Flattery

[brionon]

I quite enjoy hearing foreigners telling us how wonderful we are, as if other peoples don't ''get on with it'' in times of attack. But I don't want to hear it from Tony Blair-patting ouselves on the back is a bit nauseating ,don't you agree ?

[Andy008]

Blair is in a very difficult position, and whatever he does he will be criticised either way. He is hardly going to turn around and say "Loads of people are dead, and the reaction of Londoners has been absolutely awful, and will only fill the terrorist with confidence"

 

[twiglet4frog]

i half see the questions point. I read the speech ken livingston gave and how he saw londoners calmly going about the rescue attempts without panic or hysteria and he did say their isnt another country in the world capable of that.

I understand he was trying to show a sense of pride and defiance to the terrorists. But the way it sounded that we cope whereas other countries dont was a little arrogant in the way it reads in a newspaper.

Having said that i DO take a sense of pride in how this country copes and worked well, and how this governement for all its good and bad faults, managed to build up such a fantastic emergancy response operation  for this type of incident, how well our emergancy services trained and then put into practice a difficult situation, how proud i am off those injured and affected in keeping calm and helping others. At the end of the day i think our leaders are just trying to give us morale and also show defiance to those who did this

[Merthyr Imp]

Experience has shown that you can't take anything Tony Blair says at its face value. 

[bazwillrun]

Blair as a result of holding Dubya's hand on the way into Iraq is directly reponsible for what happened in London. Iraq was not know as a sponsor of international terrorism nor was London in the terrorists sight until this war, so to listen to his diatribe is the pits. If this had happened before the election he would not be in power know, as for red ken he has a history of verbally protecting and cohorting with enemies of this country.

[MargeB]

No, don't find it nauseating, I think he's speaking his mind. He's right...they are just getting on with it. Spain didn't 'just get on with it'. They sacked their PM and pulled out of Iraq. Then it was West 0, Terrorists 1. Now it's 1-1. Come on London!

[robbieh]

I expect that infact the person who poses this question would doubt and criticise Tony Blair on anything. Perhaps once in a while, even his strongest opponents could give it a rest and ask yourself what they'd like him to do/say instead. Not thank the peoples efforts? Not give encouragement? Perhaps he should say nothing and then be attacked for saying nothing? Give

[Andy008]

Having met Tony Blair some time ago, I can honestly say I do not like him on a personal level, I do not like his politics either as he has simply failed to deliver on so many things.

Blair won and remains in power because, like Adolf Hitler, he is awesomely charismatic. Whether or not you like either man is beside the point.

I watched the news for 2 hours today when something struck me. I saw a still photograph on Reuters and for the first time since 1997 I saw Tony Blair look genuinely, truly angry, his face holding a look of incandescent rage.

I was most impressed. 

[MargeB]

That is impossible, it has been proven scientifically that he has been grinning since birth.

[luckyboy]

'' Blair won and remains in power because, like Adolf Hitler, he is awesomely charismatic. Whether or not you like either man is beside the point.''

What a truly hilarious comparison to draw..oh i forgot you were serious.

 I feel the appeal, believe me. You are exasperated with the manifold faults of Tony Blair and George W Bush. Fighting your government is what you know how to do and what you want to do, and when you are confronted with totalitarian forces which are far worse than your government, the easy solution is to blame your government for them.

''But it's a parochial line of reasoning to suppose that all bad, or all good, comes from the West - and a racist one to boot. The unavoidable consequence is that you must refuse to support democrats, liberals, feminists and socialists in the Arab world and Iran who are the victims of Islamism in its Sunni and Shia guises because you are too compromised to condemn their persecutors.

Islamism stops being an ideology intent on building an empire from Andalusia to Indonesia, destroying democracy and subjugating women and becomes, by the magic of parochial reasoning, a protest movement on a par with Make Poverty History or the TUC.

Again, I understand the appeal. Whether you are brown or white, Muslim, Christian, Jew or atheist, it is uncomfortable to face the fact that there is a messianic cult of death which, like European fascism and communism before it, will send you to your grave whatever you do. But I'm afraid that's what the record shows.'' 

that was from nick cohen in todays observer, a left wing ardent critic of blair but spot on with the analysis about the hypocrisy of his critics mainly on the left.

[BossyBoots]

Tony Blair made the decision to join in the war on terrorism.  Why then is it so hard to believe that London would eventually be a target?