Goodbye Tony Blair

It’s official, Britain’s Tony Blair will resign effective June 27th, after ten years as England’s Prime Minister, the longest serving PM this century after Margaret Thatcher.

Blair’s been an English version of Bill Clinton, bringing the Labour Party out of eighteen years of political isolation and back to a Centrist Party devoid of all references to the failed policies of socialism.

Despite a long string of accomplishments including helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland and transforming Britain’s Labour Party from an extreme Left-wing rabble, with little political currency into a Centrist pro-market Party with considerable political clout today, his tenure will be dominated by sentiments over Iraq.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, it was right, Blair said, to "stand shoulder to shoulder with our oldest ally, and I did so out of belief."

Even thought the charges that “the invasion of Iraq was based on lies” has been thoroughly debunked by documentation that not only did virtually EVERY Intelligence Agency in the world believe Saddam’s Iraq had WMDs, so did the UN and Saddam’s own Generals, as Hussein encouraged and used that belief as a strategy of “deterrence by doubt,” the mismanagement of the post-war occupation of Iraq has eroded support for the effort.

"Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right," Blair told party workers and supporters at Trimdon Labour Club in his Sedgefield constituency in northern England. "I may have been wrong, but that's your call. But believe one thing if nothing else. I did what I thought was right for our country."

Blair had the courage to do what he believed was right without regard to political consequences and as a result Conservative leader David Cameron, who at age 40, has revitalized the party of Margaret Thatcher, since he became leader in 2005, could win a majority in parliament in the coming national elections.

Blair’s dour successor, Gordon Brown, will have to overcome not only his personal lack of charisma but the “Honors scandals” that have rocked the Labour Party.

The past few months have seen a police investigation into claims that the Labour party traded political honors for cash. Senior Blair aide Ruth Turner, Blair's chief fundraiser Lord Levy and two others have been arrested during the police inquiries into claims that seats in the House of Lords and other honors were awarded in exchange for party donations. Prosecutors are considering whether anyone should be charged.

Blair was questioned twice by police as a witness, but is not considered a suspect, but the scandal may well make it difficult for Labour to win in the upcoming elections.

Tony Blair is Right Again

What’s the world coming to?
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First Tony Blair (“The Bill Clinton of England”) supported the invasion of Iraq, and now he blames political correctness for downplaying the disproportionate black crime rate in England.
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Tony Blair yesterday claimed the spate of knife and gun murders in London was not being caused by poverty, but a distinctive black culture. Those remarks angered community leaders, who accused him of ignorance and failing to provide support for black-led efforts to tackle the problem.
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But what’s led to those comments?
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Well, according to the Sun, “Police numbers disclosed that violent crime leapt 22 per cent last year, with female rape increasing by 27 per cent — from 8,990 to 11,441.
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“Overall, police recorded 5,899,450 crimes compared with 5,525,316 the previous year.
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“That represented a RISE of 7 per cent.
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“The disturbing statistics showed:
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 “Murder, manslaughter and killing of infants JUMPED by 18 per cent, from 891 to 1,048. Violence against individuals ROSE 28 per cent from 650,474 cases to 835,101.
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 “Wounding and violence involving weapons was up 11 per cent from 28,796 cases to 32,104. Offences under the Firearms Act LEAPED from 3,247 to 3,572. Assaults on police officers were UP 12 per cent to 33,742.
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“Last night’s statistics followed the revelation in January that the use of firearms was rampant.
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“A report showed a 35 per cent rise in gun crime, to 9,974 offences.
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“And officials admitted yesterday that possession of firearms, including sub-machine guns, was “out of control” in Birmingham, Manchester and three London boroughs.” <
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Black community leaders reacted after PM Blair said the recent violence should not be treated as part of a general crime wave, but as specific to black youth. He said people had to drop their political correctness and recognize that the violence would not be stopped "by pretending it is not young black kids doing it".
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Mr Blair's remarks are at odds with those of the Home Office minister Lady Scotland, who told the home affairs select committee last month that the disproportionate number of black youths in the criminal justice system was a function of their disproportionate poverty, and not to do with a distinctive black culture.
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Remember the days when Americans used to look to places to like England, France (which also has a surging violent crime rate) and Germany (ditto) as examples of low crime nations that America should model itself after?

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Well, the truth is Blair is largely right and the British Home Office minister, Lady Scotland is completely wrong.

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Blair is right that violence is NOT a natural outgrowth of poverty.

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It's also NOT exclusively the purview of "black culture," but Underclass culture and as Charles Murray noted a decade ago in The Coming White Underclass, that culture cuts across ethnic lines.

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One of Europe's major problems is a growing and frankly vilely anti-European Muslim population. Islamic culture remains Medieval. Moreover, it is fiercely anti-modern, which, of course, makes it decidedly anti-Western.

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Aside from the large influx of unassimilable Muslims, there is also a large influx of Africans and Carribeans (especially in England and France, former Colonial powers). the problem with those groups is that the vast majority of those folks do not come to the West with First World skill sets.

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There's a huge difference between someone like Ayann Hirsi Ali (born in Somalia) and now a noted author and member of Parliment in the Netherlands and the legons of trogladites who set fires to hundreds of cars during weeks of rioting in France last summer.

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It's skill sets not culture. Those with high skill sets tend to deal well with First World economies, while those with low skill sets do not. The problem that much of Western Europe is now facing is a problem all too familiar to America - the underclass. A group of overwhelmingly reckless and irresponsible people, many of whom have been bred in dependancy, and feel entitled to public support.

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This pits the underclass against those who produce and often against society at large, which they often blame for their own problems.

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One of the vital questions facing the West today is "How do we deal with the underclass?"

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It's a question that should have been dealt with more seriously decades ago, but it is certainly becoming more pressing with each passing year. It is positively dysgenic for societies to allow those dependent on public assistance to breed at will.

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Poverty is caused by behaviors - reckless and irresponsible behaviors. It stands to reason that people who are so reckless and irresponsible as not to be able to meet their own most basic needs, are also, at that point (while wards of the state), unfit parents.

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Sadly, that may be a long time coming.

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Let's hope it doesn't come too late.