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Tony Blair’s Evening Standard Interview – the highlights

June 27, 2012 10:44 am

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Tony Blair is guest editing the Evening Standard today, to mark the five year anniversary of him stepping down as PM. As part of that, he’s been interviewed by the paper’s editor Sarah Sands. Here are some of the stand out quotes from that interview.

On his departure five years ago:

“It was very strange because I had been preparing to go ever since I was forced out because of the events of the previous September, so in one way I didn’t want to go but I felt that I had to. The only choice would have been to have fought a very bloody battle internally which I thought would damage the country as well as the party.”

On Labour in government post-Blair:

“The problem for the Labour party was that it couldn’t make up its mind whether to stay New Labour or not, so it didn’t really and then in my view defeat was inevitable after that.”

On Ed Miliband’s leadership:

“Ed Miliband has made a conscious decision that he is going to keep the Labour party in the centre, and that is sensible.”

On the role of Prime Minister:

“The problem with being prime minister is that you have to deal with everything that comes across your desk. I spent six months dealing with foot and mouth disease. It wasn’t a motivating life purpose, it just had to be done.”

AlanGiles

“Tony Blair is guest editing the Evening Standard today, to mark the five year anniversary of him stepping down as PM. ”

Why for Christ’s sake?

Has he had any experience of editing a newspaper?

Given his love of showbiz perhaps “Hello” should have taken him on.

Why is this raddled old has-been allowed to boost his ego (and no doubt his bank balance) with these grandiose gestures?

What a good job the Standard is free these days (it’s last cover price was 50p) I wouldn’t even want it as a free sheet.
http://twitter.com/robertsjonathan Jonathan Roberts

Interesting stuff.

Being from farming stock, I know that the foot and mouth debacle was a huge stain on the Labour Government – appalling mismanagement that led to a huge rise in farmer suicides.

Good to hear Ed plans to keep us in the centre-ground though.
- Janet Green
  
  I think the facts show that it was ‘farming stock’ to blame, and the rest of us paid the bill.
  - http://twitter.com/robertsjonathan Jonathan Roberts
    
    I think the facts, as determined by Government and independent inquiries showed a number of issues that were far more complex than you describe.
    
    One farmer was found, rightly, to be criminally negligent of not reporting symptoms. That does not mean ‘farming stock’ were to blame for the spreading of the disease.
    
    The facts were determined not by you, but by the official inquiry. This slammed the Government’s response, saying that the contingency and emergency response plan was wholly inadequate, it also said that few if any of the lessons learned from the 1967 outbreak had been implemented especially on the deployment of the army, which the Government didn’t want to do close to an election despite it being standard practice abroad, and a fundamental recommendation following the 1967 outbreak. It found that the State Veterinary Service was wildly unsupported, and that local veterinary expertise was not utilised nearly enough to help prevent the spread and save lives of animals on farms in danger. It also highlighted the lack of preparation as there was little vaccine available, despite warnings of a short supply. This lack of vaccines resulted in mass culling and the slaughter of 7,000,000 animals – many of whom were entirely healthy.
    
    This was all in the inquiry reports, which judging by your comments you haven’t read.
    
    But then, farmers don’t vote Labour so their lives and livelihoods aren’t as important as Labour voting ‘ordinary people’ are they?
    - http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray
      
      Well, they didn’t vote for you, did they?
      - http://twitter.com/robertsjonathan Jonathan Roberts
        
        what a pathetic thing to say Mike. I don’t see that you’re trying to make any particular point other than a snide remark, which sums up most of your contributions on this site. You really are a hateful man.
        
        I support decent people whether they voted for me or not. There were big concerns over our handling of this crisis, and countless livelihoods of ordinary people were destroyed – clearly you don’t care about them simply because they don’t vote Labour, which calls your whole integrity into question.
  - Bill Lockhart
    
    You are living proof that ignorant bigotry is not confined to any particular political outlook.
    - http://twitter.com/robertsjonathan Jonathan Roberts
      
      quite
- derek
  
  K? stick to the middle ground and incite more suicides? Deary me Jonathan. It seems to me that only the filthy rich cling to the middle ground.
  - http://twitter.com/robertsjonathan Jonathan Roberts
    
    eh?
    - derek
      
      It seems your advocating the policies that have a negative effect on the poorest.
      
