Great LTTEs in the Independent UK about Tony Blair's return to the UK political scene

[marmar]

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-please-dont-let-blair-loose-again-7728977.html



So Blair is returning to British politics. Bequeathing us the folly of the Dome, the horrors of the Iraq war and the expense, inconvenience, tedium and hazards of the Olympics, surely he has done harm enough?

Peter Forster

London N4

.................


John Kampfner (4 May), while being fully entitled to his opinions about Tony Blair, cannot claim that his horrific wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which may have claimed over one million lives, represented an era of "humanitarian intervention".

The absurdity of this is apparent in the many civilian deaths and the exploitation of a sovereign nation's resources. Further, if the wretched Mr Blair was genuinely interested in human rights, he wouldn't have helped to render people to be tortured by Gaddafi, he wouldn't be an apologist for Israel's war crimes, and he would not be a PR consultant to the brutal Kazakh regime.

Lawrence Taymani

Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire

...................

So, following his brilliant success in solving the Middle East problem, Tony Blair is coming home. That's great – because what working people in this country really need right now is another privately educated, rich Tory who's hugger-mugger with a bloke called Rupert and who has a penchant for privatising public services.

Wilf Pole

Crawley Down, West Sussex

.......................................

The haunted face of Blair in the 3 May paper looked like an illustration from Crime and Punishment; appropriate enough, I thought, except when is he going to get the punishment? John Kampfner (4 May) may say that Iraq is a closed chapter in military history, but thousands of us are still watching and waiting.

Julie Harrison

Hertford

............................


If Mr Blair intends to re-engage with British politics at Westminster (report, 3 May), he should be warned that he faces citizen's arrest until the day he finally stands in the dock to face charges that, during his term of office, he breached the Geneva Conventions in relation to the war in Iraq, an illegal invasion, the consequences of which persist today, not least the fact that young women in Fallujah are now advised not to have children as a consequence of this war.

Nicholas Wood, Dr Chris Burns-Cox, Felicity Arbuthnot, Sara Chatt (on behalf of the Blair War Crimes Foundation), London NW3

[orpupilofnature57]

1. I've always respected the British

for their willingness to hold their officials Accountable.

[malaise]

3. He's still walking free

Be careful.

[orpupilofnature57]

4. I can't ,Shrub ,Dick , and Kkkarl

made being careful suspect under the ' Patriot act ' .

[malaise]

2. Delish!!

except when is he going to get the punishment?
Excellent - they will never walk in peace.

[Mutiny In Heaven]

5. Sadly, I'd take him back in a heartbeat if got rid of Cameron

Yeah, things are bad here under the iron-fist of austerity. As in America, you'll live far better under a watered down, centrist ’left wing' government than you will the alternative, unless you're remarkably wealthy, even when said administration has a brain freeze and embarks on a stupid fucking war.

If I can avoid bankruptcy and continue to feed my children, I'll have done well. Still, 13 points down in the latest polls...I still fear he'll find a way to scare people into voting for another five years of Tory rule on top of that.

[T_i_B]

6. I actually think Blair is worse then Cameron!

It was Blair more then anyone else who turned British politics into a closed clique cut off from the electorate.

[Mutiny In Heaven]

7. All I can say us that a lot of us are suffering far more now

than we EVER did under Blair thanks to Shameron's economic eugenics. I despise him almost as much as I do his little friend, Clogg.

They'd have all taken us to war the second an American President demanded (that said, it's 100% certain that Clegg would've leapt in quicker and more gleefully than the rest, given his complete lack of spine, empathy and morality), so that's not part of the equation for me, much as I still loathe Blair for it.

[orpupilofnature57]

8. I repeat , I respect Britain's capability to

assign culpability.

[Mutiny In Heaven]

9. I just don't want to appear like

I'm apologising for the man. It was simply a rumination on how bad things have gotten under the Tories.

[LeftishBrit]

12. Agree about the current government

I think Blair did pave the way to some extent for it, though. The only semi-decent Prime Minister we've had in 33 years was Gordon Brown (though he did participate in Blair's economic policies); and he was hated and vilified by the media.

