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Daily Politics asks “Tony Blair – good or bad?”

May 2, 2012 10:59 am

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  5. The Daily Politics debate
  • Bill Lockhart

    Oh, I know this one…it’s on the tip of my tongue…give me a minute….

    • toni

      New deal, SureStarts, winter payments to OAP’s, scrapped section 28 and introduced civil partnerships, record numbers of police officers, teachers, doctors, nurses, disability rights commission, brought 1 million social homes up to standard, free nursery places for 3/4 year olds…..

      • treborc1

        Good god.

        Winter fuel payments were  given because labour messed up with pension rises it was not a gift it was done to keep people on side or have you forgot the 75p rise in pensions and benefits.

        record number of Police officers, yes CSO who are cheaper because Blair could not accept he should have  given Police officer a pay rise, he lost the battle and then brought in CSO’s.

        yes he did up a Million social homes and then sold them all off without replacing them with social council house building.

  • AlanGiles

    The typical curates egg; Good in parts.

    Good: the minimum wage, the fox-hunting ban (though that ironically was his one regret!)

    Bad: Cronyism, deceit, avarice,  Mandelson, Campbell, vanity……Afghanistan and Iraq

    Marks out of 10: 2

    • http://twitter.com/robertsjonathan Jonathan Roberts

      Quick out of the blocks!

    • aracataca

      Bringing peace to Northern Ireland. Tax credits. NHS rebuilding (and proper funding). Civil partnerships.EMA. Scottish and Welsh devolution. Getting rid of hereditary Lords.Establishment of GLA and Mayor of London post. Years of prosperity.
      Investment in education. Smartboards in every classroom. ….I could go on.
      However, time now to rebuild the party now and move on.

      • treborc1

         £3.20 an hour……god help us all

      • Slakah

        Smartboards in every classroom is not a plus, however he did manage to stop many of those leaky roofs of which I would imagine would be quite distracting in a classroom. The minimum wage was probably his crowning achievement though, increasing the wages of not only those for the poorest but for everyone generally.

        • GuyM

          If you understood the worst problem the UK faces i.e. a future skills shortage, expecially in technology, you’d not knock things like smart boards.

          • Alexwilliamz

            The recalibration is a pain in the arse after every time you knock them.

          • Slakah

            Kids nicking the pens is also another fantastic time waster.

          • MonkeyBot5000

            If you understood anything about education, you wouldn’t be so impressed with smart boards. They’re harder for people to read than blackboards and don’t do anything for the technology skills shortage.

            You might as well dump a cadaver in the classroom and say that it will improve the quality of the NHS.

    • aracataca

      Iraq was a mistake but Afghanistan? 

      • treborc1

        Come on then tell us about Afghanistan

  • GuyM

    I’m looking forward immensely to lots and lots of bitter old lefties from LL telling us all that Labour’s most successful leader electorally was in fact a traitor, a closet Tory, scum, a disaster and a disgrace to “socialism”.

    Grab the popcorn, sit back and enjoy…….

    • James

      Blair was nominally the Labour Party’s most elected leader NOT it’s most successful leader. The two are not synonymous.

      • Jocelyn

        Agreed. Clement Attlee was Labour’s most successful leader.

        • GuyM

          Subjective, I’d say Blair was far and away the most successful.

          But who cares, let the flames… ooops games begin.

          • BillLockheart

            I love it when you bitch, Guy. Scratch ‘er eyes out!

  • carolekins

    Aracataca and toni – you’re right, plus he won 3 elections, but my old Labour instincts made me quit the party in 2001.

    • AlanGiles

      And of course Harold Wilson won three elections long before him, and actually prevented us from entering an unwinnable war. God help us if Blair had been PM in 1968.

      • treborc1

        Say what you like for all that Wilson may have done or not done, this will be one of his greatest legacies.

  • Liberanos

    Some people will never forgive Tony Blair for rescuing the Labour Party from itself.

    • treborc1

       Then why did he leave if he was such a hero

      • ThePurpleBooker

        He’s a Labour Party member you idiot!

        • Laurence

          Debatable.

          • treborc1

             I’m not Labour, I left

        • treborc1

           well OK at lest I have my own mind I do not go around with my tongue touching Blair’s backside

    • Alexwilliamz

      Most of the spade work had been donw. Right time, right place. To be fair 1.5 terms good failed to follow through to fulfil the potential after that. of course the Iraq war pretty much killed off any real leagcy. However looking back to how the country was before we were in power and how it was after there are many many improvements, which we all take for granted.

      • treborc1

         To a point you may be right, but looking at the country after labour, Jesus the biggest bust in living history

    • Laurence

      Any Labour leader would have won in 1997 and against the three subsequent Tory no-hopers William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard. Only the thought of another five years of Gordon Brown persuaded the electorate to give David Cameron a go and even he, a Tony Blair lookie-likey, couldn’t convince the British people to give him a majority. Blair was lucky. Cameron looks set not to be.

    • treborc1

      Better ask him back them because I’ve seen this before and it will need another Tony to save it

  • Dave Postles

    Oh well, since we’re playing the game, here goes: ‘The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly Rumours’ – allegedly reforming for their final, final farewell tour, with Geoff ‘Buff’ Hoon on bass, Peter ‘Lord’ Mandelson on drums and other percussion, Pat ‘Slick’ Hewitt on backing vocals and tambourine, and Mr Tony himself on vocals and lead guitar.  The first gig will be in Kuwait City.

  • Laurence

    Tony Blair was a good actor. That’s it.

  • Dave Postles
    • treborc1

      Are you suprised

    • treborc1

      Are you suprised

    • AlanGiles

      If he has any sense he will be content with his memories of the used to be. Like heavyweight boxers they never come back, and, anyway, having been fooled once, the public won’t be fooled again. According to todays Independent, his dear friend Mandy is also planning a return – to speak up for the Euro. I’m sure that will go down very well.

  • John P Reid

    Iain Duncan smith never even had A go, Yes the tories were tired by 97, but they were by ’92 and John Major (the first person Blair beat ,won in 1992 with the biggest vote ever). Hague wasn’t very convinceing but he was running his party ,not Like Brown or Major who were having coups agisnt them all the time, Howard ,was the One perosn that Labour was scared of,his carrer  was finished when Widdecombe humiliated him, the tories still had people voting for them through the publics fear of labour from the 80′s, something that didn’t help Cameron

    • AlanGiles

      The fact that in his final Conference speech, two weeks before they had the sense to boot him out, stage managers were organising “spontaneous” standing ovations and applause after every sentence of his speech, just showed the complete inanity and uselessness of Duncan-Smith.

      If you ever get the chance to see the recording, take a look – it was as spontaneous as a public display of affection for the North Korean leader.

      His final peroration “The quiet man is ba – but he is turning up the volume” alas was as bogus as the rest of his claptrap – two weeks later his batteries ran out.

      He has his fans though – he was on Radio 4s Any Questions last Friday (April 27th) and on BBC1s Question Time last Night (3rd May). For a man with so little to say the BBC are keen for him to say it often

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