What "Trust me" Tony? Surely not? He must be good; he's now worth £30m or so (almost as much as his admirable wife gets from legal aid)
Although I'm not Blair's biggest fan and was totally against the Iraq War (does anyone seriously believe that the Tories would not have invaded Iraq?), I think for the sake of political balance it should be pointed out that David 'Bullingdon bully' Cameron's personal wealth is also in excess of £30m and he hasn't sold his memoirs yet!. The title of 'warmongerer' could easily be levelled at Baroness Thatcher too.
As Pieking so rightly points out, the Argies attacked the Falkland Islands to gain control of a British Territory. What right did Bliar have to invade Iraq; based on the dodgiest information he could manufacture; just so he could provide support to his "buddy" George Bush ? Tony Bliar should be tried at The Hague for war crimes, to my mind.
Winston Churchill during his peacetime era! Harold Wilson - wonderful PM!! Pity we haven't anyone of his stature. Just to restore parity for those of a Tory persuasion, don't you think Ted Heath is head and shoulders superior to the present lot who are in the process of turning the Conservatives into a right wing shambles! He was blessed with a fine intellect that the modern Tory lacks in abundance.
Woopert's . I do so enjoy the opportunity to be in complete agreement with you for once Thatcher (whatever people may think of her domestic policies) fulfilled the first duty of a Prime Minister; defence of the realm and its territories. Don't recall any of the Falklanders objecting to their liberation in the way that many Iraqis did with Bliar's efforts! As for Dodgy Dave, he was born rich; Blair has assiduously used his status to garner more wealth. Probably giving lectures on how to make millions from invading countries on false pretences (The Yanks love him!). Wouldn't have put it past him to have encouraged unrestricted immigration in order to supply his grinning medusa of a "partner" with more custom - at the taxpayer's expense, of course.
I still maintain that most Conservative MPs were for the invasion of Iraq although this isn't an excuse for Blair's actions. On the subject of self serving then one of the best examples must surely be 'Lord' Tebbit, who helped to privatise British Telecom in 1984 then three years later found himself in a lucrative position of Director of the same company. 'Baroness' Thatcher also got herself a nice little earner as a consultor for the Tobacco giants Phillip Morris and also is a speaker in the USA, presumably giving advice on how to kill the hopes of whole communities by closing coalmines whilst importing coal from abroad.
My impression of Callaghan was that he was actually quite good. After years of Harold Wilson who was fearsomely intelligent and presented as very sharpe, Callaghan appeared lightweight but I think he actually started to change a few things and tackle issues Wilson had danced around for years. However, when he got in I think the country was getting ready for change so he was on the downward slope from the start. I heard hmi interviewed on radio once years after he was prime minister. The interviewer asked him what percentage of decisions he thought he got right when he was prime minister. Firstly he said that the sort of decisions a prime minister makes may look right at the time, wrong some time later and right again in a longer history. However, pressed on the point he said he thought about 40%. The interviewer suggested this was not very satisfactory to the electorate. He conceded that he may not of been the best prime minister but suggested an absolute genius may not be able to lift the figure above perhaps 45% such is the complexity of the issues. This reinforced my view that the secret to sucess is the ability to fail - Churchill has it in spades!!
The problem for any Prime Minister is that the inter party politics is far easier to manage than intra party politics. You know the opposition is going to oppose you in almost all you do and say, whereas members of your own party are continually trying to stab you in the back for their own gains. Quite frankly, I hate all Westminster politicians - with a few exceptions they have never had a proper job in which to gain even the remotest idea of what real life is like. These days they all seem to followed the same route from private education to university to research (researching what I don't know) to MEP to MP. They know nothing about the real world and, in spite of the 'sincere' sound bites they keep spouting, they mostly don't give a monkey's toss. He might have been a bufoon but I had a sort of admiration to John Prescott because he had originally gone out and earned an honest living. And people want to have an elected upper house. We should appoint mature and senior retired people from the professions - like a general or admiral as Defence Minister, an economist to the Treasury, a diplomat to the Foreign Office. We don't want another load of the forty something greedy itinerant, self serving, deceitful, maverick idiots we've got in the lower house. God that's made me feel better!
