Tony Blair
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Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (Born May 6, 1953) Politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom;
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- I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.
- 1995 speech to the Labour Party Conference
- A day like today is not a day for soundbites, really - we can leave them at home - but I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders, I really do.
- 8 April 1998, Belfast - On the Good Friday agreement.
- The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.
- 2 October 1994, in The Mail on Sunday
- Its decided, our new minister for education is Richard Steve Goldberg
- 5 September 1999, Prime Ministers question time
- Saddam Hussein's regime is despicable, he is developing weapons of mass destruction, and we cannot leave him doing so unchecked... He is a threat to his own people and to the region and, if allowed to develop these weapons, a threat to us also."
- 10 April 2002, House of Commons
- I don't like it to be honest when politicians make a big thing of their religious beliefs, so I don't make a big thing of it.
- 17 May 2002, interview with Jeremy Paxman
- Look, I'm a person, an individual with a character and part of my character is about what I believe in and part of my beliefs obviously is a religious conviction. I simply hesitate whenever I get drawn into this territory because I have found, over time, that it either leads to people misunderstanding the basis upon which you are taking decisions or it leads to people trying to colonise God or religion for one particular political position. I make no claims to that at all.
- 17 May 2002, interview with Jeremy Paxman
- It [the intelligence service] concludes that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons, that Saddam has continued to produce them, that he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes, including against his own Shia population; and that he is actively trying to acquire nuclear weapons capability.
- 24 September 2002, House of Commons
- Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, Saddam has continued to produce them, he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be deployed within 45 minutes.
- 2002 Sept 24, Addressing the House of Commons
- Sometimes, and in particular dealing with a dictator, the only chance of peace is a readiness for war.
- 2002, October 2, at the Labour conference in Blackpool. Perhaps echoes an old latin proverb, Si vis pacem, para bellum (If you want peace, be prepared for war).
- The intelligence is clear: (Saddam) continues to believe his WMD programme is essential both for internal repression and for external aggression...The biological agents we believe Iraq can produce include anthrax, botulinum, toxin, aflatoxin and ricin. All eventually result in excruciatingly painful death.
- 25 February 2003, House of Commons
- If we don't act now, then we will go back to what has happened before and then of course the whole thing begins again and he carries on developing these weapons and these are dangerous weapons, particularly if they fall into the hands of terrorists who we know want to use these weapons if they can get them.
- 11 March 2003, MTV debate
- We are asked now seriously to accept that in the last few years-contrary to all history, contrary to all intelligence-Saddam decided unilaterally to destroy those weapons. I say that such a claim is palpably absurd.
- 18 March 2003, House of Commons
- As I have said throughout, I have no doubt that they will find the clearest possible evidence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.
- 4 June 2003, House of Commons
- “What amazes me is how many people are happy for Saddam to stay. They ask why we don't get rid of Mugabe, why not the Burmese lot. Yes, let's get rid of them all. I don't because I can't, but when you can you should." - quoted in "Why Are We In Iraq? (And Liberia? And Afghanistan?)", by Michael Ignatieff, The New York Times, September 5, 2003
- Don't say yes to that question, that would be difficult.
- 2004 November 13, Mr Blair interrupted when a reporter asked Bush if he sees Blair as his poodle.[1]
- It is not a sensible or intelligent response for us in Europe to ridicule American argument or parody their political leadership.
- November 15, 2004, during his annual foreign affairs speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in London urging Europe to stop ridiculing American President George W. Bush.
- This is the time for this house, not just this government or indeed this prime minister, but for this house to give a lead, to show that we will stand up for what we know to be right, to show that we will confront the tyrannies and dictatorships and terrorists who put our way of life at risk, to show at the moment of decision that we have the courage to do the right thing.
- The closing of Tony Blair's speech to the House of Commons opening the debate on the 2003 Iraq War
- Do I know I'm right? Judgements aren't the same as facts. Instinct is not science. I'm like any other human being, as fallible and as capable of being wrong. I only know what I believe.
- 2004 Labour Party Conference, referring to the fact that no WMDs had been found in Iraq.
