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Blair 'prayed to God' over Iraq
BBC News ^ | March 3, 2006

Posted on 03/03/2006 1:17:56 PM PST by RWR8189

Prime Minister Tony Blair says he prayed to God when deciding whether or not to send UK troops to Iraq.

Mr Blair answered "yes" when asked on ITV1 chat show Parkinson if he had sought holy intervention on the issue.

"Of course, you struggle with your own conscience about it... and its one of these situations that, I suppose, very few people ever find themselves in."

The interview, Michael Parkinson's first on his chat show with a serving PM, will be shown on Saturday.

"In the end, there is a judgement that, I think if you have faith about these things, you realise that judgement is made by other people... and if you believe in God, it's made by God as well," Mr Blair said.

"When you're faced with a decision like that, some of those decisions have been very, very difficult, most of all because you know these are people's lives and, in some case, their deaths.

alt
alt Politics is very hard to have a friendship in alt
Tony Blair

"The only way you can take a decision like that is to do the right thing according to your conscience."

On the show, Mr Blair also talks about his most embarrassing prime ministerial moment.

When giving a press conference in France, he was asked if there were any French policies he would like to imitate.

Mr Blair, trying to answer in French, replied: "I desire your prime minister in many different positions."

Avoiding answers

Asked if he would serve a full term as Prime Minister, he said he was "getting on" with a busy programme and it had to be judged according to the work he had to do, rather than the time.

"If I sound embarrassed answering these questions it's because I've spent so long trying to avoid answering them," he said.

He was also asked about his relationship with Gordon Brown.

Parkinson said: "The trouble is, Prime Minister, you keep saying, 'Gordon and I are good pals' but no-one believes you." Mr Blair answered: "Yeah, but politics is very hard to have a friendship in...

"There is only one top job and it's not an ignoble ambition to want it, so there's all those difficulties there.

Cannabis incident

"People have written that we are about to fall out drastically and go for each other for years and years and years, and whatever the difficulties it's still a good partnership and one I'm very proud of.

"I'm proud to call him a friend and I always will be."

Elsewhere in the interview, Mr Blair recalled Labour's 1997 election victory. "People used to like me then," he said.

Mr Blair also talks about the first time his father-in-law actor Tony Booth - an old friend of Parkinson - visited his and wife Cherie's home after they were married.

Mr Booth had asked if he could light a cannabis joint, Mr Blair said.

"I was thinking this is my father-in-law, surely this should be the other way around.

"I said no, incidentally."


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: blair; blairandgod; christophobia; god; iraq; iraqwar; postchristianeurope; religion; theophobia; tonyblair; uk; wariniraq
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How scandalous!
1 posted on 03/03/2006 1:17:59 PM PST by RWR8189
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To: RWR8189

Off with his head.


2 posted on 03/03/2006 1:21:22 PM PST by yobid (What we have here is a failure to communicate)
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To: RWR8189

Good for him.


3 posted on 03/03/2006 1:22:01 PM PST by rightinthemiddle (If you want the Democrats to win in '06 just to prove a point, you are an idiot.)
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To: RWR8189

Their media is no different than ours. GARBAGE


4 posted on 03/03/2006 1:22:12 PM PST by OldFriend (HELL IS TOO GOOD FOR OUR MAINSTREAM MEDIA)
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To: RWR8189
Who else would someone pray to?

I mean -- other than who it is the Clintons pray to.
5 posted on 03/03/2006 1:22:17 PM PST by BenLurkin (O beautiful for patriot dream - that sees beyond the years)
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To: BenLurkin

"Who else would someone pray to?

I mean -- other than who it is the Clintons pray to."

The media prefers that all prayers are directed to satan (since they are such friendly terms).


6 posted on 03/03/2006 1:25:01 PM PST by AngieGOP (I never met a woman who became a stripper because she played with Barbie dolls as a kid.)
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To: RWR8189
Who else would he pray to?
7 posted on 03/03/2006 1:26:10 PM PST by tallhappy (Juntos Podemos!)
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To: RWR8189

And a voice replied: 'let there we war but first tell me that Niger was sending yellowcake to Iraq'.


8 posted on 03/03/2006 1:26:36 PM PST by ex-snook (God of the Universe, God of Creation, God of Love, thank you for life.)
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To: RWR8189

Liberals are astonishingly stupid. Even if one didn't believe in God, what's to lose by "seeking holy intervention?"


9 posted on 03/03/2006 1:29:16 PM PST by TeenagedConservative
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To: RWR8189

Hmmmm...this will be disconcerting to people like Minette Marrin of The Times (who is otherwise a good columnist) who have at one point or another declared Britain a 'Post-Christian' nation.


10 posted on 03/03/2006 1:31:14 PM PST by relictele
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To: RWR8189

Who was he suppose to pray to? Allah? What a stupid headline.


11 posted on 03/03/2006 1:33:42 PM PST by raisincane (Dims think we're all oblivious to the obvious)
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To: RWR8189

Headline story for the MSM - puts him in the same league as the EVIL BUSH.


12 posted on 03/03/2006 1:35:19 PM PST by p23185
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To: RWR8189


I'm sure he meant ADMIRED, not "desired" the French P.M. on many of his positions. God bless Tony Blair for trying.


13 posted on 03/03/2006 1:35:59 PM PST by Paperdoll (On the cutting edge)
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To: RWR8189
Mr Blair, trying to answer in French, replied: "I desire your prime minister in many different positions."

Classic...

14 posted on 03/03/2006 1:38:16 PM PST by propertius
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To: OldFriend
Their media is no different than ours. GARBAGE

Sadly so.

I'm old enough I should be used to it, but somehow I'm not!

15 posted on 03/03/2006 1:45:10 PM PST by ToryHeartland
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To: RWR8189
Mr Blair recalled Labour's 1997 election victory. "People used to like me then," he said.

Some must have. The rest of us aren't in the habit of liking socialists.

16 posted on 03/03/2006 1:46:23 PM PST by ToryHeartland
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To: propertius

Thats what happens when Blair tries to show his sycophantic europhile credentials for the home audience.

He falls flat on his face.


17 posted on 03/03/2006 2:43:03 PM PST by plenipotentiary
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To: OldFriend; RWR8189

<< Their media is no different than ours. GARBAGE >>

Nope.

You are mistaken on this one, Dear FRiend.

Except with regard to its projectile-vomited un-an-anti-Americanism, virulent antisemitism and hatred fear and trumpeted loathing of anything hinting that Judeo-Christian/Western/Human Civilization is the product of a superior values system, the grovelling, D-Notice-fearing and preemptive-libel constrained British media are WAY worse than ours. MORALLY CORRUPT; PUTRID; DEPRAVED and VICIOUS.

Although, I'll grant, the difference is but of distance travelled, not of master served, direction taken nor heading set.

Blessings - Brian


18 posted on 03/03/2006 3:22:48 PM PST by Brian Allen (How arrogant are we to believe our career political-power-lusting lumpen somehow superior to theirs?)
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To: plenipotentiary; propertius

<< That's what happens when Blair tries to show his sycophantic europhile credentials for the home audience.

He falls flat on his face. >>

Translation: This is what happens when the 'real' Tony Blair 'stands up.'


19 posted on 03/03/2006 3:25:55 PM PST by Brian Allen (How arrogant are we to believe our career political-power-lusting lumpen somehow superior to theirs?)
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To: Brian Allen
Some of Great Britain's elected officials make our worse congress creatures seem like choir boys.

However, they are revered by their media.

20 posted on 03/03/2006 4:41:04 PM PST by OldFriend (HELL IS TOO GOOD FOR OUR MAINSTREAM MEDIA)
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