Should Blair have been knighted and should the decision be rescinded.

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  • There has been much disgust that Anthony Blair has been given a knighthood . So much so that a petition to rescind the Knighthood has reached a total of well over 1 million already and rising.

    Should the title be rescinded ? What do others think ?.

    The Voice of Reason

  • Personally, I think the whole honours system should be looked into.

    If it is to be the case that all former prime ministers get knighted, then fine, but if it's a case-by-case system, like we have now, then I think this is a bad decision.

    Blair did help to bring peace to Northern Ireland, bring in the minimum wage, pumped money into the NHS and many other things, but there will always be the question of Iraq having over him and specfically that dodgy dossier and whether he lied to parliament and us about the threat that Saddam posed to us.

    Despite what the inquiry said, I think Blair did lie over the 45mins claim and he took us into a war to appease the Americans but also because he himself had been calling for regime change in Iraq long before 9/11. He argued that was a judgement call, true and perhaps we need to ask of ourselves, how much power should a prime mininster be allowed. But we toppled Saddam and in turn helped to bring about the situation that created ISIS.

    He should not be have been knighted for that.

  • I can't imagine knighting Blair. If I were in Britain I'd sign the petition to rescind. What did this warmongering whopser ever do to warrant being given any kind of honour?

  • Because he's a nice guy LW. That's what he always told us, silly you. ;)

    I'm sure the families of the 250k+ killed during the Iraq war, think he is a nice guy too. And obviosuly, ISIS must love him. Without him and Bush Jnr, they never would've existed.

    Good job Our Tone. :thumbup: .... X/

  • Of course it could be he fell victim to duff information fed to him by so called experts, I mean wasn't there some kind of Walter mitty type charecter giving the information at the time.

  • Whether he was misinformed or not he and Bush went on a religious crusade that resulted in the deaths of many thousands of innocent people. For that alone he should be rotting in jail instead of getting honours.

    History is much like an Endless Waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever.

    4312-gwban-gif

  • I'm not excusing him, but it's what happens in war, for example the 1st world war was called the war to end all wars at the time, and most if not all those that died were conscripts with the choice go to war or face prison, and don't forget there were other wars before that were done as acts of revenge for whatever.

  • Yes for sure he does not deserve any honours. He should be in a prison cell as a war criminal and have all his proceeds of war taken from him so his family don't get to the live the rest of their life as luxury millionaires. Give the funds to one of the military charities for rehabilitation and homing ex service members and all the rest. It's never going to happen because it then brings into question the corruption of the political system. It's a one sided show and MP's can do what the hell they like whereas anyone else would be niked and put in prison. If I had my way I would drop him on a known IS region of the Pakistani mountains with nothing accept the shoes on his feet.

    What I find more interesting here is that there seems to be some political influence on the knights of the Garter with big gob speaker saying that all prime minsters should be awarded it. It's like politicians are trying to steal the system for their benefit and somehow amalgamate it with the Lords system. This is the highest honour system this country has and and I'm no expert but I think it goes back to the knights of the round table. It has sweet f all to do with politics and is personally awarded by the king / Queen at the time. These are not Lords, they have already been given that honour and that is a parliamentary thing these days.

    The Knights of the Garter I think is more a Royal thing with religious connotations. These are the folk that get involved with the religious rituals that follow the Royals. They are also traditionally more like the Queens personal guard or associates...confidants and advisers I think would be the term so traditionally more like William Wolseley type characters. There's very close connections with the military and religion. I believe there is very much a military and tactical stand point that comes with the position which also reflects back to the knights of the round table. You know there is connections there with the knights / freemasons, religion and the crusade. Maybe this is why Parliament are trying to pirate it. Take some more power away from the Royals.

  • I'm not excusing him, but it's what happens in war, for example the 1st world war was called the war to end all wars at the time, and most if not all those that died were conscripts with the choice go to war or face prison, and don't forget there were other wars before that were done as acts of revenge for whatever.

    Difference is Ron, the 1st World War had the potential to affect us directly, whereas what Saddam did or didn't do to his own people, didn't.

  • Difference is Ron, the 1st World War had the potential to affect us directly, whereas what Saddam did or didn't do to his own people, didn't.

    Same could be argued about the other gulf wars we got involved with under different PMs, but I guess if they are Tory PMs that's ok with you. ;)

  • Our country and our military were taken into an illegal war in which we had no need to be involved All because the PM Blair and his Dodgy document erroneously claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Even although our own chemical and biological weapons expert Dr David Kelly told the government that, after inspections, no such weapons existed. ( Later Dr Kelly was found dead under highly suspicious circumstances ).

    It was Blair who sent our troops into Iraq. His was to blame for all those British casualities and those of the Iraqis........ IMHO. Blair should have been called to answer for his actions at the Warcrimes Tribunal in the Hague, instead of being rewarded with a Knighthood.

    The Voice of Reason

  • The Uk has to stop playing as world police with the US its really that simple, we have no business getting involved in any conflict that doesn't directly attack the UK.

    The trouble with that is if you don’t act quickly sometimes, the threat from rogue nations or dictators can grow and end up biting you in the bum.

    We didn’t wait for Hitler to attack us before going to war with Germany in 1939.

    I think the lesson we should learn is that if we declare war on another country in the future, we need to think it all through much better than we did in Iraq and Afghanistan and put in place a sensible plan for the peace. As recent wars have shown, that means having a long term commitment that you will see through to the end.

    I think a big problem with this is that we rely so much on the US, and we are not big enough and powerful enough on our own to commit to that. Like Afghanistan, the US can pull the rug at any time, which destroys the efforts made to settle the country over a timescale of decades. What a waste.

  • It's very complicated how war starts. Even Hitler did not start world war 2 and it was the build up before that which led to the rise of Hitler that started it all off. The biggest problem these days is that most wars are started for economical reasons. Iraq was all about oil which Blair has his fingers in now. The terrorism we know as today came later and has absolutely nothing to do with Saddam Hussain.

    What is most worrying is all that happening now in the world, right now, as there are many riots and breakdowns of society worldwide. Lessons have not been learnt and history is repeating itself. Combine this with the totalitarian control and it could possibly lead to a new world war. There's a lot of similarities right now that helped Hitler rise to power including a flu pandemic. Who knows where we will be at in a couple of years time.

    A little history lesson....

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  • I am at a loss as to why the Queen has eventually decided to give Blair a Knighthood, he will go down in the History books for all the wrong reasons IMO the worst PM we have ever had.

    He took us into five armed conflicts in 6 years, he and Labour spent more Parliamentary time debating to ban Fox Hunting than going to war against Saddam

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