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Sept. 22: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair The reluctant vote in favor of further European integration by the Irish this weekend may usher Tony Blair into a new role as titular head of the European Union — despite most of Europe being reluctant to have him. The former prime minister is the leading candidate to become the European Union president for a want of alternatives rather than any enthusiasm. With the Irish having finally ratified the Lisbon treaty, all that remains is for the Czech and Polish presidents to sign it and authorize the creation of two new...

TWELVE_years ago, Britain was crying out for change from a divided, exhausted Government. Today we are there again. In 1997, "New" Labour, shorn of its destructive hard-Left doctrines and with an energetic and charismatic leader, seemed the answer. Tony Blair said things could only get better, and few doubted him. But did they get better? Well, you could point to investment in schools and shorter hospital waiting lists and say yes, some things did - a little. But the real story of the Labour years is one of under-achievement, rank failure and a vast expansion of wasteful government interference in...

Tony Blair has revealed that after ignoring a stern warning from his great-grandmother about marrying a Catholic, he now finds his new-found faith has become the driving force in his life as he seeks to clear up the world's religious conflicts. Speaking to L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's daily newspaper, Blair said today he considers Pope Benedict's belief that God is central to politics, society, economics and culture "brilliant". Weeks after a packed Catholic conference in Italy gave Blair an ovation for his words about the universality of Catholicism, the pope's newspaper was equally effusive, calling the convert "a gentleman, educated,...

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday no deals were ever made with Libya while he was in power to arrange the Lockerbie bomber's release, a move that has caused outrage in the United States. In an exclusive interview with CNN, Blair denied claims -- made Friday by the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi -- that he raised the case of Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi every time he visited Libya as prime minister. "Let me make one thing absolutely clear," Blair, who stepped down as PM in 2007, told CNN's John Vause on Saturday in Guiyang, China....

Lord Mandelson has dismissed claims that the release of Lockerbie bomber is linked to a trade deal - as the head of the FBI slams the Scottish government. The claim was made by Seif al Islam, the son of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi, in a television interview filmed as Abdelbaset al Megrahi was flown home. "In all commercial contracts, for oil and gas with Britain, (Megrahi) was always on the negotiating table," he said. "All British interests were linked to the release of Abdelbaset al Megrahi." He said he had met Colonel Gaddafi twice in the past year, and on...

The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States has raised many expectations all over the world. In the United States, the voters chose a young, mixed race, brilliant president. He is expected to keep his promise of correcting the errors of the president who preceded him. Some excessive terms have even been used, for example the assertion that the time has come to "rebuild" the United States, or to reorganize the international order. This shows the influence of Saul D. Alinsky (1909-1972), one of the intellectual guides of the new president and Hillary Clinton. There has...

Former premier Tony Blair said the Catholic Church needed to rethink its attitude towards homosexuality, as it is out of step with ordinary church-goers', in an interview published Wednesday. Blair, who converted to Catholicism after leaving office in June 2007, cited a "huge generational difference" as the key to Pope Benedict XVI's opposition to homosexuality. A poll of the congregation at a Catholic Church on a Sunday would reveal how liberal those in attendance were, he claimed. "We need an attitude of mind where rethinking and the concept of evolving attitudes becomes part of the discipline with which you...

I really wanted to go through Holy Week without doing any fisking or public pulling of air or wild rolling of the eyes, but I had the misfortune of reading this piece, just posted by BBC News: "Blair questions Papal gay policy." It reports on a recent interview given by Tony Blair to Attitude, a popular British "gay" magazine (a PDF of the interview, sans advertising, can be accesssed here), which opens by stating Blair "is probably the most prominent pro-gay religious figure in the world." All of those who criticized or expressed serious doubts about the former Prime Minister's...

Tony Blair has challenged the “entrenched” attitudes of the Pope on homosexuality, and argued that it is time for him to “rethink” his views. Speaking to the gay magazine Attitude, the former Prime Minister, himself now a Roman Catholic, said that he wanted to urge religious figures everywhere to reinterpret their religious texts to see them as metaphorical, not literal, and suggested that in time this would make all religious groups accept gay people as equals

From The Times April 8, 2009 Tony Blair tells the Pope: you're wrong on homosexuality Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent Tony Blair has challenged the “entrenched” attitudes of the Pope on homosexuality, and argued that it is time for him to “rethink” his views. Speaking to the gay magazine Attitude, the former Prime Minister, himself now a Roman Catholic, said that he wanted to urge religious figures everywhere to reinterpret their religious texts to see them as metaphorical, not literal, and suggested that in time this would make all religious groups accept gay people as equals. Asked about the Pope’s stance,...

