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The nation prefers a Belgian to Mr Tony

Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Politics Home has been good enough to poll the nation on the appointment of Van Rompuy, with the key finding being that 61% prefer the Belgian from Central Casting to Mr Tony.  (Snigger).  A derisory 23%  yearn for the Prince over the Water, so he is even less popular than the current government.

More here.

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posted by Croydonian

Tony Blair in 'ignoring his grandmother's dying wish' shocker.

Thursday, October 22, 2009
Yes, really.  As this video at The Washington Post proves:



I've only watched the first ten seconds or so, so maybe there are some other gems there. Apologies for the less than relevant commercial at the start.

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posted by Croydonian

Your chance to vote against Tony Blair

Thursday, October 08, 2009
Did that get everyone's attention?

Anyway, Le Figaro is offering readers the chance to vote on whether Mr Tony would make a good or a bad EU president.  The figures show the 'non' camp winning at present:




Granted this is a self-selecting poll and thus of no statistical value at all, and voting will have achieved nothing.  Apart from making me feel good.... 


Here's the link.

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posted by Croydonian

Tony Blair comes out as a Socialist

Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Or rather 'came out'.

Herewith a link to his 1983 maiden speech.

The best bit:

"I am a Socialist not through reading a textbook that has caught my intellectual fancy, nor through unthinking tradition, but because I believe that, at its best, Socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is both rational and moral".

Some other highlights:

"When I say "well off" I mean very well off. It is not those who earn the average wage who have benefited from the Government's fiscal policy, or even those who earn double the average. The only beneficiaries are those who earn more than three times the average".

OK, so it was Mandelson who was relaxed about people becoming filthy rich, but he was one buttock of the same backside as Mr Tony.

Propping up dead ducks:

"Yet, despite the 40 per cent. unemployment, NSF, a subsidiary of the National Coal Board, announced in February this year a proposal to close the Fishburn coke works....In the recession, NSF loses money. However, the direct cost of closure in terms of redundancy payments, lost taxes and other related costs amounts to £3 million in the first year and £1 million in the following years. To close Fishburn is an act of economic madness multiplied by social disregard on an unbelievable scale. Its only true justification is a blind allegiance to dogma".

Standing up for cigarettes:

"There is not a pit left in my constituency. In the 1960s and the early 1970s, new industry came to the constituency, but it often lacked strong roots. When the recession began to bite, many companies—particularly the multinationals — saw their northern outlets as the ones to be cut. Some still remain, including Thorns and Black and Decker, although both have suffered cutbacks. Carreras Rothman, also in Spennymoor, is one area of growth, but in general terms the picture is bleak".


I've tracked down Heath's and Thatcher's debuts too, Hansard fans. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow.....

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posted by Croydonian

Hearts of stone department

Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Just been sent a press release by Politics Home on attitudes to a President of Europe.

And quite entertaining it is too, in that it looks like Mr Tony is in this position:

"A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house" Mark 6:4.

And for why?: Only 37% of us want him strutting around being horribly pleased with himself while being fawned over as 'Mr President', whereas 47% would rather it went to a Belgian from central casting, if we have to have an EU president. Fie upon the 16% who could not muster an opinion. One might note that Mr Tony is a good deal more popular than the party he presumably still pays a membership fee to - latest polls put Labour somewhere in the mid 20s. Does this mean that those wandering away from the red corner want the Prince over the Water to come back, or are there individuals so patriotic, so to speak, that they would rather have a British SOB in charge rather than the Belgian from etc etc? Furthermore, if offered the louse or the flea in a forced choice, 57% oped for Blair, 11% for Brown. Presumably the other 32% hastened to the bathroom cabinet in search of paracetamols, razor blades or whatever else might put them out of their misery.

More details on the poll here.

I am hoping that the hyperactive French pollsters will do the decent thing and ask the Plain People of France who they want, which might then give the opportunity for much pointing and laughing.

(As a footnote, I *almost* miss Blair - at least he had a way with words and gave the impression that he knew what he was doing)

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posted by Croydonian

Tony Blair supplies 'pogi points'

Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Mr Tony is sojourning in Manila at the mo', and it would appear that the leadership of the Philippines thinks it has a job for him:

"President Gloria Arroyo on Monday sought the advice of Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair on bringing peace to southern Philippines after decades of separatist bloodshed there. The pair discussed the problems in Mindanao, where a violent Muslim insurgency has raged for 30 years, over lunch at the presidential palace"....“The President is confident Tony Blair, with all his experience, can contribute a lot to resolving our peace and order problems in Mindanao,” deputy spokesman Lorelei Fajardo told reporters".

