Blair. Do they have to encourage him?

[Patrick]

Blair wins $1m leadership prize

"Former prime minister Tony Blair has won $1m (£697,000) for his leadership on the world stage.

Mr Blair, now a Middle East envoy, will receive the Dan David Prize at Tel Aviv University in Israel in May.

It marks his "foresight", "exceptional intelligence" and "steadfast determination" to end conflicts.

Mr Blair's spokesman said the money would be donated to the former Labour leader's recently set up charity for religious understanding. "

"His entry as a Dan David laureate on the prize's website hails him as "one of the most outstanding statesmen of our era".

I bet he's loving it! I await with interest to hear someone quoted as saying that he's "bigger than God" or something stupid like that!

Pass the bucket please.

[trubble]

Ok but mind the kitten this time.

[Ben Becula]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry!. The ONLY thing Blair has going for him is a smarmy-ness that could out-smarm the Vicar of Bray. He talked the talk in his ten years in office, but achieved little. In the world of Blair, the thought becomes the deed, with no further effort of his part. He was a sycophant of Bush, and lied to the House and the nation to embroil us into a totally unnecessary and probably illegal war in Iraq. He is responsible for countless deaths as a result, and should be tried as a war criminal, rather than being lauded for "his determination to end conflicts".

And now he ponces around the world, achieving nothing, but getting paid ridiculous amounts of cash for it. He certainly proves the truth of the old adage, "You CAN fool some of the people ALL of the time.........and get away with it.

After you with the sick bag!

[Patrick]

Mind you, he doesn't actually seem to be achieving much at the moment - otherwise we'd be seeing more of him. Perhaps we can be thankful that he might not be the miracle worker everybody seems (and himself) to think he is.

As for Northern Ireland - I maybe wrong - but it seems the likes of Mo Mowlem made more progress there through her natural ability to bring everyone together than anything he might have done.

[riotgrrl]

Norn Iron

Major set in place the building blocks.

But Blair did push and push. The Good Friday agreement negotiations went right to the wall and would have collapsed without Blair's presence, and personal authority and relationships. Mo was a factor to making the agreements stick, but not a factor in getting them in the first place.

The other person who can take some very personal responsibility for Good Friday is of course Clinton, who was the ace waiting to be played at any time of day or night.

Rawnsley (sp?)'s book on the first term of the Blair Government is very good on this, and it would be unfair to deny that Blair had a pivotal role in peace in Norn Iron. (Major's important role is often whitewashed out of history.)

[Patrick]

Noooo! Don't spoil my picture of Blair as an idle sod who got everyone else to do the hard work and picked up the credit for it! ;D

I think JM did get some recognition - but you're right - he has got sideswiped by later events. Andrew Rawnsley? Yes I know, never been a fan (writes in the Grauniad occasionally) may have a look sometime.

Going back a bit - I'd like to have a look at Bernard Donoughue's "Downing Street Diaries" of the Wilson and Calllaghan eras. I've read one good review (in the papers) and a bad'n on Amazon - Propbably best to see if the Library's got it I think.

[Ben Becula]

I'm not so sure that he had such a pivotal role. I feel that the settlement in Northern Ireland had more to do with the fact that the two Godfathers (Adams and McGuinness) had both landed extremely well paid government jobs; and the deal they got from the Brits was probably too good for them to turn it down. All their "freedom fighters" released from prison, plus power sharing. And don't forget that the so called IRA disarmament was never verified by any independent witnesses. They probably gave up a few of the older weaponry and still have caches of arms buried somewhere in the south.

In any case, John Major probably deserves more credit than does Blair.

[riotgrrl]

Feb 18, 2009 16:59:38 GMT Ben Becula said:

I'm not so sure that he had such a pivotal role. I feel that the settlement in Northern Ireland had more to do with the fact that the two Godfathers (Adams and McGuinness) had both landed extremely well paid government jobs; and the deal they got from the Brits was probably too good for them to turn it down. All their "freedom fighters" released from prison, plus power sharing. And don't forget that the so called IRA disarmament was never verified by any independent witnesses. They probably gave up a few of the older weaponry and still have caches of arms buried somewhere in the south.

In any case, John Major probably deserves more credit than does Blair.

Ben, on the night it was Blair who was there, and it was Blair who got the deal done.

I'm no Blair apologist.

Remember this happened very soon after his election, when he was still in his Obama moment.

But credit where it's due. Every history of that time confirms his pivotal role in this.

This MB life is weird. We want everything to be black or white, right or wrong, but bad people can do good things and vice versa. It makes us better people if we can admit that.