Blair pulls out of book launch

Ed P

So now what do I do with all the rotten tomatoes and odd shoes I've been accumulating?

Maggie

Its not just him who suffers inconvenience, cancellation of plans and no-go areas thanks to the unsafe lawless country he has created after 13 years of New Labour mismanagement.

Billy Blofeld

Apart from the illegal wars, the destruction of our economy, failing to reform government services despite doubling the annual tax take - Blair was an excellent Prime Minister

Chris

"One other thing that should be noted is that the polling suggests that Blair is nowhere near as unpopular in this country as much of the coverage of his book suggests."

No s***. Everyone remotely intelligent knows this, including the Cameron government, which is why they still try to emulate him to an extent.

Norman Dee

I cannot believe that you can feel sorry for Bliar !!! he lied and conned his way against poor opposition to 3 victories and now admits he left us to man he didn't think was good enough for the job. He deserves all he gets and should made to suffer the slings and arrows on the British High Street.like the troops he has us committed to suffering more than slings and arrows on somebody elses High Street a long way from home.

Paddy

Blair was a puppet. The acceptable face of Labour.

Everyday we find out more and more how pathetic he was.

The message will eventually get through to everyone and it's bye bye Labour for ever.

Jean Monnet

Are you sure he wasn't scared of running into Broon?

tom Holland

Oh wake up Forsyth - he destroyed our country. So what if it took him 13 years to do it??

Disillusioned

It is not at all depressing that Blair has had to pullout of his book signing (so much for courage!). What is profoundly depressing is that there are families around this country who have lost loved ones due to his actions vis a vis Iraq. The public rightly detest him for this and no number of carefully worded opinion polls can alter this fact. So what if he won three elections - it's what he did with the power entrusted to him by the electorate that really matters and his record looks pretty shabby to say the least on this front!

Michael

"Profoundly depressing".
I'd hate to see how you feel when something serious and of any importance happened.
Are you on suicide watch?

Gawain

It is the inevitable result of the corrupted political and media culture that will be Tony Blair's longest lasting legacy. There is a monumental human disaster underway in Pakistan, we are still fighting a war in the neighbouring country, a political strike has been called to disrupt London's economy and all our once free press can comment on is cricket cheats, the sexual antics of footballers and the "gayness" of the foreign secretary's baseball cap ! Blair did so much to turn politics into a soap opera and to trivialise the media that he is getting away lightly. As a culture we have forgotten the difference between freedom and license and cannot distinguish the trivial from the important. Cancelling the book signing will give you journalists a whole new soap opera to write up so don't complain, your bosses will be thrilled as they will think it will "sell newspapers" and even more of Blair's book will sell. It's a cesspit !

Jack Dawson

I just wish he'd go away. No-one invited him back. He wasn't voted back into public life. He's a thing, a branded product now, not a world leader. Perhaps if we ignore him he'll skulk away back to wherever he's been.

Tarka the Rotter

Happy to send our troops to face the snipers and bombers of Iraq and Afghanistan, afraid of a few eggs, shoes and chanting... hope he finds that moral compass we heard so much about

Lord Boyders

As I read your piece I feel an uncomfortable sense that you mean what you write. Blair did win three terms, but that does not make him a great man (if anything, it makes us a weak people), there is nothing from his time in office that shines at all. We have been in the dark ages and his autobiography is a shocking testament to a wasted time. Shallow, weak, deluded. What an epitaph. No surprise in an x factor world.

Please stop pandering to Blair. I never voted for him but I know a ridiculous number of people who did. Are you trying to console yourself that it was not a complete waste of time? Hopes dashed, missed opportunity, not his fault, he's a nice bloke who meant well... where's the noose, end it now, it's all to much!

If only Kinnock had won in 1992 none of this would have happened.

I am a bit depressed but don't worry I'll be ok!

Hugh Janus

I strongly disagree. Bliar and his cohorts got away with some truly appalling acts in their 13 years for which charges should have been preferred by now. A few shoes and tomatoes is the very least this smarmy conman should expect. As such he has got off very lightly indeed.

Isn't it odd how the 'Westminster Village' people regard him as some kind of political hero, when the man in the street generally regards him as the lowest form of animal life?

