Tony Blair

Barefaced lies? I think he was just acting on the intelligence provided to him at the time wasn't he?

I'm sure if he told what he knew to be barefaced lies that got British service personnel killed then he'd definitely be in prison. But he didn't, so he's not. I think the wording the Chilcot report used was the war was fought on the basis of flawed intelligence.

I've made mistakes in my job based on sh it data I was provided, it's not me that gets hauled over the coals though, it's the dunce that fed me garbage info.

 

1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s. 2. Low mortgage rates.
3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.52.
4. Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales.
5. Cut overall crime by 32 per cent.
6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools.
7. Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18.
8. Funding for every pupil in England has doubled.
9. Employment is at its highest level ever.
10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries.
11. 85,000 more nurses.
12. 32,000 more doctors.
13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards.
14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament.
15. Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly.
16. Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time.
17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice.
18. Gift aid was worth £828 million to charities last year.
19. Restored city-wide government to London.
20. Record number of students in higher education.
21. Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997.
22. Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.
23. Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
24. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to £300 for over-80s.
25. On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
26. Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland.
27. Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.
28. All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday.
29. A million pensioners lifted out of poverty.
30. 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty.
31. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents.
32. Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships.
33. Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard.
34. Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997.
35. Banned fox hunting.
36. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.
37. Free TV licences for over-75s.
38. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals.
39. Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70.
40. Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s.
41. New Deal - helped over 1.8 million people into work.
42. Over 3 million child trust funds have been started.
43. Free eye test for over 60s.
44. More than doubled the number of apprenticeships.
45. Free entry to national museums and galleries.
46. Overseas aid budget more than doubled.
47. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000.
48. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent.
49. Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.
50. Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.

 

What did new labour ever do for us

 

Really, you can’t even think of the sustained bias pressure of the press and media campaign by Tory Billionaire press Barons, and not forgetting the gullible British Public?

 

Lest we forget, Blair's first term of office, where much of this was delivered, ran at a budget surplus.

Although I don't buy into the Lib Dems manifesto notion of a permanent state of surplus, it puts into perspective the notion that the nation can't afford high public spending. It's just that we choose not to.

The problem with a permanent surplus is that when cyclical economic recession occurs, tax revenues drop and it leaves no option other than spending cuts to balance the books. As the Tories proved, that brings you a deeper, double dip recession that you eventually have to borrow your way out of.

Nevertheless, only 2 parliamentary terms of office in the last 100 years have generated a surplus and that surely can't be right either.

 

Ok it wasn’t proved he lied, just like it’s not proven Johnson lies and it’s not proven that Stendle gottw@tted after the game with Fleetwood. A reminder on Chilcot:
The report – described by BBC News as "damning",[38] by The Guardian as a "crushing verdict",[5] and by The Telegraph as "scathing"[6] – was broadly critical of the actions of the British government and military in making the case for the war, in tactics and in planning for the aftermath of the Iraq War.[5][6][39] Richard Norton-Taylor of The Guardian wrote that the report "could hardly be more damning" of Tony Blair and "was an unprecedented, devastating indictment of how a prime minister was allowed to make decisions by discarding all pretence at cabinet government, subverting the intelligence agencies, and making exaggerated claims about threats to Britain's national security".

 

I would imagine Cornyn would decline it anyway!

 

Running a permanent budget surplus is a bit pointless when truth be told all money is just debt anyway so your just running a surplus of debt . The idea is to use money to expand your economy or " liquidity " to grease the wheels of industry to produce more goods and services to take to market . It's why austerity never worked because your removing money from markets which in turn shrinks your economy , reduces tax take and expands national deficits .

 

I think it has been proved several times that Johnson is a liar, in every position he's held he's been caught out.

Blair hasn't. Ever. Because largely he's a decent bloke.

 

Illegally invading a country on a lie whilst going on to kill tens of thousands of people, destroy the infrastructure of a country and spread terrorism round the world is worthy of a knighthood.

Still he'd be better than Boris, so....yeah. F.ucking brown people huh?

 

LOL.

 

100%. The whole thing is obscene. I think he once said that history would judge him, and for once I fully agree.

 

Remind him that Iraq is not forgotten
https://www.change.org/p/the-prime-...-the-most-noble-order-of-the-garter-rescinded

 

Jimmy Saville?

 

who happened to be responsible for the deaths of millions of Iraqis and displacement of millions fighting an illegal war based on information that many knew was at the time or would have done if they had checked. But hey they are people of colour so who cares. As Desmond Tutu said Blair should be at The Hague facing a war crimes tribunal.

 

So Blair is now racist as well as a warmonger? Ok.

 

Please no

 

No but anyone ignoring the deaths of millions of people of colour because we got Sure Start Centres is however unconsciously.

Flip it. If the war in Iraq had say been a war in Holland and the dead were in the vast majority white do you think anyone would be defending him?

I worked in a minor capacity for New Labour prior to Iraq the legitimacy of the evidence was very much in question. I resigned my job for that and other reasons and wouldn’t vote for them because of their actions. If lowly people and I was near the bottom of the bottom of the ladder knew about the issues with the basis for war I’m pretty sure those further up were only too aware.

And all that’s touching the surface. The mysterious death of David Kelly is a whole other dirty chapter with corruption at its heart.

 

Sorry, are you saying I'm unconsciously racist?

 

I wouldn’t comment on any individual.