Thursday, May 10, 2007
Tony Blair Bows Out Craving Approval
I have to pinch myself that I am listening to this rubbish. This speech demeans Blair. His constant craving for approval is stomach churning. "I did what I thought was right" he has said - twice. He sounds as if he is facing a war crimes tribunal rather than making a resignation statement. It was actually very American in tone - very emotional. Very unbritish, if you like. His final line amounted to a mea culpa. Indeed, he apologised for the things he got wrong. There's a first.
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75 comments:
It is the Albert Speer defence. He got 20 years and I can only dream of the same outcome. The BBC are prostrating themselves. He was born for the stage, and Labour just became very beatable today.
I was buying something in a charity shop whilst the speech was being emoted over the radio.
It made me feel so sick, I got out quick into the healthy fumes of our busy High Street.
Hmmm.. but he didn't say WHAT he got wrong.
And it is disgusting how little coverage is being given to a guy going to PRISON for leaking details of his meeting with Bush, when nothing is happening about the Home Office leaking details of the terror arrests.
Absolutely disgustingly stinking..
Maybe he should be facing war crimes...
nothing so wrong with the speech itself... the problem was that the 'unreality bubble' around Tony has now shrunk so far that it only just filled the room. The rest of the country outside can listen to what he said, compare it to their own experiences of the fiscal waste and foreign bloodshed of the past ten years, and make their own minds up.
Iain is bang on the money. This was an incredibly poor speech from the man billed as 'the great communicator'. It was as though he has had all the wind knocked out of him - he sounded curiously deflated, as though he had only just realised, on the way up North, that this was the end. It was, if anything, a missed opportunity and a very flat occasion, for all the shambolic and amateurish efforts to jazz it up with music and all the flim flam so beloved of Labour spin-meisters.
Well, we will be well rid of him. It will be the Labour Party who will be the big loser. They just don't get it - Blair, amazingly, is the biggest electoral asset they've got. They'll find this out when Gordon lumbers through his first (and only) GE campaign and omplodes, like a pricked balloon, on election night. (That is, if they manage to count any of teh votes!)
BUT -
Good riddance to Cherie and all the hangers-on
Good riddance to that toothy grin
Good riddance to that breathy, artless delivery
Good riddance to all the false emotion
Good riddance to all the lies, the decit, the pomposity and the global strutting so beloved of Blair and his acolytes
Good riddance to the sham, the falsehood, the emptiness of the Blair years.
And good riddance - we hope - to the Labour Government!!
I am not going to watch or listen to Tony Blair. I already know what he looks like and I already know roughly what he will say and how.....he.....will......................say it. (gulp)
It is like watching a a turd in the toilet that won't go away and just as unappetising.
I accidentally clicked on Nick Robinson's eulogy. (I am banned from commenting at the BBC) It looks as though history is already getting a re-write.
Disagree - thought it was a good speech. Very Blair. I wonderif it was written by Phil Collins (not the singer) who I saw was at the Labour Club.
I think we are foolish to underestimate how the electorate accepted Blair as the face of Labour. As Hague said - he is glad he is going as he beat us three times!
The comparison to Brown couldnt be more stark and I think will benefit the Conservatives no end.
Tony Blair suffers from one great illusion..
he thinks he is an American living in AMERICA..
Hence the 'First lady' stupidity
British Prime Minister's spouses do not have a role in the country.
Then we have the 'World Tour'
British Prime Ministers do not have farewell tours of the world (indeed why should the world wish to see them?)
British Prime Ministers do not have 'legacies' and 'foundations'
this little ignorant oik should go back where he came from and hang his head in shame or bog off to America and his croney Bush.
If he wants a legacy then perhaps he should try to get a leaving present from His Puppet Master and bring home the business men illegally imprisoned in America -damn the terrorists, bring home British Subjects who are not guilty of any crime in America and probably not in the UK
It was utterly nauseating and charmless.Hey guys, I did what was right.Change the record Tony.And good riddance.This time, the charisma had utterly evaporated.About time, too.
I've posted audio here:
http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2007/05/10/tony-blairs-speech-i-will-be-leaving-on-27-june-2007/
Ooops. URL got chopped.
The link is also on my name.
May 10, 2007 12:52 PM
Whats this the king is dead long live the king brown from a labour person wow.
word verifi
cation BKFUTB
But what you are forgetting is that THIS IS THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
Wow, nobody told me, that's brilliant.
He should have gone th whole hog and sung this
And now, the end is here
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and ev'ry highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way
Goodbye and good riddance to bad rubbish
One thing to understand about Blair is that he picks the speech and the tone to suit the audience. In that respect he is clever and his speech hit the heartstrings of his remaining believers, as he intended.