MikeF

Tony Blair was the perfect party leader for the situation in which the country found itself in the late 90s and early 00s - one in which a sound economy was coupled with the evident bankruptcy of the economic thinking of the traditional left and also with a generalised wish to escape the ideological confrontations of the 80s. It was an odd sort of time and one which could not last, not least as the left which had previously tolerated Blair for his ability to win elections began to regain its self-confidence (i.e. sense of its own intolerant self-righteousness). The fact is that Blair was made possible by the success of Margaret Thatcher and in reality all he ever did was trail in her wake. If he had had to face a modern day equivalent of Hughie Scanlon's tanks parked on his lawn - as Harold Wilson would have put it - then he would never have enjoyed the success he did.

strapworld

He obviously did not want Peter Tatchell to conduct a citizen arrest for War Crimes. Now that would have been interesting!

The Laughing Cavalier

I cannot bring myself to feel an ounce of sympathy for this man.

perdix

Bliar conned a significant percentage of the population for many years. An achievement,yes, something to be proud of, no.

anne allan

Nothing to do with the Tube strike? Perhaps he was worried the evening news bulletins would show a sparse crowd at Waterstones.
As for it being profoundly depressing - no, it's not. It's about time Blair realised that the Brits do not view him as the Messiah.

Tiberius

Come on, James; Blair pulling out of a book launch to save other people "the hassle"?

This is pure Campbell; Blair is receiving more publicity as a victim of the cruel world than any mere book launch could provide, and still so many of our suckered public fall for it.

Blair is simply nauseating.

Chris

"The fact is that Blair was made possible by the success of Margaret Thatcher and in reality all he ever did was trail in her wake."

So, under this argument you're basically stating that Margaret Thatcher is responsible in many ways for the economic crash we're now going through...

I agree.

Chris

"Isn't it odd how the 'Westminster Village' people regard him as some kind of political hero, when the man in the street generally regards him as the lowest form of animal life?"

Did you even actually READ the original post!?!

R

Who are these self-righteous idiots who go around throwing things at people?

I disagree with or dislike plenty of people, but I refrain from throwing things at them, because I am not 6 years old.

Private Schultz

Disagree with you on this one James.

I cannot forgive Mr Blair for his duplicity regarding the Iraq war, bigging up his claims so the House didn't vote him down. And now he says he became convinced that Mr Brown would be a disaster as Prime Minister - in that case, if he had any thought at all for the good of the country, he should have ensured that there was at least a competitive election within the Labour party for his successor. A selfish coward, and worringly convinced of how 'right' he is all the time.

On the other hand, I find it quite cheering that police time and effort will be saved.

Captn P

He can add this to his other annual no show at the Cenotaph.

Fex Urbis

"profoundly depressing" ...oh yes truly devastating.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

I'm only surprised that Brown and Mandelson didn't get things thrown at them too. I just regret all the trees which were cut down to produce what is really vanity publishing. Perhaps the Pound Shops will be having a sale of novel loo paper.

Richard of York

@Stroppy

Just where would Tatchel take him? Which court has a warrant out for his arrest?
Is there a court who would agree to try him?

It is nonsense. I wish someone would try it. I would love to see their face when nothing happens and they are left looking like a fool in front of all the cameras.

Liz Brown

Au contraire - I am not depressed by him pulling out
It is the act of a coward - he doesn't want any more egg throwing as this would undermine his claims to be popular
The sooner he buggers back off to spend more time with his money and the Americans, the happier I will be

Swissy J

So many critiques of The Man's book. All of them energising - there's a whole lot of negative feedback out there. Sadly also a lot of dummies who would love Tone to sign the Tome.

My only contribution to the dialogue is a recommended read - not the Tome, but a scholarly short story by Thomas Mann. "Mario and the Magician" - an unholy parallel with the Blair years. And watch that ending. If only.

Edward

"It is profoundly depressing that Tony Blair has had to pull out of his London book signing."

It is profoundly depressing that most journalists think this man is worthy of anything but contempt.

"Whatever you think of Blair, he is a man who led his party to three general elections victories and is the second longest serving Prime Minister of the post-war era. "

Which makes up for the fact that he lied about going to war, trashed our liberties, tore up our constitution, screwed up our economy, and hated and set out to wreck our culture.

"There is something very wrong if he feels he has to cancel an appearance at a book shop because of the threat of disruption from protesters whose intentions do not appear to be entirely peaceful."

