Polly Toynbee (Guardian Utd): Tony Blair alone bears the blame

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Friday May 6

Tony Blair alone bears the blame
The prime minister cannot long survive this election
By Polly Toynbee

The story of the night is the defection from Labour by those marching over to the Lib Dems - and some even to the Tories. Labour MPs never believed those opinion polls giving them an eight or 10 point lead. What they found on the doorsteps was profound anger focused on the person of Tony Blair himself. Today, he alone bears the blame for this haemorrhage of seats.

Tony Blair tried to persuade himself that the Iraq war was a chattering class obsession, but it was everywhere, even among those who usually pay scant attention to foreign policy. It became the symbol and the icon for any disappointment or grievance with the government over the last eight years. It all came down on Tony Blair's head.

At door after door, the voters said: "No, not Tony Blair". Those who never followed the minute details of "who said what when" came to believe the war was wrong, the country was cheated and had been wrongly dragged against its will to fight George Bush's war on a false prospectus. This was a khaki election.

The man who once was the great architect of Labour's rescue from 18 wilderness years is today the man who alone takes the blame for so many lost seats. He cannot long survive this, for he alone dragged his reluctant party to places they did not want to go - above all to Iraq.

Read more.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

1. She's absolutely correct.

If Labour is going to win in 2009-10 with a workable majority, Blair needs to go very soon.

[Robeson]

2. And once again....

...a leader is about to fall, because the leader tied onto, and tried to ride a tiger, known as George Bush. As usual, Bush has left a slug trail, a mile wide.

[bemildred]

3. So this leaves who?

Berluscolini and Howard?
And Bush himself of course.
And 90% of the Congress of the United States.
And the war crimes trials, of course.
Then, I think we'd be done.

[Robeson]

4. Yes, I think an eventual rendezvous with the criminal court in...

...the Hague, would finally put this nightmarish episode in our country's history, to bed.

[burn the bush]

5. well, it'll probably take us 50 years to turn every thing back around

That asshole has destroyed so much in cival rights, economy, ecology, world opinion, respect and trust. That idiot has had a fools hand into everything and it will take the world some time to recover. But.....


it's coming. Don't cha think? I'm beginning to feel a little excited. After all the shit shrub has caused and all the reasons that his regime should have fallen, it's the Brits who are gonna save us. They have a govt that really can hold it's leaders accountable and I am hoping beyond hope that this is just not going away this time. When he goes down, I hope bush falls immediately after. If our dems don't push this one, I will never vote dem again.


the end is near.....the end of the bush cartel that is.

[bemildred]

6. Oh, it's coming allright, but I wish I knew what "it" was.

We live in uncertain times.

[Matilda]

7. Blair's assessment of the outcome ....

"We have to make sure that we focus on the things that matter to
people - the things that they've talked about to me during the
course of this campaign: jobs and living standards and the National
Health Service, and schools and law and order."


http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200505/s1361796.htm


Still in denial. It's spelt I-R-A-Q, Tony.

[Briar]

8. Yes. He hasn't learned a thing. n/t

[Jack Rabbit]

9. It's not just a river in Egypt, is it?

From the BBC Online
Dated Friday May 6 12:25 GMT (5:25 am PDT)

Blair: I've listened and learned

<snip>

Mr Blair, who celebrates his 52nd birthday on Friday, said he appreciated the Iraq war had been a "divisive" issue for the country but insisted that people now wanted to "move on".

</snip>

You bet. The people moved on the Labour toads like Oona King who backed you and reduced your majority by a hundred seats.