Was Tony Blair a great Prime Minister

He was a terrible Prime Minister, but he was great. He knew how to run the Labour Party effectively. For example, his management of John Prescott was outstanding. If a cabinet member made a monumental **** up, he would get John Prescott to do or say summat stupid so the media would cover what Prescott done rather than the **** up a cabinet minister done. He was a genius. But on the whole, he was a terrible PM who destroyed the country.

Reply 1

username5161072

19

That's why I think another Tony Blair would mean the end of the Labour as we know it. We already got out of the mess of the last one, why do we need another? We need to move back to proper left-wing politics, not Corbynism or Blairism

Reply 2

watershower

18

This may be stupid, but I think during that time, the country needed someone like Tony. Even though he messed up with Iraq in my opinion, he led the Labour party well. Right now though, he would be a terrible leader and wouldn’t have such high ratings as he did during that time.

Reply 3

londonmyst

19

Not great.
But he was probably the most effective PM and party leader since Margaret Thatcher.
Labour's longest serving PM and most electorally successful leader.

It's a pity that Tony Blair's legacy is so frequently summed up with a single word: Iraq.
As much as I always opposed the Iraq invasion, it did not and should not supersede all memories of the domestic reforms and achievements of the Blair years in government.

Reply 4

username5161072

19

Original post by londonmyst

Not great.
But he was probably the most effective PM and party leader since Margaret Thatcher.
Labour's longest serving PM and most electorally successful leader.

It's a pity that Tony Blair's legacy is so frequently summed up with a single word: Iraq.
As much as I always opposed the Iraq invasion, it did not and should not supersede all memories of the domestic reforms and achievements of the Blair years in government.

Iraq isn't the only one. His mass immigration policies created more problems than it should have, giving the tories and UKIP the platform they needed to spout their anti-immigration and anti-EU views.

Reply 5

londonmyst

19

Original post by TheStarboy

Iraq isn't the only one. His mass immigration policies created more problems than it should have, giving the tories and UKIP the platform they needed to spout their anti-immigration and anti-EU views.

Yes.

His government's stance on crime, immigration, welcoming economic migrants and every type of asylum seeker were too open to abuse.
Failing to accurately forecast the numbers of european economic migrants & benefit tourists led to chaos, along with much resentment in some regions.
Plus allowed unregistered gangmasters and organised crime elements to menace low income vulnerable migrants as a profitable business
operation. :mad:

Reply 6

username5161072

19

Original post by londonmyst

Yes.

His government's stance on crime, immigration, welcoming economic migrants and every type of asylum seeker were too open to abuse.
Failing to accurately forecast the numbers of european economic migrants & benefit tourists led to chaos, along with much resentment in some regions.
Plus allowed unregistered gangmasters and organised crime elements to menace low income vulnerable migrants as a profitable business
operation. :mad:

As a child of an immigrant, Tony Blair wasn’t everything I hoped for. I don't get why he’s liked among the moderates in labour when he contributed to the issues they fight against.

Reply 7

Lewito

19

Original post by londonmyst

Not great.
But he was probably the most effective PM and party leader since Margaret Thatcher.

Considering there was only 1 PM between Thatcher and Blair (John Major) that doesn't say much.

Although I'm no fan of Blair, I will at least say that the Stage 1 reform of the House of Lords was good, removing most of the Hereditary Peers.

Reply 8

username1148663

21

Original post by Mad_Dog_Graveson

He was a terrible Prime Minister, but he was great. He knew how to run the Labour Party effectively. For example, his management of John Prescott was outstanding. If a cabinet member made a monumental **** up, he would get John Prescott to do or say summat stupid so the media would cover what Prescott done rather than the **** up a cabinet minister done. He was a genius. But on the whole, he was a terrible PM who destroyed the country.

He was an awful PM

Reply 9

Mad_Dog_Graveson

OP

16

Original post by paul514

He was an awful PM

I agree

Reply 10

Fullofsurprises

20

Original post by Mad_Dog_Graveson

He was a terrible Prime Minister, but he was great. He knew how to run the Labour Party effectively. For example, his management of John Prescott was outstanding. If a cabinet member made a monumental **** up, he would get John Prescott to do or say summat stupid so the media would cover what Prescott done rather than the **** up a cabinet minister done. He was a genius. But on the whole, he was a terrible PM who destroyed the country.

Prescott served as a sort of useful idiot for the Islington crowd who were in charge, they could roll him out as the genuine working class guy whenever their rather posh manners annoyed the public too much - he would then say the usual crap but rough, sensible-sounding things and everyone would calm down. In his later years he gradually got wise to the game and wouldn't act the performing seal quite so willingly.