      Wasn’t there a second outbreak of foot and mouth in 2007 and didn’t this outbreak occur from a DEFRA sponsored testing base.
      - http://twitter.com/robertsjonathan Jonathan Roberts
        
        the response to the 2001 outbreak had nothing to do with the centre ground, and everything to do with being ill-prepared and a slow response, as set out in the inquiry reports.
        
        In this, I’m advocating policies that protect the farming community, 24% of whom live in poverty and many of whom rely on being able to rear their livestock to put food on the table.
      - derek
        
        Seems to be the story of the middle ground for the last 40 years or so, completely ill-prepared! from closing the mines, shipyards and steelworks without anything to fill the gap, to being unprepared for the crash of the ERM, to the world wide banking recession.
        What would have Atlee and Harold thought of such ill-prepared power-ravaged politicians.
- treborc
  
  That’s new labour for you, perhaps they were worried over Iraq
treborc

I was forced out, nope you were not you had the backing of all the New labour MP’s mate, you went so you could get to America so your mate the other new labour type Tory could give you what ever he had promised.

As leader of labour you could have sacked Brown at any time, the problem of course was the deal you did with Brown, again deals behind closed doors which new labour loved so much.

Gordon come in have a whiskey, look we do not get on, your fired mate, now get your mob to back you and lets have a real leadership contest, OK lets go to the country let them sort it out.

I will have to pop over to America thought to get my medal of Honor, excuse me.
- Dan Filson
  
  He got out just in time for the world financial crisis not to appear as having happened on his watch so that by comparison Gordon Brown did not appear so well (likewise his predecessor John Major).
Dan Filson

The Prime Minister dealt with the foot and mouth disease crisis. Really? Talk about claiming credit for others’ actions!
- http://twitter.com/robertsjonathan Jonathan Roberts
  
  not a lot of credit to be taken over that affair I’m afraid. It’s more like ‘taking the blame’.
http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone

The odd thing about keeping Labour in the centre ground is that movement occurs even though terminology can remain constant: the centre ground is shifting:

http://www.compassonline.org.uk/news/item.asp?n=15486
- Dave Postles
  
  ’Centre ground’ is a bloody quagmire. Even if political opinion conformed to a ‘normal’ distribution (what some people here have called ‘a bell-curve’, for some indecipherable reason), then the centre ground occupies no more than a third of the electorate. You might as well be left of centre and hope to pick up votes from the centre. Those on the right of centre are more likely to oppose any centralist policy, IMHO. Besides, who seriously believes that political opinion can be conceived as a ‘normal’ distribution? With the smell of bad fish in current politics, it might as well be a Poisson distribution.
  - http://twitter.com/mistyblulabour dave stone
    
    The more I think about it the more it seems “the centre ground” is a fantasy category used by those in the Westminster bubble to disguise their detachment from the world most of us inhabit.
    
    In my local pub – a proper community pub where, because of the locale, you’re more likely to encounter a farmer or company director than an industrial worker the predominant view is that Blair is war criminal who betrayed the armed forces, that politicians are swindlers and that Bankers have ripped us off disgracefully without as much as a whimper from the politicians who are supposed to look after our interests – all views broadly shared by many of the activists in the Occupy movement.
    
    Yes, the centre ground is a funny old thing.
- Amber Star
  
  Yes, Tony didn’t mention that Ed M believes that the center ground has moved to the left since Tony’s day.
carolekins

Defeat was inevitable after the divisive and contentious decision to invade Iraq. Recent revelations show just how devious the whole process was, as well.
- John Ruddy
  
  Except, of course, Labour won a general election AFTER the invasion of Iraq.
  