For the rest of us who inhabit a region outside Blair's fantasy world all we heard was the same old "go and see for yourself how much better things are". Well, people have and those who had a say last Thursday voted accordingly.
Unlike Blair and his representatives on earth, we can see and hear the headlines about billions wasted in tax credits, interest rates rising, hospitals shedding staff, schools sliding backwards, overstretched military, rural affairs in crisis, home affairs being made even less accountable, et al.
The only Prime Minister to admit to his mistakes, I don't recall any Tory Prime Minister doing that. The guy is being honest, give him some credit.
I have to pinch myself that I am listening to this rubbish
Now you know what it feels like being on the other side of the 18DS camera.... ;-)
If you listen to the speech and believe he's going to be arrested for the loans scandal then it feels alot more complete.
Incidentally, who pays for the plan to fly to Co Durham and back? The cash-strapped labour Party? Or the long-suffering taxpayer? After all, this is primarily a party matrer - Blair resigns as party leader, and thus as PM.
I think we shoudl be told. Or am I just being tight?
The guy is being honest
That is the funniest thing I have read all day.
Honest ? As Bob Marshall Andrews said on the Daily Politics, Blair's reign can be summed up in the words, "A good day to bury bad news".
Blair's "apology". I never listen to Blair because the very sound of his voice makes me sick, but I bet his "apology" was on the lines of: If I ever made a mistake I am sorry but I did it for the best. Not an apology at all. Blair CANNOT apologize because he is always by definition right. He can only be "sorry" that we poor fools did not properly appreciate him.
Mrs Thatcher's greatest achievement was New Labour.
Blair's greatest achievement is Cameron's Tories.
Hazel Blears (on Daily Politics) - thinner, new hair style. Is she reacting to chipmunk jibe. I hope you are ashamed of yourself, Iain.
Its almost enough for me to break into a verse of 'Things, can only get better, can only get better' except you then remember its Brown next...
What about Nick Robinson's reporting of it all - double Yuk! He really is a nasty little weasel.
Felt like putting my foot through the TV ! What a pathetic speech all me, me, me,( and if there`s any left I`ll have it) eat your heart out Narcissus you`ve been usurped! Just who does he think he is ?
Was there ever such a vainglorious supercillious man as this ? Roll on the next general election say I. God Adam Bolton`s quoting poetry now "Go gently into that blah blah night". Think I`ll have to go and lie in a darkened room.
Could he not combine his world tour with the Rolling Stones. He could play his guitar and sing and make syrupy speeches and be cheered to the rafters and no sceptical journalists asking him about his belief in Saddam's WMD and the essential goodness of carpeting the Lebanon with cluster bombs.
Took the dogs for a walk, prompt at 11:55. Why on earth are you pretending to be surprised or shocked or buoyed up or anything by what was and was not said? Dog bites man.
According to his Sedgefield agent, he's going to hang around on the back benches for another two years. Gordon will be so pleased to have such valuable help and support, always on hand. Ho ho.
Worst reaction so far in my opinion was the venerable Mingon the BBC.
He waffled on about Blair's comments about pride in the country as 'dangerous chauvanism' before his usual Iraq claptrap. The self-loathing at the heart of the left is still alive and well.
As for the Tone's tone today, I hate 95% of what he's done and a 100% of the way he's gone about it, but its hard to conclude anything other than that he does believe he was doing the right thing. I guess that's why for me while it's possible to credit some integrity to some principled elements of the anti-war brigade for example, but those who bleat 'poodle' are beneath contempt.
But if he's never done anything wrong, what exactly is he now apologising for, for having done wrong?
It's a bit like saying to someone that you're sorry they feel that way - i.e. here's a nod to your feelings but f*** off anyway.
If you want a laugh at the serially unhinged around the court of King Tony, take a read of this epistle from Phillip Gould in the New Statesman:
http://www.newstatesman.com/200705140009
Blair is only interested in Blair.
He is a spiv and a con man who has duped the nation. How anyone can support him I do not know, and he still believes his own propaganda.
We want labour out as soon as possible before the next man causes even more damage.
We need the press as never before to hound them out of office, as the Tories dont appear to be able to .
Chris Paul said...
"Took the dogs for a walk, prompt at 11:55. Why on earth are you pretending to be surprised or shocked or buoyed up or anything by what was and was not said? Dog bites man. "
Your dog bit you as you clearly can't smell the coffee.
Blair's major achievement was to prevent the unmitigated disaster of an old Labour government - though come to think of it perhaps he's only delayed it by 10 years.