Blair wasn't a terrible PM. The country boomed under him and his governments tremendously improved everything from the national image of the UK, to education, housing, job prospects, real incomes, the NHS and many other things.

They partly did this by allowing in the immigrants we needed to help the country be self-sustaining and to staff the large numbers of jobs that indigenous Britons were no longer willing to do.

Reply 11

Rakas21

21

Blair did some good things (Boe, minimum wage, terrorism, military action and crime law) however in the long run his policies on the expansion of free movement, embracing multiculturalism and creating regional assemblies have proven truly distasterous and may well destroy all or part of our country/union having already had profound effects on our relationship with the EU.

I rate him highly on the whole (3rd best pm since the war) but it is too early to say how history will remember him (though outside of political circles he still polls very well among the every man).

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 12

londonmyst

19

Original post by TheStarboy

As a child of an immigrant, Tony Blair wasn’t everything I hoped for. I don't get why he’s liked among the moderates in labour when he contributed to the issues they fight against.

Probably because he ended Labour's long & dry spell in the political wilderness, led them to so much electoral success, greatly reduced tua influence and they personally benefited from the economic boom/rising property prices of the Blair era.

Even some of the hardcore revolutionaries act as if they admire some of his achievements and strategies.
My father utterly despises Tony Blair but only mocks him over religion, money and cherie.
Probably holding back the usual insults & verbal aggression directed against wealthy opportunistic political careerists/'champagne socialists' because of the fact that rising property prices over that 10 years earned him more money than working all hours for almost six decades.

Reply 13

David Getling

19

Original post by Mad_Dog_Graveson

He was a terrible Prime Minister, but he was great. He knew how to run the Labour Party effectively. For example, his management of John Prescott was outstanding. If a cabinet member made a monumental **** up, he would get John Prescott to do or say summat stupid so the media would cover what Prescott done rather than the **** up a cabinet minister done. He was a genius. But on the whole, he was a terrible PM who destroyed the country.

Him and the Blair Witch were just your typical self-serving, money grabbing lawyers. It's also said that Mrs Blair never walked away from a charity event without making a hefty profit from it. And didn't we all love the I send my kids to a state school fiasco?

Reply 14

04MR17

Volunteer Section Leader

22

Was any PM great though? I don't think you'd find much consensus from any large group of people about 1 Prime Minister or another to say that 1 was inherently "great".

Reply 15

londonmyst

19

Original post by The Mogg

Considering there was only 1 PM between Thatcher and Blair (John Major) that doesn't say much.

Although I'm no fan of Blair, I will at least say that the Stage 1 reform of the House of Lords was good, removing most of the Hereditary Peers.

Even in comparison with PMs like Brown, Cameron & May- Blair was probably the most effective PM and party leader since Margaret Thatcher.
I doubt that Cameron would have been capable of winning a general election if Tony Blair had remained Labour leader.
John Major wouldn't even make my top 1000 politicians in the uk, unless it was for comedy material or source of national humiliation.

Reply 16

David Getling

19

Original post by londonmyst

John Major wouldn't even make my top 1000 politicians in the uk, unless it was for comedy material or source of national humiliation.

John Major is living proof of just how far brown nosing can take you. When all his colleagues were getting sacked for disagreeing with Maggie he was kissing it big time.

Reply 17

londonmyst

19

Original post by 04MR17

Was any PM great though? I don't think you'd find much consensus from any large group of people about 1 Prime Minister or another to say that 1 was inherently "great".

How about "the greatest Briton of all time" according to the 2002 poll?
Winston Churchill.

Reply 18

04MR17

Volunteer Section Leader

22

Original post by londonmyst

How about "the greatest Briton of all time" according to the 2002 poll?
Winston Churchill.

You raise a good point. I would argue that the popular perception of Churchill is clouded by the Second World War, and often misses his opposition to the NHS as well as women's suffrage. That doesn't change the outcome of the 2002 poll I grant you, but I would doubt that an informed opinion would be quite so overwhelming in voting for him.

Reply 19

3121

21

I don’t think his legacy does him justice, if people saw the country in the 90s compared to what Tony Blair did, it was incredible. The investment in small business changed so many lives, we wouldn’t have the NHS today for sure, education and labour market preparation wouldn’t have been to help us through the 2008 recovery, I especially feel sorry for Gordon brown who takes the flack for what was a global crisis not a british crisis (it was an American crisis if anything), it would’ve happened regardless of Tory or Labour government but the measures he took to manage it were praised and mimicked across the world, often seen as the global leader of the recovery.

As for Iraq I still think Britain went in with good faith without knowing WMDs didn’t exist.

Was Tony Blair a great Prime Minister

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