Gordon: "deplorable"
Tony Blair still hasn't commented on the execution of Saddam Hussein. He can hardly avoid doing so now that Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, has added his view to the debate. "Deplorable" and "completely unacceptable" is how the PM-in-waiting describes the manner of Saddam's execution. The chancellor opposes capital punishment in principle. But, then, so does the unusually taciturn premier.
Comments
Tony's a coward. Come out and face the music. We have troops dying over there, the least he can do is make a statement.
Perhaps Tony just doesn't feel it's a scandal that Saddam is dead, or that Saddam was reminded in his final moments of what he did to his own people.
Just a thought.
Deplorable. That's Britain's verdict on Tony Blair's legacy after ten years in office. Listen to Ö÷²¥´óÐã's current broadcast of "Politics UK"
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Tony Blair did nothing of value in ten years and he is responsible for the mess in Iraq. Britain's government is as corrupt and inefficient as ever. Nothing works right. Oh yes, he kept his promise to end fox hunting. One pundit said he left a kinder gentler Britain than he found it after Margret Thatcher's legacy, something John Majors couldn't do. That was the best that could be said of him.
What a crock of manure. Is this what Britain and Europe calls journalism? There was not one word mentioned about the most important fact of Tony Blair's stewardship of Britain, the indisputable fact that during the last six years, under the Blair government, Britain had the ONLY major economy in Europe which thrived. The rest floundered and are dying. So much so that the French people rejected the EU constitution for fear that in becoming anything like Britain they might actually have to work for a living and could get fired if they didn't (anyone remember the popular French book "Bonjour Paresse" which was popular about 2 or 3 years ago?) What little sign of life you see in economies like Germany and France today comes from large corporations repatriating profits from China and India, not from any domestic growth. Maybe this will be understood during the next recession when Blair is no longer around. He also kept Britain out of the Euro, first by promising to put it to a public vote, and then cancelling the whole idea. Britain still controls its own economy thanks to Blair, the only major economy in Europe not under Brussel's thumnail.
Was Blair responsible for Iraq? No, the United States would have invaded Iraq alone if it had to. The media nonsense aside, to this day we still do not know if Saddam Hussein had WMDs and if he did, what became of them.
Has Britain paid a big price for Iraq? No, more Brits died at Dunkirk in one day than in Iraq in three years. Why did Blair find it necessary to invade Iraq? Because he saw the threat the same way the Bush administration did (and most other governments as well) and thought it was in Britain's best interest to fight. Why should anyone feel Britain deserves a reward from the US for it? Should the US have been rewarded for helping Britain win WWI and WWII in Europe? Germany never attacked America. In fact, Britain just finished paying back the loans it borrowed from America to rebuild after the last World War. Now that's what I call a long term loan. Funny, how Brits forgot that before Iraq, everyone in Britain criticized Tony Blair saying he only did what was popular in the polls. After Iraq, they criticized him because he didn't.
Was Tony Blair America's poodle? No. In fact he got the US to delay the invasion by six months while the two nations tried futilely to get a second Security Council resolution to cover Blair's domestic political derriere, not Bush's. (It was hopeless because the corrupt axis of weasel would never give up the profits some of its most influential citizens were making through corruptly circumventing the UN sanctions.) And the only reason they didn't try longer was because the changing weather in the region made it impossible to delay the invasion any further.
If I were Tony Blair, I'd quit tomorrow without saying one word about the execution of Saddam Hussein. I'd pack up and move to Florida or Bermuda or Hawaii. I'd let Britain take pot luck with whatever comes next. Tony Blair will be a very tough act to follow.
Mark- I agree and will miss Blair when he goes. He was a hell of a PM, though I don't agree with half his domestic policies. For all intents and purposes, Blair seems to have been a Labour Party stalwart who, despite his party's best efforts, became slowly convinced that Thatcher was right! There are some within the Labour Party that just hate him for that.
God help the UK when it's stuck with Gordon Brown or David Cameron. Brown is a Blair wannabe; Cameron is a left-liberal in conservative clothing.
John Wright #4
Britain hates Thatcher? Britain owes Thatcher a debt it can never repay. Thatcher is the reason why Britain is not France or Germany today. Continental Western Europe lives in a delusional bubble which is now bursting all around it. After WW II, Europe was dust, gonzo, flattened, nada. It was dead and broke. How and why was Western Europe resurrected? It was restored with great expense and difficulty by the US so that it would not fall into Soviet hands the way Eastern Europe did. That was crucial to prevent the destruction of civilization. How was it done? Through massive investment by both the US government and the largest private corporations which received enormous American tax incentives to expand there. A highly favorable one way trade arrangement was created where Western Europe had easy direct access to the vast American market to export its goods but could keep its protectonist tariffs to secure its domestic economy. The military defense of Europe during the cold war was bought and paid for by American taxpayers. Thatcher saw that it could not and would not last forever. She reformed Britain so that it could survive in the cold competitive world once America took its hothouse bubble away. Of course the sudden shock was unpleasant and painful, it always is. Look around. Look at Germany and France which didn't undergo such a transformation. Look at their economies and how they do business. Look at their job market, the cost of manufacturing, the competitiveness of their technology, even their primitive small farm agrabusiness. Then look at the world they have to compete in, the US, China, India, Brazil. They are doomed. Nobody can help them. And the one nation which might even have had a fighting chance no longer cares. They saw to that too. Where will Britain go next, the way of the others? I think that's a real possibility. Judging from Politics UK, it is still just as delusional as ever.
Mark- Unfortunately, Americans are more grateful to Thatcher for the things you mention than most Brits will ever be. They're led by a leftist media with an axe to grind and the influence of a foot in Europe. I'm glad to be living in the U.S., though I remain hopeful that the yearn for freedom in the heart of every human being will someday prove strong enough to start electing some Thatchers again.
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