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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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.