There is something very wrong with the fact that people are queueing up to buy his book, despite his past deeds.

You journalists really do inhabit another world.

Holly ......

Apart from being a manipulative,selfish,
money hungry,compulsive liar,Blair was a
straight kinda guy,yeah?
Are we all now to bow and be grateful for his time as PM?
He conned thousands into his virtual utopia,
some are still there,stupidly singing the same old rubbish about the great,three times election winner Blair.
With the credit boom,passed off as the best
thing ever.
Spending,spending,spending and borrowing through the best boom ever...WHY?
Simple,both Blair and Bozo KNEW the public sector was getting out of control and they had to appear to be 'investing' in education
& the golden egg...the NHS.
How do they do that with a credit boom? With millions spending,yet only paying back the minimum? It was bound to leave a big black hole somewhere.
Funny how the reallity of Blair & Bozo is not quite as utopian as they would have us believe.
Still Blair & Bozo never quite ruined some folk....mainly the ones getting paid for writing about him.Including himself.

George Laird

Dear All

It seems that Tony Blair isn’t happy with the reception he is drawing regarding his tour of Britain promoting his book, A Journey.

On his journey, he is encountering shoes and eggs being thrown at him.

James rightly says:

“There is something very wrong if he feels he has to cancel an appearance at a book shop because of the threat of disruption from protesters whose intentions do not appear to be entirely peaceful”.

However, I feel that James would have a hard sell making that point to the families of dead innocent victims in Afghanistan and Iraq.

James, we accept that ‘collateral damage’ is a fact of life so should Blair.

Some people say that Blair should be locked up and on trial in The Hague crimes against humanity.

Maybe a solution is that he stands trial under the Iraqi system.

Finally, don’t confuse spin with being a good Prime Minister, Blair wasn’t, the country is corrupt and the gap between rich and poor has widened.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Verity

Gawain - The "monumental human disaster" in Pakistan is nothing to do with us.

A country that has the money for a nuclear bomb should be attending to its own "human disasters".

Paddy

Holly: Well said.

George Laird: 'Don't confuse spin with being a good PM'.

Grow up James and don't write such drivel.

Osred

George Laird

Could I just say I suppot your campaign to propagate human rights at Glasgow University. Its great to know that people there will be supported in backing, say, T Blairs rights to appear there, or for supporters of the Israeli state to demonstrate there. Its good to know that rights for all are being so publicly backed in an institute of learning, showing their reputatations of being the homes of narrow leftist intolerant dogma are incorrect.

Gawain

Verity, agreed, but then neither are cheating Pakistani cricket players. The disaster in Pakistan is likely to have far more impact on our future because Blair mired us in a war in the region. If the newspapers bothered to report the situation there properly I might decide to buy one.

Kennybhoy

Maggie wrote:

"..thanks to the unsafe lawless country he has created after 13 years of New Labour mismanagement."

It took a lot longer than thirteen years to reduce Britain to her present state.

ndm

James Forsyth writes:

-- There is something very wrong if he feels he has to cancel an appearance at a book shop because of the threat of disruption from protesters whose intentions do not appear to be entirely peaceful.

Tony Blair was not "entirely peaceful" when in 2003 he helped throw Hans Blix and his team of UN Weapons Inspectors out of Iraq and immediately attacked the country hastening the killing of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. The nearest Tony Blair should get to a book is in the library of the prison where he should be living out his life for his part in their deaths.

Clear Memories

There is nothing wrong with the threat of exposure to genuine protest stopping this self-serving war criminal showing his face. It tells you something when the extreme left AND the BNP are protesting on the same side of the same ticket! (or, at least it should do - those who vote Labour never learn, hence the permanent disappointment they live under as their 'heroes' turn to dust).

Just because he won two elections, largely due to the blind collusion of every section of the media in the UK not just overlooking his and Labours faults, but attacking any semblance of opposition to the medias perceived wisdom, doesn't make him anything other than what he was/is - a failed barrister, an intellectual lightweight, a piss-poor judge of character and possibly, as I suspect we will learn as history evolves, the worst Prime Minister this Country ever had (even if you include the mentally-defective Scot)

ajs

George Laird makes good points, occasionally (not necessarily today).
Can we arrange one of those never-ending university places for him , like the fellow who kept on keeping on reading medicine at (was it?) Cork University? Without, however, a computer and access to the internet.