  Iraq played no part in 2010.
  - AlanGiles
    
    Well yes it was a win in 2005 but the majority was halved, so there i definately some evidence it had a strong effect.
    - James
      
      The other half-majority that Labour managed to retain was probably down to Michael Howard being the Conservative leader (aspirant Prime Minister) at the time, an even less palatable choice to the electorate than the, by then, discredited warmonger Tony Blair.
Politique

Standby for another bloody battle.
Daniel Speight

Strange that in his interview Blair lays the blame for the 2010 defeat on the actions Brown took after the 2008 financial crisis.

Of course it would be silly to think that Blair would ever accept any responsibility because he is just not that sort of person. Just the other day he was on Marr’s program saying that Brown was never wrong on economics, so I wonder what his answer to the banking crisis would have been.

Now, myself, I would lay blame on the crisis on successive governments that gave in to the City and allowed deregulation of the financial industry. Britain led the way on this, even being ahead of the Americans.

We all know it goes back to the 1986 Big Bang under Thatcher, so Thatcher, Major, Blair and Brown are all guilty and owe the British public all the money they now have or will ever have as that will still not be enough to pay back the cost of the damage done. That should help reduce the deficit!

Now there’s a thought. Which of those four ex-prime ministers is the richest? I think Brown is gimme for the poorest. Major has an awful lot of City directorships while Thatcher had a rich husband and rich friends, but how much have Tony and Cherie squirreled away. If the riches were judged on property we would likely have to say Blair.
- johnp Reid
  
  Blair was also Labour leader for 13 years2 months so he probably earnt lot’s of money, regarding Blair not taking blame for laobur leading During his 10 year premiership he was Ahead in the opinion polls all of the first 8 years 8months (apart for 2 days during the fuel protest and then that was by one percent) then new year 2006 When Cameron become leader ,Cameron took ahead in the polls for A week, then Blair was Ahead in the polls New year 2006 till April 26, 2006, When the Cash for peerages, Foreign prisoners beign released and the Prescott affair resulted the toires going ahead by AS couple of points and this followed for the next year, Labour went form 22% ot 29 % in the months before the generalelection ,so being a couple of points behind in the polls for the last year of his premiership ,isn’t A sign of Blair biegn responsible for Labour losing in 2010,
  - Daniel Speight
    
    John in your strange world does Blair bear any responsibility for the 2008 financial crisis?
    
    What do you think Blair’s actions would have been in 2008 as opposed to those Brown took?
    - Brumanuensis
      
      I suspect Blair would have done exactly the same as Brown, but he would have explained it better. Blair may be many things, but he’s not stupid and he would have grasped the need for action, much as Brown did.
      - Daniel Speight
        
        And I suspect you are right. Through their own fault admittedly, they were confronted by a gross failure in the under-regulated financial industry. Seems to me there were three choices.
        
        1/ Let the banks go under, nationalize what was left and start again.
        
        2/ Bail out the banks, look for international cooperation and try and to stimulate the economy away from a possible depression, which is what Brown did.
        
        3/ Do nothing and look like a deer caught in the headlights, which is where we seem to be now.
        
        Although I have a soft spot for answer 1, it is a year zero option. Blair could have taken option 3 which for a time Bush looked like taking, but I also think he would have got on the plane and made the same trips that Brown did.
  - AlanGiles
    
    The fact of the matter is Blair in many peoples minds – not just non Labour voters, but labour voters as well will forever be associated with dodgy dossiers, financial impropriety and Iraq.
    
    You might think he is wonderful, I think you would be in a minority
A_j_marsden

the problem for the labour party was (and is) tony (god speaks through me ) blair, gordon (prudence through pfi ) brown, and the self-seeking mps who did (and do )not have the guts to stand for anything whicg may not help their own interests.
see parliamentary diaries over the blair / brown era.
the old gang are still there (jowell, harman, millibrand etc ad nauseam), and until there is a cull of them the party will not have a real future.
incidentally, most of the effective oppositiin to government / coalition policies has come from the upperr chamber.
a marsdenn
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

I wish Prime Ministers would retire gracefully

Blair is starting to sound a bit like a less bitter version of Ted Heath

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