He deserves an Oscar or Brit or something for his speech ...
The reaction on this blog to Blair’s exit is unsurprisingly negative but it all looks a bit bitter and petty. Of course his resignation speech is about himself, they always are. I don’t remember humility and apology being in evidence when Thatcher was forced out why should you expect to see it when he goes, at least superficially, of his own volition? To expect him to give a speech as if he is resigning in disgrace is ridiculous. Blair was an incredible politician and an expert election winner. Love him or loathe him there are very few parliamentarians of his calibre and I say this as someone who has never voted Labour.
The phrase about stones and glass houses spring to mind when I see some of the descriptions bounded about this site. They are meant to refer to Blair but you could exchange Blair for Cameron and it would be just as accurate.
If 'poodle' means someone who does someone else's bidding -the I call it more than beneath contempt for a Prime Minister without proper consultation and on a lie unsupported by intelligence to take this country to war under another country's leadership. It is, in fact, treason. We are not allies but subordinates - try talking to some of the people who are serving in Iraq.
IF he feels so badly against tyranny then why the hell didn't he go into Zimbabwe?
The fact that he didn't immediately opens up the question of him being dominated, flattered, dazzled by George Bush who knows even less about the world, less about history (he really should read Philip Bobbitt one of America's own gurus) than Tony Blair does -and that's saying something.
Why do we employ all these civil servants and foreign office officials if the PM is going to completely ignore them.
Why are two men facing gaol for doing what they saw as their political duty to their country when others are not even censored?
Could it be because it concerned George Bush?
and now, he is worried about his reputation -ahhhh poor fragile little ego.
If you can't stand the heat then leave the kitchen -before you send it up in flames!
My neighbour has just said that she listened in amazement to the speech wondering how she could have missed all these wonderful things that have happened.
This speech should not be watched unless you have access in the immediate vicinity to a bucket to throw up in !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good riddance.You promised much and delivered very little.
I dont agree with man in the shed at all: one term of old Labour v. 3 of NuLab - no contest.
And what would have been different in reality? The same flooding the country with asylum seekers, legal and illegal immigrants, reorganizing everything, regulating everthing, promoting multi-culturalism and bringing in Thought Crime for englishmen, but differently, public sector workers on strike - most are prevented from working effectively anyhow, engineering workers on strike - no, there isnt an engineering industry to strike, just screwdriver assembly plants (they managed that distruction 1963-1979), renationalise British Rail - who cares after the mess Major made, no Michael Howard and no British troops in Iraq, need I go on?
It was actually very American in tone - very emotional. Very unbritish, if you like.
I thought you loved America, Iain. What's wrong with being American? Or is it only anti-American to say such things when a liberal says it?
I had the misfortune to watch the BBC One 'O' Clock news. It was essentially an in house Labour Party video. After Blair made his speech – nauseating enough you might think - we had Tessa Jowell and Alan Millburn saying something along the lines that Tony Blair is the greatest man in human history, and in the ‘privacy of their own lives’ (as Tessa Jowell put it) the whole nation gives thanks for his achievements. I kept waiting for an opposition spokesman to be asked to supply the necessary reality check, but none appeared. Only a five-second clip (amongst the tributes by various Cabinet Ministers) saying he was the most formidable opponent the Conservative Party has ever faced. When looking at his legacy the BBC correspondents [entirely predictably given their Guardian view of the world] focused almost entirely upon Iraq. When they eventually got round to talking about the Department of Education and the Health Service we were informed that nobody doubts that there have been improvements. Nothing about the accusation that [“I am a straight kind of guy”] Blair is spin over substance, nothing about the accusation that [stealth] increases in taxation have funded a gravy train for bureaucrats. Nothing about the accusation that abuse of power has damaged our political life. I was even moved to ring the BBC to complain – which of course is about as futile an action as it gets in New Labour Britain.
Iain
How cruel can you be at this time of national tragedy? All over the country people are throwing themselves out of windows unable to bear the thought of life without Tone.
I will not watch it as I don't need an emetic. Agree with Little Black Sambo. Even the sound of his voice makes me sick. His face makes me sick. That weird eye makes me sick. His hair makes me sick. The way he walks makes me sick. The way he fiddles with his jacket button makes me sick. His hands make me sick. The shape of his face makes me sick.
I wish him and the manatee ill. (Apologies to manatees everywhere for the allusion.)
I was interested to hear that he slipped into a bit of religiousness towards the end.
I thought it was a fitting end.
Taking a plane to go to his constituency and back ? Is his plane somehow not contributing to the global warming which WILL KILL US ALL ?!?!?
