Tony Blair - What is his Legacy?

[Nautilus]

For what do people think Tony Blair will be remembered?

Since 1997 we have had a succession of committees,quangos,judicial inquiries etc but where are the results?We've had spin and hype on all sorts of subjects but has anything actually changed for the good over thlat thirteen years?

Fuel prices are up by about 25%,not to mention gas and electricity!!Pensions have fallen.......people who saved had the tax credits stolen by Brown..Lord Falconer decorates his office with wallpaper at �300 a roll!

We are buying useless Eurofighters at �40m each and we have given the US �2 billion for a Joint Strike Fighter which comes without a manual or a three pin plug.......If it breaks we have to buy spare parts from them ...and oh!.. if it requires servicing it has to go back to the manufacturers.

Three new aircraft carriers...Status symbols in the game of life,perhaps..a snip at �6Billion!

Education,education,education..there's a laugh.//many of our teachers can't spell,don't understand English grammer ( I know.....it's not important ) and cannot construct a simple sentence!.

Health Service..........I'm sure they are doing their best.

Railways.......It can now cost ( if you get your timing wrong ) about �200 for a return ticket to London from Manchester

These are all the negative things to say...unfortunately I can't think of anything positive apart from 'Bon voyage'

I saved one item until last - Iraq - the War

What a waste of lives and resources!..to back up an ego trip by George Bush.

That's my rant for the week!!

[bongerman]

Oh the irony! spelling grammar wrong. LOL

To be fair a lot within the UK has improved under Labour.

Tony B. Liar will of course be remembered as the leader who took us into an immoral, illegal war with catastrophic consequences for world peace. I'm an atheist so am annoyed that God will be his judge rather than a judge in an International Court of War Crimes.

Nice rant on the whole Nautilus, hope you feel better for it!

[Dom Tuk]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1065-2091566,00.html

The above article by Matthew Parris from the Times this saturday makes for excellent reading.Yes Blair hand in your homework and just go.....

[bongerman]

You did start this Nautilus by slagging off teachers but ...

having corrected your spelling I'm going to be pedantic enough and stand up for my fellow pedagogues and correct your Maths as well:

1997-2006 is nine years. It just feels like thirteen some times!

[jake-the-peg]

Introduction of the minimum wage

Devolution of power in Scotland and Wales

Cessation of hostilities with IRA (Major shares credit with this Thatcher does not)

Banned handguns

Record levels of literacy and numeracy (despite what you seem to think )

Abolition of hunting with dogs ( whether this is good or bad is up to you)

Overall crime down by 35%

None of this actually matters though because you're right for better or worse he'll be remembered most for Iraq

[stevie_c2it]

Bongerman, a nice sarcastic post, hope you feel better for it!!!

I�m curious, and I hope you�ll forgive me for being a little pedantic myself, but:

To be fair a lot within the UK has improved under Labour.

This might qualify as one of the least illuminating answers I have seen on AB. Care to elaborate and support this bland statement of approval?

[mkt]

i think he'll be remembered for his teeth. What a scary smile! sorry it just gets to serious sometimes!

i have to agree that unfortunately he'll be mostly remembered for the war but have to say....what would anyone else have done in his position?? Although im not supportive of the situation its a huge decision to have had to make and im pretty sure he'd have been slammed for not going ahead with it had things turned out differently. As prime minister it seems you're pretty much damned if you do and damned if you dont. As Jake-the-peg listed though he's done an awful lot of good for this country too

[bongerman]

Fair play stevie.

As alluded to I'm a teacher so will speak only about education and the improvements I'm aware of that I have seen benefit schoolchildren since '97.

In the first Labour term of office the main focus in education appeared to be on numeracy and literacy in primary schools. As a result KS2 SAT's results went up, and as a secondary school teacher I have seen an improvement in the intake in year 7 each year (on average)

The main change to secondary education (away from last week's bill) has been to instill an inclusive nature within comprehensive education. This debate has fans on both sides of the fence but just like those who took of failing the eleven-plus being unacceptable, under the Tories a lot of pupils were deemed "unteachable" and were taught in separate institutions. For any of tehse pupils to ever make it back into mainstream education was nigh on impossible and hence they missed out on the opportunities many take for granted.