However, opposition Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero is not impressed:

"Tony Blair is just good for public relation or pogi points of the Malacañang”.

Pogi points looks to be the Pinoy term for brownie points (Yes, I had to look it up) and the Malacañang is the equivalent of the White House. Anyway, the Senator would appear to be a perceptive fellow, and is part of a coalition grouping in Manila called 'Genuine Opposition'. One trusts it does what it says on the tin.

Readers of my Methuselah-like vintage will recall that 'chiz' appears in the Molesworth books as a word for 'swiz, swindle'. Thus there is mild amusement to be had from the Senator's website masthead:

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posted by Croydonian

Gordon Brown - more widely loathed than Mahmoud Ahmadeinejad

Friday, November 28, 2008
I am indebted to the Herald Tribune for polling the population of sundry nations on their opinions of sundry political and religious figures, and I have charted what my fellow Britons think:
As ever, click for legibility. Brown is second only to the outgoing President for prompting an unfavourable opinion - 55% to Bush's 71%. Lower percentages express an unfavourable opinion of Castro (47%), Ahmadinejad (40%), Hu Jintao (29%), Bashir Assad (23%) and Hugo Chavez (22%). And what will really sting, Mr Tony is more popular (37% to 33%) and less unpopular (51% to 55%)

I will admit to being a tad dishonest here, as a majority feel unable to express an opinion on four of the five Asian and American rogues.

Elsewhere, only the Dalai Lama sees a majority thinking well of him - 61% - followed by the Pope - 41% - and the original 'pretty straight kinda guy' - 37%.

Brown is more popular in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US of A than he is here and the 49% of Italians who think well of him are welcome to him. Mind you, they all prefer Mr Tony, apart from the Spanish.

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posted by Croydonian

Hell freezes over

Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tony Blair (remember him?) has just been referred to as 'a statesman' in a Russian newspaper.

I am feeling quite nauseous.

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posted by Croydonian

Oh dear....

Thursday, May 29, 2008
Sticking to the topic of vanity projects cooked up by superannuated politicians who just will not let go, that Mr Tony is back. With a bang.

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, brace yourself for "The Tony Blair Faith Foundation". Yes, really.

"On May 30 in New York, Blair, 55, formally unveils The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which, among other things, is dedicated to proving that collaboration among those of different religious faiths can help address some of the world's most pressing social problems".

Doubtless this will end up as being about as significant as The Elders, but meanwhile time to engage in a little light kremlinology to see what Tone has to say about Brown:

"The worst thing in politics...is when you're so scared of losing support that you don't do what you think is the right thing. What faith can do is not tell you what is right, but give you the strength to do it.”

Ho ho ho.


Elsewhere, we discover that Ruth 'wrong crowd' Turner is heading the TBFF (1), and that the writer thinks 'Blair's wife is a devout Catholic'. I think the Pope might have something to say on that score. Blair wants to end malaria, a laudable aim: "If you got churches and mosques and those of the Jewish faith working together to provide the bed nets that are necessary to eliminate malaria".

Consider, however, the map below:

Not many Jews or Muslims in some of those areas, are there?

Further digging shows that the foundation's site is live, if not very lively. Turns out that 'The foundation will work with Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists', which is a bit raw on Taoists, Zoroastrians, Jains, Ba'hais etc etc. Let alone the 800 million adherents of Chinese folk religion.


(1). Which also stands for The Bahamas Film Festival, Taipei Book Fair Foundation, Texas Black Film Festival, Thunder Bay Fly Fishers and the Thomas B Fordham Foundation.

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posted by Croydonian

Memo to Cherie Blair

Friday, May 16, 2008
Cancel the Spanish translation, and don't bother with a promotional tour of your memoirs in Spain:

"The possibility that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair could become the EU’s first president generally produces an adverse reaction among Spaniards, with 45 percent against compared to 37 percent in favor". C/O El País

Mind you, would 37% of Britons want Mr Tony as Holy Roman Emperor?

Further, our Spanish friends may well have discovered the Errors of Socialism (thanks Friedrich Von..) in that

"Two out of three Spaniards believe Spain has “little or no influence” in the European Union, according to a new opinion poll that confirms public perceptions of their country’s waning influence in the world...Spain’s Socialist government finds itself increasingly isolated in Europe, following the election of right-of-center leaders in Germany, France and, most recently, Italy".

Ho ho.

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posted by Croydonian

What Mr Tony did next

Friday, January 04, 2008
Or rather will do, Libération noting he is a surprise (well that's his thunder stolen) invitee for a little leftie colloquium in France at the end of the month. 'Lord' Adonis will be there too.