Per article linked on this site - Gordon Brown and others are supporting Tont Blair to become the first "EU President" (new role under EU unification)

Tony Blair, Architect of Britain's Anti-Christian Culture, Complains Christians Are Being Marginalized LONDON, March 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of Britain and leader of the ruling Labour Party for ten years, has decried in an interview the "ludicrous" recent decisions by which the religious expression of Christians is being suppressed in Britain. "I hope and believe that stories of people not being allowed to express their Christianity are exceptional or the result of individual ludicrous decisions. My view is that people should be proud of their Christianity and able to express it as they wish,"...

March 3rd event will bring leading experts from U.S. and abroad to Capitol Hill.Embargoed: February 18, 2009, 6:00 a.m. EST Contact: Ben Edwards Email:Bedwards@cgdev.org, Tel: +1 202 416 0740 Further information available at www.usclimatesymposium.comWASHINGTON, February 17, 2009 - U.S. legislators and business leaders will meet with experts on climate change economics and policy at the Capitol building in March to discuss the challenges and opportunities for U.S. leadership on climate change, it was announced today. U.S. and international policymakers will join climate experts for the one day bipartisan and bicameral event. The cosponsoring Senators to date are Senators Bingaman (D-NM),...

Tony Blair has once again outflanked his old friend Gordon Brown by becoming the first world statesman to shake hands with President Barack Obama. Even though he has been out of office for 18 months it was Mr Blair, to the intense irritation of 10 Downing Street, who was endorsed by the new American president as "my very good friend". Mr Brown had assumed he was locked in a race to beat Germany's Angela Merkel or France's President Sarkozy for the first gilded photo-opportunity with the American president. Only to discover that it was Mr Blair, who beat him to...

We are in the middle of very strange times, and here is some proof---I agree with Hamas! Tomorrow the Times of London is publishing and Interview with the former British PM who is now the Mid East Envoy For the EU. As envoy, Blair has been pushing the same nonsense that hasn't worked for forty years: "Land for Peace, Israel is the bad occupier, the terrorists really do want to reform, It's All Israel's fault" and one of his favorites, "Abbas/Arafat has nothing to do with the military wing of Fatah". The Envoy stayed on script for his interview. He...

TUESDAY may be regarded by future historians as the beginning of the end for the United States of America. It is the first credible date that may become iconic as the moment when the federation that came into existence in 1776 and rose to global hegemony in the 20th century joined Macedonia, Rome and Britain in the catacombs of fallen empires. Barack Obama is America's nemesis. This presidency has the very real potential to impoverish America on a scale that could demote it irreversibly from its economic superpower status. When a politician masquerades as a messiah, be very afraid. This...

Here is video of an interview former British Prime Minister Tony Blair did with Andrea Mitchell today, in which he discusses the state of conditions in the Middle East, and he offers advice to President-elect Barack Obama. . . . . . (watch video)

President Bush tonight awarded America’s highest civilian honour to Tony Blair in a ceremony at the White House. The outgoing President said Mr Blair was “a true friend of the United States” before hanging the Presidential Medal of Freedom around his neck. The former Prime Minister stood in front of the President as the medal was bestowed upon him. “He will stand tall in history,” President Bush said.

Tony Blair recently proclaimed, "I regularly read the Koran, practically every day." He further opined that the Islamic prophet Mohammed had been "an enormously civilizing force." What to make of this? Getting beyond the knee-jerk revulsion to such comments, it may on balance be a good thing that Blair is apparently studying up on Islam. After all, many of our current problems can be traced to a failure of Western policy makers to grasp the basic tenets of Islam. For example, in explaining US support for jihadis in Afghanistan against the Soviets, Zbigniew Brzezinski (Carter's National Security Advisor), poo-pooed any...

Antidisestablishmentarianism is on the march. Which is odd, considering there is only the faintest whiff of disestablishmentarianism to fight. The Archbishop of Canterbury set this hare running with his usual confused mumbling into his beard. To disestablish the church would be "by no means the end of the world", he said bravely. He hastened to add that he did not want the church sundered from the state right now. And he would oppose "secularists [boo, hiss] trying to push religion into the private sphere". This sent the Telegraph and Mail into a spin, claiming a devilish distestablishment plot on the...