is tony blair evil?

[kinkajou2]

or an elaborate conman?
Judging by Peter Oborne"s - The Wonderful World of Tony Blair last night
I"d say both!

[rov1100]

Well according to that program last night he was using his position as peace envoy to get contracts for a company he was employed by. Playing this double game has increased his personal fortune to a massive £60m. Not bad when the UK is donating a lot of his expenses.

[ladybirder]

And of course Labourites change their mind and admit they are wrong all the time. Like hell.

[emmie]

LB, just like everyone else, politics is a dirty business, suggest if you haven't seen it yet, have a laugh, and watch "In the Thick of It, or better still
the film In the Loop, it tells you more how policians really work, than any hatchet job documentary, or dull as paint party conference.

[ichkeria]

em10 thank you for your long quote re the 1993 Downing St. declaration, but I am not sure what it proves or disproves vis-a-vis the evil or otherwise of TB :-)

[ladybirder]

I'm a big fan of The Thick of It em and I'll look out for the film thanks.

[emmie]

I didn't say he was evil, i made reference before to the fact that Blair gets credited with a lot of things he shouldn't. One of them was the Peace Accord, which was brokered by others.

[emmie]

LB, if you are easily offended by lots of swearing don't watch, but it's a gem of a film with the truly foul mouthed but hilarious Peter Capaldi, and a lovely turn by Tom Hollander.

[ichkeria]

"
I didn't say he was evil, i made reference before to the fact that Blair gets credited with a lot of things he shouldn't. One of them was the Peace Accord, which was brokered by others. "

He gets credit for helping the Good Friday Agreement through to a conclusion, no mean achievement. Of course no one claims that Tony Blair was the architect of the entire process - other politicians after all won Nobel Peace Prizes for their various efforts - and if course others were also instrumental in piecing together the final bits, but the fact it it WAS one of his main achievements.

[Quizmonster]

Peter Oborne is always referred to as Peter O’Bore by Private Eye and there was nothing in the programme to make that a misnomer. It was his usual farrago of boring nonsense and non-sequiturs.
An example of the former was his presentation of Blair as a consultant for the US bank, J P Morgan, claiming that – as such – he must have known about EVERY aspect of that company’s business. I’m sure that J P Morgan, like any business, give information to their employees on a need-to-know basis.
An example of the latter was the point that Blair does not adhere to the rules laid down for British parliamentarians and public servants, failing utterly to remind his audience that Blair is neither of these.
With his long-term Mail, Telegraph and Spectator connections, O’Bore is a dyed-in-the-wool Tory who has been a one-man anti-Labour “industry” for years, so his ideas all need to be taken with a huge dose of salt.
I wonder if he knows that, from 1992, Thatcher was paid half a million bucks a year as a “geopolitical expert” by Philip Morris, the America tobacco giant? That’s equivalent to around half a million quid in today’s money. She also got $50,000 per speech. Surely he will come up with a balancing programme to let us all know about these facts.
No…you don’t think so?
Too many of the British simply swallow the brain-dead pap spewed out by our right-wing gutter press and its minions.

[ludwig]

// I don't think people on this thread are in the least interested in evaluating evidence or making a fair evaluation.

They fell victim to the Tory propaganda years ago and changing their minds would be admitting that they were wrong. //

I'm sorry jake but for you to say that just made me wet myself laughing - I mean you're so objective yourself right?

I voted for Blair, but lost any confidence in the man when we went into Iraq. It wasn't an act of evil though, just a stupid, dishonest, and costly mistake.
People seem to hate him now mainly because he's rich - as long as he pays his taxes what's the problem?

[DTCwordfan]

Like the Thatch, they become demagogic towards the end of their second term - this has now turned to unadulterated greed and he is prepared to compromise the three axes of his foundation, private wealth accumulation viz christianity/evangelism and ethics viz his peace envoys role.

I agree with bill's comments, esp his concluding line and, ludwig, I too hooted at Jake's comment - talk about the pot calling itself red.