blair?

[VladimirIlyich]

He was the only way the Labour party was going to be elected,a watered down Tory is basically all he is.

His government,not necessarily him,achieved some excellent things at home,a minimum wage and a much better education and NHS services but he's got blood on his hands for being a US poodle and worshiping at the altar of that monster thatcher.

 

Could have achieved so much for the country but chose to fill his own boots instead.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

CUNT

 

Blood-drenched fucker wants dragging odd to the Hague.

 

Also, Margaret Thatcher claimed that New Labour was her greatest triumph. For once, I have to agree with the evil hag.

[Strontium]

When I look at what his government achieved. I look around Liverpool City Centre, I see a city transformed, but I still see deprivation in the suburbs.

 

 

Please tell me you're not giving credit for Liverpool's transformation to the Labour government. I'm not sure Labour themselves would have the cheek to do that.

[G Richards]

When he was elected it was the first time I genuinely felt hope in anything to do with politics. The project was interesting and captivated my imagination, and the mandate to get things done was enormous. And yet...

 

The whole thing quickly got bogged down and lost its way for numerous reasons. Whatever good that was done was largely lost on me.

 

Since I now live in America I recently read an interview in Time magazine with former President Jimmy Carter. I was struck by the fact that this elderly man still had a sparkle in his eye and a deadly serious commitment to making a difference. He eschewed the lecture circuit and the easy money that brings for a more purposeful life.

 

I can't help but feel that Blair cares too much about fame, his legacy, money and prestige. If he were more statesmanlike I think his principles and ideas would be razor sharp, but alas he just seems so wishy-washy to me. I saw him speak at a conference over here last year, and for the life of me I cannot remember anything of note he said. I remember thinking at the time, 'I wonder how much he is charging them for this?'

[moof]

I reckon he's dead sound. Plays guitar an' everything

[Beantown Red]

Did they ever figure out why he went along with Bush so much? Actually Googled the UK Iraq vote and it seems just like the US both major political parties have lots of blood on their hands.

[Malarkey]

I reckon he's dead sound. Plays guitar an' everything

 

But Miliband is a cross eyed prick.

[Antynwa]

Please tell me you're not giving credit for Liverpool's transformation to the Labour government. I'm not sure Labour themselves would have the cheek to do that.

 

It happened on their watch large scale public and private investment on a scale never seen anywhere else. From Liverpool One to Mann Island, and not to mention what happened near me.

 

The health service was revamped for the better, new hospitals have sprung up, more people than ever went to University.

[ChrisM]

Sounds good.

 

I wonder how they paid for it?

[Antynwa]

Sounds good.

 

I wonder how they paid for it?

 

Not really that arsed. It needed investment, my high school needed rebuilding, we needed a local health centre and we also needed a fucking modern sixth form.

[VladimirIlyich]

Sounds good.

 

I wonder how they paid for it?

 

It could easily have been paid for by either/or adding a couple of pence on to the highest rate of tax and getting the rich to pay their taxes like the rest of society.

[Magic Sponge]

He likes scouse pussy.

 

That'll do for me.

[cochcaer]

Had he bowed out prior to Iraq his popularity would probably be quite something for a PM.