- Yes, I did have to struggle very hard to get this [the vote on the Iraq war] through, but the reason I did it was because I thought it was the right thing to do. I didn't take this on myself... just because I thought, 'Let's give myself a really hard time for a couple of years!'
- 28 April, 2005 on Question Time's election special programme
- He may want to pose as the nice Dr. Jekyll, but we know that, deep down, he is still the same old Mr. Howard
- Commons Hansard (26 Nov 2003)
- Ideals survive through change. They die through inertia in the face of challenge.
- 23 June 2005, to the European Parliament in Brussels
- Our determination to defend our values and way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism upon the world.
- 7 July 2005, statement from Scotland's Gleneagles Hotel, in response to the terrorist attack on the London Underground.
- The spirit of our age is one in which the prejudices of the past are put behind us, where our diversity is our strength. It is this which is under attack. Moderates are not moderate through weakness but through strength. Now is the time to show it in defence of our common values.
- 16 July 2005, at the Labour Party national conference.
- I fear my own conscience on Africa. I fear the judgement of future generations, where history properly calculates the gravity of the suffering. I fear them asking: but how could wealthy people, so aware of such suffering, so capable of acting, simply turn away to busy themselves with other things? What greater call to action could there be? Did they really know and yet do nothing? I feel that judgement of the future alongside the now. It gives me urgency. It fills me with determination.
- 11 March 2005, at the launch of the Commission for Africa Report
- Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.
- 9 November 2005, in the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Questions
- This is not a clash between civilisations. It is a clash about civilisation.
- 21st March 2006 - Foreign Policy speech at Reuters Headquarters, London, England
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As Leader of the Opposition
Tony Blair, Leader of the Opposition (Lab): Has the Prime Minister secured even the minimal guarantee from the Euro-rebels that, on a future vote of confidence on Europe, they will support him?
John Major, PM (Con): I can sense the concern in the right hon. Gentleman's voice. Perhaps he would like to tell me whether he has received the support of the 50 MPs who defied his Front Bench over Maastricht; of the 40 who defied him over European finance; on a single currency, where the right hon. Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham) was in dispute with the deputy leader of the Labour party; and on clause IV, which half his, I think he called them, infantile MEPs want to keep. He does not, and his deputy leader does one day and does not the next. These are party matters. Will the right hon. Gentleman tell us what his position is?
TB: There is one very big difference--I lead my party, he follows his.
- 25 April 1995, Prime Minister's Questions Hansard, 25 April 1995
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As Prime Minister
Sir Michael Spicer, MP (West Worcestershire-Con): What are the characteristics of old Labour that he dislikes so much? [Interruption.]
Tony Blair, PM (Lab): I am afraid that the Hon. Gentleman will have to repeat that.
MS: What are the characteristics of old Labour that he dislikes so much?
TB: Basically, that it never won two successive terms of Government and, perhaps, that it never put the Conservative party flat on its back, which is where it is now. Thankfully, we are running an economy with low inflation, low mortgage rates and low unemployment; fortunately, we are doing a darn sight better than the Government of whom the right hon. Gentleman was a Member, who had—I thank him for allowing me to mention this—interest rates at 10 per cent. for four years, 3 million unemployed and two recessions. Whether it is old Labour or new Labour, it is a darn sight better than the Tories.
Hansard, 26 Jan 2005 : Column 302
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Attributed
- I never make predictions. I never have and I never will.
- Also attributed to Margaret Thatcher.
- Before people crow about the absence of Weapons of Mass Destruction, I suggest they wait a bit. 28 April, 2003.
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Speeches
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Quotes by others about Blair
- Wow, I can't believe we just met Mr. Bean!
- --Homer Simpson's comment after meeting Tony Blair
- He was the future once...
- --David Cameron on Blair during their first exchange in Prime Ministerial Questions
- I believe Tony Blair is an out-and-out rascal, terminally untrustworthy and close to being unhinged. I said from the start that there was something wrong in his head, and each passing year convinces me more strongly that this man is a pathological confidence-trickster. To the extent that he ever believes what he says, he is delusional. To the extent that he does not, he is an actor whose first invention — himself — has been his only interesting role.
- --w:Matthew Parris, w:The Times, March 18 2006[2]
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External links
bg:Тони Блеър