The instigator of all this is Eric Besson, a minister in Fillon's Gaullist administration, having jumped from Royal's campaign over her flawed economics, and is seeking to 'design the international contours of the centre left'. Quite a modest ambition then, as I suppose he has recognised that the Vicar of Bray act is not really a practical career scheme for all of his ideological comrades.

Meanwhile, Mr Tony has autre amis francais in that he is off to a Gaullist bunfight mid-month too. I suspect he will not be hanging out with any of the various Trot groupuscules though.

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posted by Croydonian

Eight for 2008

Saturday, December 29, 2007
It is meme time again, and His Grace the Archbishop Cranmer has invited me to have a crack at an eight part wish list. This will call for further mulling, but I will start with the big one:

1 - Gordon Brown to resign the prime ministership, and to apply to be the Steward and Bailiff of Her Majesty's Three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham in the county of Buckingham (The Chiltern Hundreds). Further he will offer a lengthy apology to the nation and to the better man (yes, I did just write that) he plotted and connived against for years, refuse a pension, any offers for his memoirs and then disappear from public life. By way of making amends, he will then do something at least harmless and possibly useful, perhaps along the lines of starting a sheep farm on an uninhabited island somewhere in the Outer Hebrides, while - naturally - forswearing any agricultural subsidies.

2 - The cancellation of the 2012 Olympics

3 - The End of History, pt II, this time featuring the final triumph of liberal democracy, free markets and the rule of law in China, the Middle East, Africa, and elsewhere.

To be continued.

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posted by Croydonian

Good news for the residents of Chester Square

Thursday, November 08, 2007
The Daily Telegraph (paper edition only) notes that Mr Tony and his brood are proving a right nuisance to the blameless residents of said London square.

However, salvation might be at hand, as he has just been offered 'a luxury villa' worth £2.4m in the doubtless delightful Dongguan, "a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong province, People's Republic of China [and] an important industrial city located in the Pearl River Delta". Apparently it has the world's largest mall, so La Booth would approve, although she might have trouble with the concept of payment....

And what has he done to deserve this bounty? Shilling for Guangda Group, a property company that has been funding his Chinese jaunt. Whether he will take up the offer of the villa is as yet unknown, but he also picked up £240,000 for a three hour trip to the property development. While normally I would sympathise with just about anyone who has suffer three hours of guff from property developers, that is a fair scratch for his troubles.

At least one of the reporting papers does not think Guangda got its value for money: "Like reports made by some local officials, there was nothing new in his views ... so was the speech worth the large sums of money paid out by local officials and businesses?...We should exercise less ostentatiousness and vanity ... learn more new and genuine knowledge -- especially when we are using even a penny of taxpayers' money".

So, the Blair 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' tour would appear to have added the 'People's Republic' of China to the existing successes of dear old Blighty and Israel.

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Looks like he'll be relying on his memoirs

Tuesday, November 06, 2007
The 'he' in question being Mr Tony. (I would not say I miss him, but at least one never had the impression that the nation was one bad news story away from the Supreme Leader having a nervous breakdown)

Anyway, Blair is making a nuisance of himself in the Levant, and at least some of the locals are far from impressed:

"How would you rate Tony Blair's performance as Mideast envoy?"

69% - Poor
21% - Fair
10% - Good

Given that this is a self-selecting click poll, I suppose family members might have been voting for him.

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posted by Croydonian

Alistair Campbell may have dropped someone in it....

Wednesday, July 11, 2007
From the coverage I've skimmed, Campbell's diaries seem to be remarkably dull and have been purged of all content of any great moment, but for this bit:

"On 28 February 2003, after just 5% of people questioned in Spain back the war: "TB said to [Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria] Aznar that 4% was roughly the number you could get in a poll for people who believed Elvis was alive, so he had a struggle."

And this is where it gets interesting, as "The Andalusian United Left-Green coalition has cited the diaries of Campbell...in a campaign to have ex-Prime Minister of Spain José María Aznar tried for war crimes". Source, pdf only. "According to United Left deputy Antonio Romero, the revelation shows “the disregard shown by [...] Aznar for Spanish public opinion.” The party is inviting citizens to sign an online petition to bring Aznar to trial".

It is a rather odd conception of international law that considers legality of an action to be based on popularity.....

Meanwhile, the Izquierda Unida Los Verdes - Convocatoría por Andalucía appears to be a ragbag of "leftists, greens, left-wing socialists and republicans, but...dominated by the Communist Party of Spain".

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Petition o' the day

Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Is this one: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Honour Tony Blair for his ten years as Prime Minister especially in his contribution in the third world, Helping the poor of Africa, London's 2012 Olympic bid, Appearance on a fundraising show with Catherine Tate for Comic Relief plus so many more".