A liar and a hypocrite. As always.
Good riddance.
i dont get it.what a non-event - he hasnt actually stepped down yet
meanwhile , over on sky news, there's breaking headlines on a vastly more important story.
madeleine search - things are happening
sky news reporter:
"I'm also being told that a town or village has been sealed off near Seville in southern Spain. It is not a long journey to get from the Algarve across the border."
I watched Blair's mouthpiece, Nick Robinson, doing a nauseating piece to camera at the end of the BBC One O'clock News, droning on about Blair riding off into the sunset, or words to that effect, and while he was blathering on, a prison van drew up behind him. Rather appropriate I thought!
The most surprising thing was that he chose not to endorse Gordon Brown - or indeed give him any credit for his supposed acheivements.
If he couldn't endorse Brown today then he can hardly do it when he formally resigns and the 'election' of a new leader starts - he would just face charges of trying to direct events from beyond the grave.
I bet Gordon is mightily upset - perhaps a bigger upset to the Brown Gravy train is in the offing.. Or is that just wishfull thinking ?
TB: "This is the best country in the world"
Grateful nation, as one: "Only thanks to you, Tony! Before you came into our lives, we stumbled in the dark, eating dust."
So today we got the aging rocker, pumping up the local crowd. Sorry, man, but I don't dig your tunes...
Oh, and ten million Africans and eastern Europeans are packing their meagre possessions as we speak.
Will the last Blairite please switch the light off as they leave the building !
I think it was a good speech, it was direct and to the point.
Blair has undoubtebly made mistakes but compare him to other leaders around the world in the last 10 years, I can't think of any I would swap for Blair
No T.V or radio on in the house, I have avoided anything Blair has had to say today. Personally the revolting man makes my blood boil. With Brown’s coronation imminent, I shall look forward to the blood letting as Blairites are expunged from the clunking fisters Government. Should be fun.
With most PMs,by the time they leave office one has some idea of how posterity will view them.TB seems an exception.It could range from an Eden ,substituting Iraq for Suez,to an Asquith or Attlee,a great left of centre reformer who was electorally successful.He could even become a British Richard Nixon-all powerful then disgraced.And I think that it will depend on future events outside his power.
I bought a small bottle of Tesco champagne to celebrate (not going to spend real money on the liar).Drink it tonight.Good news for the country and please God he'll never achieve a position of power again.
Took Long Enough - Oh, it's been there so long I'd forgotten it, but I've got some Champers cooling as well. I'll open mine this evening, too, and drink to great ill fortune befalling Blair and the manatee. Meanwhile, while we're waiting for the coup de grace, I'd enjoy seeing him fall down the steps of a plane as he bounces perkily down.
Iain
I hated the line about 'the best country in the world'- that was too American, but didn't Maggie and Major do something similar when they went?
Die Blair Die!
I see old Brillo managed to huff Blears into accidentally saying they would want Blair back very shortly on Daily Politics today.
The man has been such a dreadful influence that I cannot find it in my heart to wish him other than ill. I hope (but doubt) that the rest of his life will be tortured by remorse.
Had to look up what manatees are. Very apt.
The arrogance of the man continues to astonish. Does he not realise that he has to offer his resignation to the Queen and have it accepted before he can resign? But then, he does see himself as Head of State, and Cherie as First Lady!
A clinical narcissist never properly appologises. He will not identify anything he has actually done wrong and, when making a personal appology will say something like "I am sorry that you are in pain" rather than "I am sorry I hit you".
The gushing pious self-righteous narcissism of the thing is puke-making. Truly it can be said that never has Blair loved himself more.
As he floats back to London in a giant pink bubble of self-deceit and monstrous egoism he will be quite blind to the wreckage of a nation that litters the way.
More an encomium for the septics than for domestic consumption, I thought.
Pedantic point, I know, but Blair spoke about sticking beside our "closest ally" after 9/11. Not sure what Portugal had to do with it, given that they have been our oldest ally since the Treaty of Windsor in 1386. But then, I never thought history was Blair's, or Labour's strong point.
Did I here him say, thing back 10 years.... pensioners aren't freezing to death any more.
So now he's claiming credit for the recent run of mild winters?
Or, as he believes in it, is he claiming that global warming is down to him?
I'm still not sure I believe Tone is really going. I'm half expecting him to suddenly rise up for one last stab at power, like Glenn Close at the end of Fatal Attraction.
The BBC complaints line must have been going bananas today. On Five Live's 'Drive' programme, a reporter even conceded that many people had said they felt there was [paraphrase] 'a little bit of bias' in favour of Blair in the coverage.
