Arise, Sir Tony Blair

Well, Sir Tony (not Sir Anthony) has been made a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. Sounds rather fancy, doesn’t it? Most noble, order etc. Apparently it’s the highest honour that can be bestowed upon him, and it was announced yesterday.

I wonder if, now that he is a bona-fide Knight, if he is going to go on a crusade, say, somewhere like the Middle East, or is that a bit passe, a bit noughties?

The garter bit will probably stick in Rupert Murdoch’s throat; the garter in question is possibly his ex-wife’s Wendy Deng’s. I need to be careful here, I’ve watched all available seasons of Succession, so I know full well what Mr Murdoch is capable of, and I’ve watched the karate chopping Deng in action too.

Well, on the back of this announcement, the shit well and truly hit the fan; the interweb thingy lit up like a Christmas tree again and the socials were particularly fascinating. The interesting thing is that in an era of soundbites, social media, very short attention spans and memories that have evolved over the 14 years since he left the office of Prime Minister, some of his policies and actions appear to have left an indellible stain upon not just the UK electorate psyche, but the global one. And this stuff being catapulted off the fan is not pleasant at all, no Sir (Tony). I’d happily get sprayed with it if it could save the several hundred thousand lives that were wasted in the pursuit of your policies.

This morning I wake to read another Knight, this one called Lindsay Hoyle, who is also the Speaker of the House of Commons, is vigorously defending the honour.

There are some wonderful quotes in there, he said he felt the honour, the oldest and most senior British order of chivalry, was “a fitting tribute”, “and I think it is respectful and it is the right thing to do, whether it is Sir David Cameron. They should all be offered that knighthood when they finish as prime minister.”, and “If you have been prime minister of this country, I do believe the country should recognise the service given. Absolutely. You finish in the office and when you’ve finished it is the respect that we give to those prime ministers,”, the final one; “It is not about politics. It is about the position they have held in this country and it’s the respect that we show to those and it is a fitting tribute,”

I’m in complete awe of these quotes and am sat slowly shaking my head as I type. If you get it, you get it. If you don’t, I cannot even be bothered to explain.

As the last few years have shown, the establishment is becoming more and more disconnected from the general public that they serve, they are becoming more and more ridiculous. How can these people take themselves seriously? They are obviously maintaining their vested interests, and the dishing out of awards for a long gone empire is embarrassing. Does Italy dish stuff out for the Roman empire wearing fancy dress togas? Does it heck. As I said, embarrassing.

Currently there is a Change campaign to have Blair’s knighthood rescinded with 120,000 signatures on it, and it is growing fast. It can be found here.

Over a million people reportedly took to the streets of London to protest against the Iraq war back in 2003, the figure was actually two million, but lets not split hairs. The BBC article from the time is here and makes interesting reading.

Lets see how many signatures this Change campaign gets up to and whether it gets ignored in the same way as the Iraq war protests. Please share the link.

3 thoughts on “Arise, Sir Tony Blair

  1. Update – in less than 24 hours, the petition is up to 345,000 from 120,000 signatures. Let’s see how long it takes them before an until an official announcement on the subject is given.

  2. Update – currently the petition sits at over 1,100,000 and the news has gone quiet. Tony Blair seemingly gets to keep his knighthood.

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