I think Ed Miliband's not too bad. The problem is that everyone, including Labour, seems just to accept the fact that this government, which got in with 36% of the vote (counting only the Tory vote, as most LibDem voters were NOT voting for this!), will inevitably stay on till 2015.

[Mutiny In Heaven]

14. I'm amazed by how many people very obviously think Ed

is not PM material because he has a nasal voice & wonky face.

If said features were subtlety different, Labour would be about 20 pts up at the moment. I dread to think of how vicious the 2015 caricatures will be.

As for Gordon Brown, he seems vindicated now, doesn't he? I know, a blind man could see the double-dip coming with the economic proposals put forward by the Tories, but that covers a huge portion of the country and about 80% of the popular press.

[orpupilofnature57]

15. Our ' Presidential Timber ' is also held

hostage by the superficialities dictated by MSM (Misanthrope Sycophant Monsters ) .

[Mutiny In Heaven]

16. Oh, absolutely

It's actually one of the most worrying facets of Mitt Romney; he looks like a President seen through a Thomas Kinkade filter. That will win him more votes than it should.

I always find it interesting that appearance is barely a concern to people when they vote at a local level. Of course, all British votes are technically local, that's not on people's minds come a general election.

[T_i_B]

17. It's not so much the image for me...

....I do however have a number of other issues with Ed Miliband.

Firstly, he's a Doncaster MP and I am automatically suspicious of anyone who represents Doncaster Labour party.

Secondly, I don't know what he stands for other then getting elected, he comes across as quite opportunistic.

Thirdly, he's a typical careerist political insider, complete with priveliged background and little experience of life outside of politics.

[Mutiny In Heaven]

18. There is are elements of truth in that

Yet he still appears to posses a conscience & intellectual curiosity entirely lacking in Shameron & Dregg. He is, therefore, by far the best of the bunch at this moment in time.

[LeftishBrit]

11. I think as an individual he may be; but the difference is the people around him

I certainly disliked Blair as an individual more than I disliked John Major, and as regards Blair vs Cameron it may be about even ... BUT the difference is that Blair was surrounded by people mostly to his left, while Cameron, like Major before him, is surrounded (among his Cabinet, his MPs, his councillors, his activists, much of the media) by mostly very right-wing types. Cameron can vandalize the public services, partly sell off the NHS, trample on poor people, treat ill and disabled people as scroungers, starve education, rob the pensioners, generally follow a reverse-Robin Hood policy of robbing the poor to give to the rich, and inhibit any possibility of economic growth at the time when his country most needs it - and his colleagues and party members will at best follow him like cloned sheep, and more commonly start screaming that he isn't right-wing ENOUGH! And Nick Dregg, who I'd hoped would provide some sort of balance, is worse than useless.

I have no tolerance for Blair, whom I blame not only for Iraq but for economic policies that continued to favour financial and banking services; a failure to encourage a revival of manufacturing; continuing and often increasing the partial privatization of public services; and an exaggerated management culture - Americans on the board may try and imagine NCLB applied not only to schools but to just about everything! But Cameron's policies are worse. And I would say that the real rot set in under Thatcher.

[Mutiny In Heaven]

13. Yep...

"I have no tolerance for Blair, whom I blame not only for Iraq but for economic policies that continued to favour financial and banking services; a failure to encourage a revival of manufacturing; continuing and often increasing the partial privatization of public services; and an exaggerated management culture - Americans on the board may try and imagine NCLB applied not only to schools but to just about everything! But Cameron's policies are worse. And I would say that the real rot set in under Thatcher."

That is all true. Unfortunately, the current lot gave steroids to all of the worst aspects of Blair-ism and pulled the rug from those struggling.

Taking people under 10k out of income tax is a laughable, insulting sop when the changes to benefits and tax credits etc are factored in. My blood boils when I hear Clegg tout this as some kind of levelling of the playing field. I know that I'll have SOMETHING to comfort me at the next election, because whoever wins, the Lib Dems are getting decimated.

I hope they fold entirely and are replaced by a party which positions itself to the left not only on social issues, but economically too. We could do with one of them.

[LeftishBrit]

10. I don't think Blair has a hope in hell of getting any serious political influence here

But I wish he wasn't coming back at all.