There will be many who poke fun at him, many who deride him, many who hate him. Despite everything, I'll always admire him.
He belongs to a party whose soul is an athema to me. He is surrounded and has had to lead a party of socialist idiots, and yet, and yet, he has done so in a benign way - the economy has gone strength to strength, I disagree with the tax burden he has imposed but will conceed the mismanagement of those funds has not hit the depths I expected. Not ruining Britain as a Labour Prime Minister is a worthy achievement in iteself!
But the real admiration for me is not the domestic policy or the contaiment of the nutters in his midst - it is the strength of Character and pursuation that made this country put its values up on show, and to face up and join in on the greatest battle of ideas that humanity has faced for the past 70 years on the side of good. A debate about the implementation of the battle is seperate to the debate about joining the battle. Joining the battle was the right thing to do, and he took the country there by himself. Most others would have wobbled in this point, but he sacrificed his massive support to do the important thing, not the popular thing. On 9/11 he grew ten foot tall - I am not a sentimental man, but when the country needed leadership at that moment - he excelled.
So policy differences aside - farewell Mr Blair... you leave big shoes to fill, and I fear we may not fill them for many a year.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Agreed. He’s still a Third Way socialist, but he’s been a stalwart ally in Afghanistan and Iraq, and an eloquent defender of why we’ve had to do what we’ve done since 9/11. For that, if nothing else, he deserves our sincere thanks.
}:-)4
What’s this Queen crap? You mean they still haven’t dumped this outmoded, elitist, useless institution?
Admiration? No.
But I pay former Prime Minister Tony Blair deep respect for his achievements while in offie. Mr. Blair was a good European (well, for a Brit ;-), a loyal ally and a person of honorable character.
I really wish him and his family very, very well!
Mr Blair was the best Conservative Prime Minister the Labour party ever had.
From abroad he looks very impressive. From home his wholesale reliance on spin instead of content and the gradual removal of centuries old and hard won personal freedoms from the British people is appalling.
History will judge him as a man who excelled in expressing his international principles whilst having nought but padding and stealth tax on the domestic front.
Well said!
PMQS today was absolutelty extraordinary.
One of the first, PMs to get a standing ovation from the whole house.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,30000-1272562,00.html
The last minutes of PMQS - clearly he was quite emotional, but the oppostion parties were more than fair.
A great day for democracy.
Farewell Mr. Blair. You’re a good friend of the United States and I thank you for that.
I thank Tony Blair for standing with us Americans during some very trying times. Best wishes to him.
Goodbye, Tony. We will miss you.
Couldn’t have said it better. While his social and economic views put him solidly on the left, he showed great strength and character in standing with the good guys against the enemies of civilization. For that I will always have great admiration for the man. I wish him well in whatever he does, and hope his successor will prove to be a pleasant surprise.
I admire him more than I can say. He was a great friend to this nation, and I hate to see him go. Like President Bush, he has been destroyed by the world media for his stand against Islamic terrorism. Go figure!