War criminal Tony Blair to be given most senior knighthood in new year honours list

sxt · 01-01-2022 4:40pm #1

The former prime minister will be made Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter by the Queen

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/dec/31/tony-blair-to-be-given-most-senior-knighthood-in-new-year-honours-list

Very controversial. A person heavily influential in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians

Opinions on why he would be bestowed with this honour now?

I am a bit flummoxed, l can only think that this decision was taken out of the Queens hands for some future poltics issue?

Raichu · 01-01-2022 4:42pm

honestly, who gives a f u c k.

like it’s a meaningless title from the queen, if we’re lucky she’ll sneeze when placing the sword on his shoulders and give him a wee shave.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 01-01-2022 4:44pm

I thought being a war criminal was one of the best ways of getting one of those things anyway?

growleaves · 01-01-2022 4:48pm

'Opinions on why he would be bestowed with this honour now?'

Because he is active in the media now promoting digital health passports, "climate regimes" and every other unwise garbage idea that the worst of the mainstream establishment wants to push on people.

Astartes · 01-01-2022 4:50pm

He should be knighted into the feckin sea

sxt · 01-01-2022 5:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401451#Comment_118401451

It's a huge Geo political statement by Great Britain though... it Is basically the Queen And Great Britain saying Tony Blair was one of Great Britains most honourable and outstanding people. It is Great Britain politically stating that genocide of Iraqi civilians was just And honourable

Working class heroes · 01-01-2022 5:15pm

War criminal? Was he convicted? Did he do time?

growleaves · 01-01-2022 5:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401634#Comment_118401634

He did a ten stretch in Belmarsh.

Working class heroes · 01-01-2022 5:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401647#Comment_118401647

No he didn’t.

01-01-2022 5:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401468#Comment_118401468

Shots fired and target obliterated, we have a winner

nudain · 01-01-2022 5:42pm

Couldn't picture a better man to parade about in this costume.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Garter#Robes_and_insignia

Larbre34 · 01-01-2022 5:47pm

He's never been convicted anything at all, let alone war crimes, so there is a factual inaccuracy to your headline. I'm not saying he's not uncontroversial as Prime Minister in his decisions in the post 9/11 era, but show me an uncontroversial British prime minister and I'll show you a guy who was in the job for one day.

That aside, the British honours system is self-indulgent nonsense and always has been. Nigella Lawson turned one down years back, saying there was nothing special about being a cook. Even today the Kenny couple who won a bunch of Olympic cycling medals said 'we just ride bikes'

And in fairness to them all, they are right. These baubles are tossed around like confetti and in that regard they are largely meaningless and routine.

So who cares what the royal PR office decides to pin on a politician who has been out of office for 15 years.

Harryd225 · 01-01-2022 5:56pm

The media are equally to blame Sky news and the BBC etc. they promoted and justified the war with fake news and propaganda.

Moral of the story is when it comes to war/conflict then everything the media tells you and does not tell you is designed to influence your opinion.

boombang · 01-01-2022 6:00pm

You don't have to be convicted to be a criminal. Plenty of blood on his hands despite the predictable lack of conviction.

Tom Mann Centuria · 01-01-2022 6:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401820#Comment_118401820

Its not the Royal PR office who decides, it's the government of the day who decides the gongs. Sheet of fag paper between them all though, establishment look after the establishment.

Brucie Bonus · 01-01-2022 6:05pm

No surprise, the UK is built on scheming and murder.

More surprised because he's a catholic.

Dyr · 01-01-2022 6:27pm

I can't believe mass genocidal, convicted war criminal Tony Blair (at least according to Mark Thomas, the Guardian and the usual chorus line) who killed 50 millionty people in Iraq is not in the special Harry Potter prison for baddies.

If you look are Iraq now, with its functioning federal democracy and very pissed off Baathists firmly in their place, it makes you wonder how most Iraqis feel about mass murderer, war criminal, serial killer blah blah Tony Blair (according to John Pilger, Twitter twits, et al) who helped remove actual mass murderer, actual war criminal, actual tyrant Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq?