Quite the candidate for Private Eye's 'Order of the Brown Nose'. The creator is one Alan C. K. Lee MC MSYP. MSYP appears to stand for 'Member of Scottish Youth Parliament', so I suppose the dodgy grammar and the sentiments can be excused on the grounds of age. I suspect that MC does not stand for Military Cross, but who knows? Acronym Finder offers a number of other options.

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posted by Croydonian

The man with a conscience on a time switch

Friday, June 22, 2007
Mr Tony, it would appear, is going to Rome. Shame it is not Canossa.

This is not the place to argue the rights and wrongs of individual faiths, but what is interesting is that Blair's move to Rome has been foreseen for so long, but only now with his term in office nearly over is he going to take the plunge, apparently.

If someone has a a sincere belief in anything, be it a conception of God, a position on abortion, the death penalty or whatever, there comes a time when the spiritual Rubicon is crossed - one believes something that one did not believe before. For Blair to hold on like so, apparently, puts him in the category of those vegetarians who decide that they need just one last steak, or more likely one last hamburger, before taking the step.

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Mr Tony having trouble with facts again

Monday, June 18, 2007
"But I think the danger is - and I say this as someone who has had a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with the House of Lords over the years - but I do think we benefit from having people who have not necessarily spent their life in politics who come in with broader experience and so on." Source

There are an awful lot of Lords, and I lack the time or the energy to go through every last one, so I am restricting this to the Labour Lords A-B, reckoning that it /ought/ to be reasonably representative. Anyone feeling enthusiastic can find them all here.

Lord Acton - 4th of that line, and unlikely to be a patch on the original
Baroness Adams of Craigielea - Former Labour MP
Lord Adonis - Lifelong wonk / hack / academic
Lord Ahmed - Recent appointee. Focuses on Muslim issues.
Lord Alli - Known Tony crony and media type
Baroness Amos - Councillor prior to being ennobled
Lord Anderson - Former Labour MP
Baroness Andrews - Former Kinnock adviser
Baron Archer of Sandwell - Former Labour MP
Lord Ashley - Former Labour MP
Baroness Ashton - Quango queen
Lord Attenborough - Yes, that Attenborough
Lord Bach - Lawyer
Lord Barnet - Of formula fame. Former Labour MP
Lord Bassam - Former councillor and Labour PC
Lord Berkeley - Biography as yet unfound
Baron Bernstein - Major contributor
Lord Bhattacharyya - Academic. "He has often claimed that his father was India's ambassador to the UN but this is not true". Source

Lord Bilston - Former Labour MP
Baroness Blackstone - Academic
Lord Blease - Career trade unionist / NI Labour party candidate
Baroness Blood - "Baroness Blood possesses the natural abilities of a vampire, including enhanced strength, hypnotism, the ability to replenish her strength by sucking blood from others and transform others into vampires. Thanks to her having drunk from the Holy Grail, she can exist in sunlight indefinitely, and can temporarily share this power with other vampires who drink from her. She can also generate and control lightning". Apparently. Although this might be a different one.
Lord Borrie - Lawyer
Lord Boyd - Lawyer
Lord Bradley - Former Labour MP
Lord Bragg - Or Melvyn to his friends
Lord Brennan - Lawyer at Matrix chambers...
Lord Brett - Public sector trade unionist
Lord Brooke - Public sector trade unionist
Lord Brookman - Public sector trade unionist
Lord Brooks - Former Labour PC
Lord Burlison - Public sector trade unionist

"...but I do think we benefit from having people who have not necessarily spent their life in politics who come in with broader experience and so on." Indeed Tony, indeed.

And with that I'm off out to Doughty Street.



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posted by Croydonian

Where were you when Thatcher stood down?

Thursday, May 10, 2007
Inspired by a post chez Dizzy on the End of Blair (maybe...) where he refers to being in a PE lesson at school when the greatest peacetime Prime Minister of the 2oth century announced her resignation, I was mulling on what I was doing and who told me.

At the time I was doing a McJob as a messenger at an investment bank and was told the news by a colleague. Banking being what it is, there was not much glee in evidence at the establishment, and I was able to pass the rest of the working day without having anyone intruding on private grief.

What about the readership?

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Someone still likes Mr Tony...

Friday, May 04, 2007
The Portuguese prime minister, José Socrates, in an interview in Le Point:

"You are often described as the Portuguese Tony Blair. Does that please or irritate you?"

"It pleases me. And I take it as a great compliment. In ten years of power, Tony Blair has achieved considerable change in Great Britain".

Pass the hemlock....

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posted by Croydonian