These days I have taught in schools with Down Syndrome pupils, pupils in wheelchairs and pupils with varying emotional and behavioral special needs. The funding is still there but goes into having a much more tolerant society if this can work under one roof and in my eyes it does tremendously.

Permanent exclusions are down; the number leaving school with some qualification has gone up (as well as the A*-C percentage rising).

All we need to do now is get rid of faith schools and cut out more of the paperwork.

There is more but I've got to go and do some marking!

[bongerman]

took = "talk"

tehse = "these"

(before anyone gets me back for earlier pedantic outbursts! LOL)

[chimney]

I live in Sheerness and the only thing that this Labour government will be remembered for down here is the pensions crisis (sheerness steel-mill workers lost theirs).

But he has built us a new bridge to the mainland!

[Bluemukka]

Hmm the cynical part of me thinks:

Tony Blair will be remembered for taking us by the hand and leading us gently into a nanny/dictatorship.

on the other hand:

Tony Blair will be remembered for having a chancellor who made me considerably better off.

Now there's a double edged sword.

[Lonnie]

Slate me, I can take it. Tony Blair will be remembered for a lot of the things mentioned, but most, if he succeeds, will be the doing away with England, the country. The man should be hung from the tallest tree, and let the Crows have him.

[madein1978]

Better Off?? Don't you pay tax then??

[madein1978]

I won't slate you lonnie, I'm in your corner for this one, Tony Blair is a cretin who has screwed up this country, no doubt I will get slated for that by the ' we wuv you tony' brigade, but I don't care, because Tony is a To*ser!!

[bernardo]

In a few decades' time TB will not be particularly remembered for the war in Iraq, because that is merely a continuation of the long-term lickspittle poodling of all post-war UK prime ministers to American presidents. I think he will be remembered for establishing the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, the statutory minimum wage, gay marriage, and for drastically transforming the Labour Party.

[stevie_c2it]

Yes, but can you really afford any Labour Prime Minister an accolade for simply transforming his party into an extension of the Conservatives?

I know imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery, but surely he conned voters from both sides?

Given the pre-election expectations that he might potentially deliver a new style of ethical leadership with integrity, his subsequent, and spectacular failure to be anything other than an ineffectual charlatan, with a nice line in bluster and deception, will leave him deservedly, high on the list of worst Prime Minister since the war (Second, not Iraq).

The rather pitiful list of accomplishments presented in his defence, pale into insignificance against the damage done to the democratic process in this country, as so many people now no longer believe that politics is a effective (or honest) method of just governance, but a medium for people like TB to suspend their monstrous egos!

[bernardo]

Yes, but can you really afford any Labour Prime Minister an accolade for simply transforming his party into an extension of the Conservatives?

Accolade? Who said anything about accolade? The question was about what he will be remembered for.

I know imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery, but surely he conned voters from both sides?

Yes - particularly in his present hell-bent intentions to build a reactionary authoritarian Big-Brother state, of which the logical consequence will be to cause the "rendition" of all pensioners, teenagers, protesters and dissidents to be tortured in Guantanamo Bay.

[stevie_c2it]

Bernado, for some reason you seem to think other users of this site won't recognise their own quotes unless you repeat them, highlighted in red (or some other politically representative colour).

Other than this habit being a rather pretentious affectation on your part, you are also (mistakenly) assuming the rest of us have your inability to recall (or read) the comments already made. Illogical and patronising.

Accolade? Who said anything about accolade? The question was about what he will be remembered for.

Allow me to repeat the question for you, and hopefully we can clear up your confusion, or lack of comprehension.

'Tony Blair - What is his legacy'

Legacy, in the context of this question, refers NOT to physical assets, but intangible, positive achievements which serve to enhance the reputation of both the donor (Tony Blair) and the recipients (The Labour Party and, dare I say it, posterity).

Therefore, the use of the word 'Accolade' (Definition - a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction) is appropriate, even if it seems incongruous when juxtaposed against 'Tony Blair and his 'New' Labour Party'!

I hope this resolves any lingering doubts you may retain about the likelihood of us being 'cell mates' come the revolution, lets hope we look good in orange!

[bernardo]

The question was "For what do people think Tony Blair will be remembered?" i.e. a neutral verb which does not necessarily presuppose or presume or require positive things.

I quote the contributions of others in colour in order to emphasise (for the benefit of those who have not been paying attention) that they are not my own words.

Not all penguins are green.