Serious question for British posters

I remember watching some of the campaigning when Tony Blair was re-branding the Labor Party, and then watching some of the PM Questions when he first became PM. He seemed to have broad-based appeal and support. And now, at least from most of the posts here, he is treated like a pariah. Help me understand the complete turn around. Is it just a case of the honeymoon wore off? A break from Thatcherism was welcomed regardless of whom it was? Is it because he sold his integrity to Bush & Cheney? Or is it his support of the EU? All of the above? I can't think of a comparable swing from hero to zero in American presidents since Jimmy Carter, but then he has repaired his reputation in his post-presidency activities while Blair seems to only dig himself a deeper hole.

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Wiseacre · F

Blair will always have the connection w Bush's "Iraq's weapons of mass destruction" bullshit..

OldBrit · 61-69, M

It was the whole weapons of mass destruction thing largely. He backed the Bush assertion that there was clear evidence they were there to justify the invasion. So we invaded, just look at the ramifications from that ISIS etc etc, and there was... Nothing.

So he looked a complete liar, and just Bush's lapdog. Couple with like Thatcher before him as a long serving PM with a big majority he considered himself untouchable and started to act like a president not a PM. In the UK there is no executive as such, Parliament is sovereign and monarch head of state thus limiting pm powers. He started to behave as though that didn't apply.

helenS · 36-40, F

@OldBrit And Mr. Blair is still convinced the war was justified. I was still a girl but I clearly remember how people in my neigborhood were flabbergasted when they realized the UK would support something that was clearly a war of aggression.
In fact those things cast a shadow even on current events. Russia wages a war of aggression against an independent country and its population, and the UK sides with the victim, but when the US did the same [aggression against a foreign country], the British government sided with the aggressor, and even sent their own troops. 🙁

thewindupbirdchronicles · 46-50, M

@helenS Isn't all act of aggression by state a little tyrannical, no matter? I liked Canada stayed out from that war, but I know damn well the government armed and supported, just didn't put troops on the ground.

helenS · 36-40, F

Is it because he sold his integrity to Bush & Cheney?

I'm not British but I think that's the main reason why. He completely ruined his reputation by playing GWBush's poodle, and supporting a war of aggression with hundreds of thousands of victims.

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bookerdana · M

@dancingtongue Who says we don't??

dancingtongue · 80-89, M

@bookerdana The amount of BS still being strewn around justifying that war and the esteem that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are still held in some quarters when all three should have been tried for war crimes.

bookerdana · M

@dancingtongue squeaky wheel effect

SW-User

I was very young then but I think the majority of labour supporters had hoped for was really a more distinct socialist government after so many years under Thatcher and what they got was the war in Iraq and the "weapons of mass destruction" scandal.

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

He enjoyed very broad popular support and his government successfully negotiated the Northern Ireland peace settlement (that the current administration seems intent on dismantling). The Labour government oversaw an important period of modernisation and social liberalism that was a breath of fresh air in the UK. His early popularity and success led to an unfortunate sense of messianic invulnerability and eventually hubris. The left of his own party will never forgive his alliance with George W. It is worth remembering that a lot of the popular opposition to intervention in Iraq came after the event when the situation became increasingly hopeless.

LizOwen · 41-45, F

It was the Iraq war that finished Blair. We've had too many wars and that one has made things worse for the Iraquis

SW-User

He should be in prison for war crimes
WOMD? Where?
Invaded a country and caused all the terrorism we now suffer

SW-User

He backed the illegal invasion of Iraq and all that shit, and still tries to justify it. Lots of people died and he's not sorry.

In a nutshell.

Wiseacre · F

@SW-User not sorry? Is he a psychopath?

SW-User

@Wiseacre Yeah, why not. 🤷

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