Sorry Farked, but that is utter nonsense. The vast majority of people in this country were against going to war, as evidenced by the biggest demonstration ever held on the streets of London. I was there, among millions of people from right across the political spectrum. Blair knew the WMD argument was a fatuous lie, but persisted in lying to Parliament and the British people, just to avoid losing face with Bush. After the Katherine Gun leak there was even more opposition to the war, but he and the rest of his front-bench toadies carried on regardless. All respect to Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, whose resignation speech should have changed Blair’s mind but didn’t. And 17 years later, still no evidence of weapons of mass destruction has ever been found.
If I may I wanted to conclude on yesterday...before logging out for a while. I couldnt give a **** Farked, Jabbo or Soton, if you feel im a WUM or have political views and am playing dumb, or if you feel I am attention seeking. To be blunt, in my opinion, you are each a **** for the way you rounded and bullied your way yesterday. I was very surprised it was allowed, and if I come back on here, it is best for other forum members I place you on ignore. Farked, in my opinion, you are a nasty, sarcastic and condescending prick that really needs to be checked - i am amazed you are not banned from the Saints forum, after all, is someone like Trixter gets banned, and he was so obviously wumming it was actually funny, but it was nothing as sinister as you. You are very sneaky and sarcastic in a really vile manner, I think Libs was calling you out for that the other night. I find it strange, as if this behaviour was on a match day thread, i think it would be stamped out instantly, by our very good Moderators, but for some reason, it is just allowed to continue on this thread. things like "If the majority had wanted me to leave I would not have wanted to stay anyway as that would have demonstrated their small mindedness." An unbelievably arrogant statement. Chilco - apologies for saying this but I needed to get that off my chest. I imagine you will consider banning me - that is up to you, but like you know, im having some time out anyhow. --- Most of my questions and disagreements on what were being said were only questioning narrative from the left - and that was rightly pointed out. That however is natural, as 99% of what is on here, is narrative from the left, if there was a lot of narrative from the right, i would have Qs about that also. I came in looking to understand more, and some of the stuff being said here didnt make sense, to me. I'll give you an example. Richie and I had a chat a couple of weeks ago about something Cummings was supposedly heard saying about drinks being on the NHS (Richie, not digging here, just trying to make people understand more ). Now, I questioned whether that had actually taken place, as I just didnt buy that someone would be stupid enough to have been heard saying it. Had Starmer said it, id have taken the same view. I actually thought it was the start of the downfall of this Gov as the press were really starting to go after many individuals. In the same context, i would have questioned items that had a view from the right - just there dont seem to be any views coming from the right. That is why I questioned the place of this thread, as it isnt really a place to debate. Therefore, that is why i mentioned, tongue in cheek, about a religion thread, as in my opinion for all the reasons that isnt allowed here, it would have the same effect as this thread. I think No7 made a good point along with Fats that people get to know others characters, and I do joke a lot more, perhaps more than I should, but im not the things that have been banded. FWIW, I actually think the Gov have acted appallingly on a number of items, against a backdrop of the worst global issue ever faced. I think there are things that were out of their control, and things they have royally ****ed up, but felt that the collective efforts of the nation could be better served trying to help and support, when finger pointing (which will undoubtedly come) should come once we have got more on control of the virus. I didnt like what I was reading, about constant, personal attacks on members of the conservative party, as I dont like to read vitriol like that, no matter who it is about, and therefore I made some comments about that. It was the same way years gone by, I didnt like Spitting Image. Badger - I think we misunderstood one another about the Pied Piper, I wasnt at all calling any poster here a rat, it was more a reference to how people follow a particular tune. If you or anyone else took that way, then I apologise, but it genuinely wasnt meant that way. I took your dangling the bait to be pretty confrontational, and I just think it got out of context. At the time, i seem to recall you saying (apologies if I got the wrong poster) how **** the Gov were, and that most other countries were way better managing the Covid crisis than us, I disagreed and suggested we counted compare, so couldnt accept your vitriol towards them, which i felt was based more on your political beliefs. Anyhow, im not going to be reading responses to this, i dont want to have been misrepresented, as I feel was the case lately, and am logging out.
Billy you cannot call people ****s. Please stay away until you can avoid using such language against other members, which is far worse than anything directed at you.
I am not shrugging my shoulders at anything, but it is a bit rich to compare Blair to Hitler, don't you think? It doesn't mean to say I liked Blair but he was and remains an.outstanding politician and very good PM. It is rather strange that You totally ignored two others that I put alongside Blair. I forgot to add Clement Attlee and Ramsay McDonald to the list.
I was talking about Blair, and it obvious that I wasn’t comparing him to Hitler. Nothing to do with anyone else you mentioned, but Clement Attlee was easily the best Labour Prime Minister, all the others pandered far too much to the right wing media. And that includes Wilson. Ramsay Macdonald was hardly distinguishable from the Tories if his day, and I can’t be arsed to talk about anyone else you may have mentioned.
First of all, nothing Billy has written about me offends, and I see no need to ban him. I actually feel sorry that he needs to get so het up, and I don't accept that I ever bullied him, that's snowflakery of the highest order, something that the right calls out. As for Blair : I will never forget May 1997. I was working in a constituency that had been safe Tory since 1959. At around 7pm the woman working for the Exit Poll at my polling station showed me the figures. Labour 50% Tory 35% LD 13% Labour ended up with a five figure majority. I don't think that any other leader of the party would have achieved that. The seat was lost, but only in 2010 and my friend who was the sitting MP and backed Gordon Brown now admits that with Blair it would have been held. I knew that Corbyn would get hammered, Archers and myself had a bit of a spat over it. I have nothing against left wing policies at all. It's just impossible to sell them on the doorstep.
I’ll never forget Blair selling his soul to Rupert Murdoch, which was the real reason for the 1997 landslide. The bloke was a disgrace to the name of the Labour Party, and should be staring through the bars of his cell.
“widespread” and “those people” Care to share who? Clearly you feel Billy is one. Are you considering me as another?
I am quite sure that I recently saw a comment about Rupert Murdoch no longer having any media control in New Zealand. Probably explains why they had a landslide for socialism.
Did you see the recent series on him shown on the BBC? Shocking the influence he has been allowed to have
Harold Wilson was able to keep the UK out of the Vietnam war despite enormous pressure from Lyndon B Johnson's administration. Blair could have taken a leaf from Wilson's book there. There are imo lots of ways in which the Blair era represents a lost opportunity for the left, but the real tragedy is that a government which did an awful lot of good - especially on the world stage - will always be remembered for Iraq.
As have the Barclay brothers, Richard Desmond and Rothermere who together with Murdoch are said to control 80% of the UK media.
That's a fair appraisal. It would be one thing if other core NATO countries that were leaned on by the US -- Canada, France and Germany, primarily -- had joined the Iraq adventure, but they didn't. The Blair government ignored an awful lot of red flags in order to follow Bush into Iraq, and that deserves to be the epitaph of his government.
I thought there would be more to come on this. "A cross-party group of MPs and peers including a former national security adviser are taking legal action against Boris Johnson over his government’s refusal to order an inquiry into Russian interference in UK elections." A “hot potato”, as the intelligence and security committee (ISC) put it." Nothing looked for nothing found, following with interest. https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-over-refusal-to-investigate-kremlin-meddling
