Tony Blair is made a knight

A few days ago, I was alerted to the fact that Tony Blair was made a knight, not any old knight but a Knight of the Garter, which in olden times were the closest confidants of the sovereign of the day.

According to Wikipedia: “Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair KG (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. On his resignation he was appointed Special Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, a diplomatic post which he held until 2015. He has been the executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change since 2016. As prime minister, many of his policies reflected a centrist “Third Way” political philosophy. He is the only living former Labour leader to have led the party to a general election victory; and one of only two in history to form three majority governments, the other being Harold Wilson”.

I recently wrote an article titled “Thoughts on Today’s Labour Party” in which I included the statement “I was not impressed with Tony Blair, who I can now see as the globalist villain he is, despite his achievements making the Labour Party electable”. The article traces my ideological approach to the Labour Party from my early teens when I was a left leaning Labour supporter to being a wannabe supporter, to the current day as a political neutral cannotbe supporter. All sorts of factors influenced that journey to do with policy and perception, and especially leadership. A watershed moment was when Tony Blair became leader and later Prime Minister, winning three General Elections. While it cannot be denied he had the personality and the policies to appeal to middle England and while at the time I was ambivalent regarding political preference, I can look back now at one villain (John Major) being replaced by another villain (Tony Blair) although, as I recall, when Blair became Prime Minister, I voted for our local Conservative candidate, Teddy Taylor, who had been earlier expelled from the Conservative Party over his Euroscepticism, and my writing to John Major in reply to his trying to get me to vote Conservative in the election Blair won, that it was in spite of and not because of Major.

According to Wikipedia “New Labour, New Danger was an advertising campaign run in the United Kingdom by the Conservative Party during the run up to the 1997 General Election”. I thought it was a silly campaign at the time and one that was to backfire, but the devil’s eyes image remains and will be seen by some as being prophetic concerning negative changes to British society following Blair coming to power. Recently, one headline concerning Blair’s knighthood had the title: “‘Absolute national scandal’ Fury as Tony Blair gears up to receive Queen’s highest honour” and reads “SIR TONY BLAIR has become the subject of irate backlash as he prepares to join the ranks of the Queen’s most chivalrous order in a ceremony at Windsor Castle … The former prime minister was a controversial appointment, with a petition to block Sir Tony’s knighthood surpassing one million signatures in just the first week of January. The petition, started by presenter Angus Scott on the platform change.org, is now looking to see Sir Tony’s status as Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter rescinded. Mr Scott launched the petition against the appointment by saying Sir Tony “is the least deserving person of any public honour, particularly anything awarded by Her Majesty the Queen”. Those who oppose Sir Tony’s appointment look to his involvement in the Iraq War, including Mr Scott. Writing on the petition, he said: “Tony Blair caused irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation’s society. “He was personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent, civilian lives and servicemen in various conflicts. “For this alone, he should be held accountable for war crimes …”

While I object to his support for a war (Iraq) and other conflicts, for me it is the way he led Britain further away from an ideology leaning to good to one of bad, epitomised in his promoting the notion of “Cool Britannia” in the millennium celebrations, as opposed to traditional British values, his opening up of its borders to needless immigration and his clear alignment with globalism, seen in his campaigning to keep the UK in the EU and his acquiescence to the Great Reset ideas of the World Economic Forum, I also object to. The thought that he is now in pole position to advise the direction the UK is to take I find disturbing but then I was disturbed long before now. I recall many years ago the Beatles being awarded MBEs and some by way of protest sending back their awards. Ever since, whenever an honours list is announced, I have noted people being honoured who don’t deserve to be and those who should have been honoured being overlooked. Tony Blair is merely the latest in a long line of traversties, reflecting where we are at present as a nation.