Tired of people lambasting Tony

[redrobbo 10]

I thought you were referring to the Forum's very own 'Tony' until I read it.

 

Sorry

 

Me too!

[Tony 10]

WhadidIdorong?

 

 

[Fareast 10]

I think the media and the public in general differentiate[sp.?] between the actions of a Prime Minister and that of the government. If a P.M. chooses to be leading in a presidential manner, the more personal flak there is going to be if things go haywire.If the P.M. is seen as merely the most important member of a team, then the criticism will be more spread out.

 

Blair constantly talks about " my "- this and " I "- that and has kept a very high personal profile since 1997.It pays off if you're temporarily popular but if you fall flat on your face, the blunders hit the fan. Perhaps none of the New Labour team realised this well-known political fact ?

 

I don't think that Attlee suffered the same fate, nor Churchill. Macmillan went pretty quietly, as did Home.Wilson resigned unexpectadly before the critics could get their act together, if they had one, that is.Callaghan was seen as weak and most of the anti-Left bitterness was directed at the Unions.Heath never commanded much respect or adulation and conversely, personal criticism of him was low-key.

 

Similarly with Major ; how can people get worked up against a grey shadow ?

 

The only two P.M's to suffer a lot of similar personal hatred were Eden and Thatcher. Ironically, Eden for his foreign policy mainly, and Thatcher for her domestic policies largely. Now, Blair is getting his share for Iraq.........etc.....AND the many things which seem to be going down the drain domestically.

 

As Powell said, every political career ends in [a sort of ] failure ; it's just that some just fail and others fail bitterly. No-one can say the public didn't give Blair a chance . He is the [vain] author of his own destruction, in my opinion.

[JoeP 11]

Blair came in to power on the back of a 'we're not bent like the Tories' and 'we're going to do things differently' ticket.

 

They listed all the things wrong and told us 'Trust us, we can fix it'.

 

Unfortunately, he didn't know himself well enough to know how we would react in power, and the repeated efforts of his Government (in the first 5 or 6 years) to be all things to all people failed.

 

He's adopted a Presidential style and ultimately that means that the buck will stop at his desk - this is where self knowldge would ome in handy. I think Blair had great potential; I think he's genuinely meant well, and I think that essentially he's a decent man who's been led off course by events and a view of his own importance in the world.

 

And despite his efforts, he's never really led the country; for a long time he governed by public support and took policy decisions by effectively doing what he felt the public wanted. That is NOT necessarily good leadership. The Iraq War was where he actually LED the country - unfortunately it was such a change of approach that it went down like a lead balloon.

 

The New Labour machine relied on public good-naturedness about ditching the Tories and the support of their media buddies to cover up their screw ups and weaknesses. Unfortunately, they kept relying on this for too long. Once you've been in power for several years you're expected to have delivered, especially with Blair's rhetoric.

 

If you talk the talk, walk the walk. If you don't, you're dead.

[LordChaverly 10]

Blair's career is a salutary example of the danger of hubris in politics. To put it another way, power soon sent to his head and for years he has been in the grip of delusions of grandeur concerning his role in the world. He soon got bored with domestic politics, which was a stage too small for his preening ego, and rapidly developing megalomania. This would have been quite funny (indeed it is quite funny) had the consequences not been so serious. Egotism combined with a complete lack of judgement in international affairs do not provide a sound basis for either a sensible or an ethical foreign policy. Blair's misjudgements and megalomania have played no small role in the disaster in Iraq, with its huge and mounting death toll, including 100 British soldiers (all unnecessary deaths, because they should never have been sent to iraq in the first place).

 

Blair has not been lambasted enough. When he leaves office, he will of course head straight for the lecture circuit in the US, where he will earn millions to enable him to buy even more houses and where he will be able to indulge himself in an orgy of self-justification before receptive audiences of Republicans and neo-cons who are labouring under the delusion that he is a true friend of America. He is not. He is animated only by the voracious demands of his own ego. All the rest is spin and self-serving delusion

[D2J 10]

WhadidIdorong?

 

 

 

Nothing

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yet!

[LordChaverly 10]

Blair's career is a salutary example of the danger of hubris in politics. To put it another way, power soon sent to his head and for years he has been in the grip of delusions of grandeur concerning his role in the world. He soon got bored with domestic politics, which was a stage too small for his preening ego and rapidly developing megalomania. This would have been quite funny (indeed it is quite funny) had the consequences not been so serious. Egotism combined with a complete lack of judgement in international affairs do not provide a sound basis for either a sensible or ethical foreign policy. Blair's misjudgements and megalomania have played no small role in the disaster in Iraq, with its huge and mounting death toll, including 100 British soldiers (all unnecessary deaths, because they should never have been sent to iraq in the first place).

 

Blair has not been lambasted enough. When he leaves office, he will of course head straight for the lecture circuit in the US, where he will earn millions to enable him to buy even more houses and where he will be able to indulge himself in an orgy of self-justification before receptive audiences of Republicans and neo-cons who are labouring under the delusion that he is a true friend of America. He is not. He is animated only only the voracious demands of his own ego. All the rest is spin and self-serving delusion

[LordChaverly 10]

WhadidIdorong?

 

 

 

You are the exception that proves the rule, i.e. the one half-decent cove in an unprepossessing bunch of other Tonys, e.g. Tony Blair, Tony Benn, Tony Curtis, Tony Montana, Tony Soprano, Tony Christie, Tony Iommi etc. Indeed, arguably the name 'Tony' is equivalent to the mark of Cain, rather like having 666, the sign of the beast, tattooed on one's brow. The more I think about it, collective Tonyness is probably responsible for most of the evils in the world today.

[Greybeard 10]

is anyone else sick to death of this?

 

Most people just seem to be sick to death of Tony Blair.

[AtticusFinch 10]

Stick a fork in Blair because he's done!

 

I don't buy the theory that he's an honest man who did what he thought was right and turned out to be mistaken. I think he's essentially an actor; an arrogant photogenic charlatan without a conscience who can recite any old rubbish and convince people. It's a warning against the cult of personality in politics. I'd much rather have a dull and sensible PM than another Blair.

[Zamo 10]

No, I'm not sick of him being lambasted.

 

If we'd found an arsenal of WMD's pointing this way when we went into Iraq, then he'd have gladly bathed in the glory as our saviour. But we didn't.

 

He took us to war because he was blinded by the vision of himself bathing in the glory as our saviour. His judgement was impared by vanity and as a result half a million people have lost their lives in Iraq, over a hundred of our own troops have been killed, £10's of billions in tax payers money will have been wasted and Iraq is in civil war. Not only that, but this "war on terror" has actually swelled the ranks of Muslim extremists around the world and made the threat much, much worse.

 

Is it possible to get a decision more wrong? What does the man need to do in order to get the sack?!? Labasting is the least he deserves.

[NEKRO138 10]

Lambast is a fantastic word. I congratulate you for the use of it.