Not that the Iraqis opinions matter for anything on this topic,of course. 😂

Dyr · 01-01-2022 6:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401863#Comment_118401863

Yet you fail to see how they influenced your own opinion 🤣

Capt'n Midnight · 01-01-2022 6:45pm

Technically speaking under UK law a life sentence means life and the only appeal possible is to the Home Secretary who can overrule it. Since Tony was the Home Secretary's boss there'd be no point and a trial would be a waste of taxpayers money.

Danzy · 01-01-2022 6:51pm

Blair was a good friend to Ireland and without him the Good Friday Agreement would have taken many more years.

Harryd225 · 01-01-2022 7:23pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118402081#Comment_118402081

What are you on about, let's hear it.

Montage of Feck · 01-01-2022 7:32pm

Well he did at least play a part in bringing peace to the north.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 01-01-2022 7:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401634#Comment_118401634

Was Hitler?

Danzy · 01-01-2022 7:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118402522#Comment_118402522

Blair is the only successful left wing leader in Britain, along with Wilson since the 40s.

Are you honestly comparing Blair to Hitler.

Given the Jew baiting and bizzaro Circus of the Corbyn years, destroyed Labour, it may well be the 2030s till another Labour pm appears.

He has advanced more Labour policy than anyone since Clement Attlee in the 1940s.

An achievement that makes him especially unpopular with the activists who love the safety of opposition.

mondeoman72 · 01-01-2022 8:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118402522#Comment_118402522

Was Gerry? He was a politician as well.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 01-01-2022 8:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118402584#Comment_118402584

I was talking in terms of being convicted and doing time as per the point I was responding too.

Dyr · 01-01-2022 8:07pm

Load her up boys, shes' done.

Dyr · 01-01-2022 8:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401886#Comment_118401886

Not only a lack of conviction, a complete lack of any sign of him being brought to trial because there was no credible case to answer for, outside of the venerable court of Irish Times opinion columns

I suppose it makes some people feel righteous to oppose the removal of an actual war criminal that gassed Kurds while they stick PLO flags on their twitter bios 🤣

01-01-2022 8:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118402673#Comment_118402673

Not really, it comes down to there being no will to seek Blair or GW Bush to be punished for the actions with regards to Iraq, and their manipulation/lying to the international community.

If the will was there, then a credible case could be brought against them for an "illegal" war, which ran counter to the UN declarations of the time, and the falsification of evidence to change the attitude of the UN. There's plenty of references to the use of weaponry that brought about "collateral damage", and the killing of civilians... but then, the US was never done for the firebombing of Japanese cities during WW2, with the clear targeting of civilians to weaken the enemy. Western propaganda is pretty good at elevating higher morality, while dismissing the more... dodgy actions while "fighting the good fight".

Dunno about being righteous, but more to do with the abolishing of double standards. The US and other western nations have held other countries up to standards that they themselves are not prepared to abide by. Instead, when the west commits similar actions, it's swept under the carpet, while others get hit with sanctions or other punishments.

It's kind hard to encourage other nations to behave within international guidelines/rules, when western nations are unprepared to do so themselves, except when it's convenient.

elperello · 01-01-2022 9:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118401886#Comment_118401886

Pretty basic rule of law- you can't legally be called a criminal unless you have been convicted by a lawfully convened jury of your peers.

It's really a good principle on the whole.

As an anonymous poster on Boards you'll probably get away with it.

However, don't make a habit of it in public.

Dyr · 01-01-2022 9:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118402816#Comment_118402816

The Americans always made it clear that they were going in for regime change. the UN were quietly told to go and **** themselves, just like they were in the former Yugoslavia where they enabled genocide with their fence sitting before the Yanks lost patience and NATO sorted it.

War criminal Tony Blair to be given most senior knighthood in new year honours list

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