They then immediately started going on (for the thousandth time today) about how much money he put into the health service and schools. Anyone who dared offer anything than a starry-eyed tribute was talked over constantly and asked to justify their view.
It was very BBC.
I don't want to be churlish as Blair had achieved certain things but his speech made me want quote Golda Meir's "Don't be so humble - you are not that great"!
He sounds as if he is facing a war crimes tribunal
Just practising, maybe .....
Anon said:
The only Prime Minister to admit his mistakes...the guy is being honest
Bullsh*t, anon. Blair was merely following the Neo- Nulab party line in spin - recently devised by tin man Miliband.
As Pollyanna Toynbee states in today's (11/5) Guardian, nulab's electoral disaster has forced Miliband and Broon to recognise that nulab are in deep sh*t. Miliband has persuaded Broon that there must be a different style of delivery for nulab's bullsh*t policies if they're to have any chance of fooling the people for a fourth time.
As Pollyanna spins it, Miliband says Nulabbers are still using 'on message', hyper-spun persuasion techniques of the 20th century. Yet 21st century voters are too intelligent for this guff and won't swallow it.
So Broon and nulab must recognise the public's intelligence and persuade us by...wait for it...
being honest and telling the truth
Honesty as the latest spin, eh? Two weeks after Broon's lied through his back teeth in his intelligence insulting budget speech, he's a born again truth teller.
Oh, yeah? You think we came up the river on the last banana boat, you tax thieves? Heard of the boys who cried wolf have you? No one believes a word you two, snout in the trough money grabbers say any longer.
Anyway, that's where Blair's new found, bogus honesty spin came from.
Auntie Flo'
Tin man Miliband's perception of the public's intelligence, of course, is:
Bl**dy h*ll, this lot aren't stupid enough to swallow nulab lies any longer. They don't even like my face, my beautiful face and they want to take away my huge salary, perks and pension.
Too right, Miliblob.
Auntie Flo'
Now that Tony B is finally leaving No 10 who knows, he may even remove his head from his rectum and see what is going on on planet earth. For ten years this no mark has existed in a fantasy world playing Mr Big. How many times has some problem occured and Mr B. has said leave this to me. What has happened? Sweet F.A That is the measure of the man, shallow, weak,and one who is always trying to impress matron with his drivel.
I can recall the conservatives slogan during a previous election campaign when they displayed a picture of B.Liars eyes with the caption ," Would you trust this man?" In hindsight he facts speak for themselves
Tony Blair led the Labour Party to an unprecedented three general election victories and spent 10 years governing from Number 10. During this time, he redefined the nature of government, for better or worse, presided over innumerable scandals and led the nation into five wars. Tony claimed, hand on heart, that he did what he thought was right. In your opinion, did he do well enough?
Goodbye Tony
leave a vote on the Blair "O" meter
Anonymous said ... on May 10, 2007 3:44 PM
"Will the last Blairite please switch the light off as they leave the building !"
OK - so that'll be me then.
But I'm not going yet. A few more weeks to watch this amazing politician hand over to some mediocre run-of-the-mill types.
His speech was humble as well as emotionally charged. That's what he does so well - and that's a gift to us as well as to him, if only we recognised it.
And I dread to think what'll happen next to this country!
Although having said that, Tony Blair HAS let me down too in one way! (Perhaps that nice Mr Cameron or Mr Brown can fix it - cos it certainly needs fixing.)
He has failed to help us discover, (by ourselves cos it's TOO hot for politicians to handle) that there is a festering undercurrent of terrorism breeding in this country AND round the world. Blair could not spell it out, even before Iraq, or Labour's Left would have gone for his throat sooner than they did. And now he has NO chance to tell us. But HE KNOWS. Does Cameron?
Multiculturalism was a good idea in principle, but evidently has failed in one key facet. In some cultures and "religions" within our society there are missing structures through which rogue elements can be contained. [And, btw, Edgware Road is a foreign land to me, though I am sure that 99.9% of those fronting premises (with signs about their prophets etc) are GOOD people. It's the REST I'm concerned about. That 0.1% only need to get it right once - WE need to stop them ALL the time.]
So behind the closed, unsupervised doors are young impressionable minds being persuaded towards evil and martyrdom by others.
What are we going to DO about it?
I DON'T KNOW!!! I'm not a politician - just someone who recognises a good un when I see him.
Wake up, people. You may hate Tony Blair for party political reasons, but he is a good man who has done his best for this country and the world, as and when he could.
Anyway - lights out time. So, it's goodnight from me, and goodnight from him.
Google " Keep Tony Blair for PM"
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