Letters to the Editor
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Catholicism is supposed to be ominous?
Hey bro, the war of the roses ended a long time ago.
It's time to get over it.
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Labour
A note to the editor: I know this is an American publication, but Blair's party is named Labour, not Labor.
Regards.
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I Love the UK
I have devoted my professional life to the study of the Royal Navy. I earned my Ph.D. at the University of Wales. But this sickening British failure to be who they are and stand up to the nuts in Washington makes me want to puke. Britain is the natural leader fo Europe. It is an important state of signifcant size in the European Union, which is now the richest and most uniformly advanced zone in the developed world. American is turning into a land of millionairs and servants indentured to thier credit card companies and home loan brokers. Thatcher and Blair are TRAITORS to their people, plain and simple, serving a foreign master. I sometimes wonder if they and their staffs weren't on the CIA payroll, although you seem to contend that they were such weaklings and syncophants that they needed no bribes to sell out their country. Distgusting. The British people better wake up, stop imagining that they are somehow "better" than their continental bretheren (they are not), and get their head out of the arse of Uncle Sam
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The irony is...
That the American power that Thatcher and to a greater extent Blair hitched their wagons to was a mirage. It is obvious that the US can defeat third world armies, but our actual ability to project our will and interests turns out to be exceptionally limited (see Iran). In addition we have steadily given up our economic power by borrowing stagering sums to run our government (and maintain our consumption) and by giving in to an addiction to oil and refusing to take the lead in new energy source development. I know people still talk as if the US were utterlly dominant, but the fact is those days are gone. Just look at the Wolfowitz debacle. The European board members look prepared to spank us and there isn't much we can do about it. I can't understand why Blair wasn't able to see this. Perhaps it was a strong sense of Britain's own impotence?
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What happened to the ambassador?
He was greeted by Blair up George W Bushes arse whem he arrived in Washington.
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The headline...
and the fact that most of Britain apparently believes it suggests an utter inability to make distinctions. Has Tony Blair said, "There is no society"? Did Thatcher establish a minimum wage, legalize gay unions? Has George Bush put his religion aside -- as Blair consistently has --when it comes to making policy?
Jesus! It's this kind of idiocy that makes me think most of fellow liberals have rocks in their heads.
Britons better pray Gordon Brown has staying power. Because if he doesn't the UK is going to be looking back on Blair the Americans under Nixon looked back on LBJ.
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Coming to America
Coming to America, he will. Joining the "liberal wing of American foreign policy" he will not. Unless the American Enterprise Insitute and Fox News are part of that wing.
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Legacies
It beggars belief that anyone could reduce Thatcher's or Blair's legacy to "making the opposition party electable".
Thatcher's complex legacy (whether you ultimately admire or despise her) includes the arresting of the UK rapid's decline and the beginning of the transition from industrial Britain to post-industrial modern Britain, peppered with a callous and often quite misguided ultraconservatism.
Blair's legacy is the re-creation of Labour policies, ten years of continuous economic growth based on the Bank of England's independence and the peaceful resolution of the Northern Ireland conflict.
Are we supposed to reduce 13 years of reforms (in the case of Thatcher) and another 10 (in the case of Blair) to "making the other party electable"? Pleease.
Furthermore, Thatcher did not make Labour electable, as John Major amply proved by defeating Neil Kinnock in the post-Thatcher election of 1992.
Tony Blair made Labour electable by rejecting the worst of Labour's policies and promising not to undo those Thatcher reforms that had succeeded.
Similarly, it is David Cameron who has revived the conservative party by espousing policies that are, at times, to the left of New Labour and by taming the anti-european forces in his party.
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Good riddance...
...you benighted war criminal. Be sure to ask Reagan how hell is treating when you get there.
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The Conservatives...
Remember kids, the opposition is the Tory party. Be careful what you wish for. Also the Tories are a little more aligned with Israel. You would have to throw yourselves from the Tower of London over that one.
Anyway the Tories had two chances to mount a serious candidate against Blaier and they failed miserably both times. Meanwhile insane zealots like George Galloway insured that there were as many splits as possible in the anti Blair opposition. After all, its not enough in the UK to be opposed to the war. You have to be insanely opposed to the war, you have to wrap a green Palestinians rag around your head, you have to apologize to the families of the people who did the 7-11 bombings to make sure you understand how much you appreciate their contribution to English culture. You have to burn American and Israeli flags in the street. You have to bring in the BNP and generally be crazy. This is why all serious opposition to Blair failed. In a way, the problem is as if Salon.com became a viable political party in the UK and then ran around purging their ranks of the insufficiently zealous.
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LEGACY - LOST SCOTLAND
He is the Labour Prime Minister who lost Scotland, the home of the Labour Party, The Labour Party would have died out during Thatcher if Scotland had not saved it by electing all those Labour MPs, but like all British politicians before him, Blair took Scotland for granted. This time, once too often. Blair's legacy, the beginning of the end for the United Kingdom.
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Torn on Blair's legacy
I'm personally torn when it comes to Tony Blair. Being of Irish extraction, and knowing the history of the potato famine and how it continued to motivate acts of terrorism, I was undeniably moved when Blair apologized for the famine and admitted it was man-made and made in Britain. The peace in Ulster would not have happened without Blair. I don't ignore the utterly necessary involvement of Bill Clinton, but Blair was equally necessary and I'll never not praise him for that.
However, admitting he was in a tough spot as Andrew Brown suggested, Blair gave legitimacy to Bush's sales campaign for the invasion of Iraq. I think Bush would have invaded regardless, but the odds were certainly better with Blair's support. His opposition would have made many Americans rethink their support, even if not the American acting as president. I always had trouble believing Blair believed the nonsense, but he supported it. Maybe he couldn't have stopped the invasion, but he should have tried. I'll be glad to see Bush out of power, but I feel a sense of tragedy about Blair.