Runners and Riders.... Next PM.

[strichener]

32 minutes ago, virginton said:

 

Except that you’re not a historian and the New Labour era hasn’t gained its historiography yet. With every passing incompetent at the helm Blair’s reputation as a Prime Minister and politician is only likely to grow - while constant bleating about Iraq fades into the background.

 

Blair will forever be associated with Iraq.  His warmongering at the behest of the US will never be brushed from history.  The fact that he avoided prosecution is to this country's shame.

[John Lambies Doos]

Blair will forever be associated with Iraq.  His warmongering at the behest of the US will never be brushed from history.  The fact that he avoided prosecution is to this country's shame.

Spot on

[welshbairn]

11 hours ago, ICTJohnboy said:

He bears responsibility too for the British public’s backlash against immigration, having opened up Britain’s borders to eastern European EU countries in 2004.

This doesn't get much mention. Rightly or wrongly he stirred up the xenophobic momentum that helped bring about the Brexit referendum result, by opening up unrestricted immigration from the new member states, unlike most other countries like Germany who staggered it over up to 7 years.

[Ira Gaines]

People spectacularly missing the point of VT's posts in the context of what he was replying to. He quite rightly pointed out calling Major a titan was nonsense. Pointing out that Blair wiped the floor with him isn't defending any policies. 

Major wasn't a political titan compared to Blair. Was he a better person? Maybe. Wouldn't be hard. But that's besides the point.

[harry94]

16 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

This doesn't get much mention. Rightly or wrongly he stirred up the xenophobic momentum that helped bring about the Brexit referendum result, by opening up unrestricted immigration from the new member states, unlike most other countries like Germany who staggered it over up to 7 years.

To be fair to Blair, it's a very easy critique to make in hindsight but at the time it was seen as an astute move economically and the business lobby were very happy about the labour pool increasing. Migration levels were also just well above what every expert was projecting and most of it did come in the later period around the end of the stop.

I think the ID card debacle was probably in part to give the mechanism of imposing EU law on migrants needing to prove income and giving the government a tool to fight against potential anti-immigration sentiment (allowing them to demonstrate that migrants were providing tax income) but they botched it when they tried to throw it together with stuff about terrorism and crime fighting. You hear him talking about the ID card issue these days in this context and it has been clear that future governments just didn't have the mechanism to impose the controls that the law has provided them.

It certainly played a big part but of all the things to go after him for, I think it's fairly low down the list as the consequences were pretty unfortunate. I blame the media and Tory party for gaslighting people for decades much much more tbh.

[vikingTON]

55 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

White knighting Blair and New Labour.

The lengths that you will go to in order to get attention.

 

Former Labour councillor in being too thick to grasp what 'white knighting' means shock. 

 

43 minutes ago, strichener said:

Blair will forever be associated with Iraq.  His warmongering at the behest of the US will never be brushed from history.  The fact that he avoided prosecution is to this country's shame.

But the Iraq war will become a far less important event over time, not least given the economic and constitutional shitshow that the UK has been in since the financial crash. When political historians study this period, they will quite clearly contrast Blair's ability to win and retain power to the succession of weak, unpopular and ineffectual governments that Major kicked off and either Johnson or the mumbleclown will only continue into the next decade. 

 

[welshbairn]

The Iraq debacle would have happened with or without Blair. Bush even told him he didn't need to bother getting involved when it looked difficult to get it through Parliament. I think Blair was a bit offended.

[strichener]

3 hours ago, welshbairn said:

The Iraq debacle would have happened with or without Blair. Bush even told him he didn't need to bother getting involved when it looked difficult to get it through Parliament. I think Blair was a bit offended.

This doesn't excuse Blair, it only makes him more culpable.

[Detournement]

3 hours ago, virginton said:

 

 

But the Iraq war will become a far less important event over time,

 

Aye no one ever remembers wars

[Scary Bear]

Britain was a good place to live while Blair was in charge.

We got a Scottish Parliament out of it, child trust funds, big push on education, plenty jobs. Generally good.

Obviously there was the banking crisis, but like all good leaders, he bailed out before that and left that shambles to the hapless Brown.

[NotThePars]

Blair cemented the notion that there was no alternative. Will be class when the ice sheets collapse and we can drown him in the partially underwater Hague.

[Detournement]

Blair is just a Washington Consensus frontman.

Every single aspect of the Washington Consensus is crumbling. He will be remembered as part of that failure.

[welshbairn]

One good thing Blair did was kill off for good the idea we've got the best army in the world, by sending them undermanned and ill equipped into Basra and Helmund and getting unceremoniously whipped by the natives, forced to bail out, and be replaced by the Yanks. Hopefully we'll restrict ourselves to Sierra Leone scale humanitarian interventions from now on.

[Tibbermoresaint]

47 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

Blair cemented the notion that there was no alternative. Will be class when the ice sheets collapse and we can drown him in the partially underwater Hague.

 

44 minutes ago, Detournement said:

Blair is just a Washington Consensus frontman.

Every single aspect of the Washington Consensus is crumbling. He will be remembered as part of that failure.

[NotThePars]

Stoked to hear TBS develop this take. Hopefully it can eclipse "Putin is the direct heir to Lenin".

[HTG]

2 hours ago, Scary Bear said:

Britain was a good place to live while Blair was in charge.

We got a Scottish Parliament out of it, child trust funds, big push on education, plenty jobs. Generally good.

Obviously there was the banking crisis, but like all good leaders, he bailed out before that and left that shambles to the hapless Brown.

We got a lot of new schools and the true costs will become apparent in the next few years. There will be a lot of money needing to be found thanks to Gordon and his PFI.

[doulikefish]

Britain was a good place to live while Blair was in charge.

We got a Scottish Parliament out of it, child trust funds, big push on education, plenty jobs. Generally good.

Obviously there was the banking crisis, but like all good leaders, he bailed out before that and left that shambles to the hapless Brown.

To kill the "Snp stone dead " i believe labour were predicting for devolution [emoji6]

[Scary Bear]

We got a lot of new schools and the true costs will become apparent in the next few years. There will be a lot of money needing to be found thanks to Gordon and his PFI.

Are we at 2 Trillion in debt yet? Most of that was put on post-Blair. Government in this country at all levels spunk money, at least under Blair we got some new schools.

[Scary Bear]

To kill the "Snp stone dead " i believe labour were predicting for devolution [emoji6]

Either way we got a Parliament. Do you think the ‘no surrender’ Tories would have given us that?

[Scary Bear]

Blair's a c**t and all but national debt is normal tbh

 

Whit? Is there a typo in there or are some words missing?