Blairs insults us again

Are we not intellegent enough to percieve correctly what we've witnessed? He puts his decision to poke the wasps nest in Iraq as "hand on heart, I thought it was the best thing to do, for my country", Most of us feel that it wasn't, so why does he refuse to accept our opinions as people under his ministration, why does he keep looking to the future for his acceptance as a perfect Premier? We saw him FOLLOW a red faced Bush into battle with the middle east yet he carries on to say, Britain is NOW a leading country! What an insult yet again. He fucked his legacy not us.

 

Your opinion is valid - the mere fact that he put this country into Iraq will NEVER sit well with you and a large proportion of the populace.
WITH hindsight i think he has accepted the mistakes he has made - this ultimately is a matter of perception -does HE think it was a mistake ? NO.
Is he insultuting ME and a vast swathe of OTHER people- NO.
You ofcourse have every right to your opinion.

 

A percentage were opposed to the war but certainly not the majority.
Times change and a majority may now exist true.

 

I'm not sure that's true, though I can't find much in the way of opinion poll figures from before the war. All I've found after a cursory search are a couple of mentions though they are not terribly well sourced:

And this London Mayor site which suggests 72% opposition to the war in March 2003 without specific UN authorisation:
http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/consultation/polls_2003.jsp

Certainly public opposition to the war in the absence of UN authorisation was exceptionally high, even if it was not an absolute majority; this was probably the most unpopular war this country has ever been involved with.

Once the war began I'm sure the polls would have swung to indicate public support for the troops in action. Now, as you say, it's an obvious majority in opposition to the whole debacle.

 

OK I found an opinion poll tracker from trusty old Yougov asking the simple question "Iraq war - right or wrong?", so ignoring the complexities of specific UN authorisation etc. The figures for 2003 (42% opposing) do chime with my memory of what was published at the time:

March 18th 2003
Right 50%
Wrong 42%

April 22nd 2007
Right 26%
Wrong 60%


Source

 

I dislike opinion polls but see that ''popular/public opinion'' is measured by them -

Views of a Changing World 2003
War With Iraq Further Divides Global Publics

Closeness to Troops Boosts Support for War -- but Not By Much

The unscrupulous amongst us can make figures seem to show whatever a prejudice dictates - this ofcourse goes across the board.

What do you think of them -
Do YOU feel insulted ?.

 

What i feel insulted by is the fact that our opinion doesn't matter. It's actually what he said himself. I can't quote it word for word, but it went something like" I know I messed up, it seemed like the right thing to do, I will be seen as a saviour in the future. I actually thought he was pretty good as octimus primoes, but he really messed it up with the war, I don't feel I'm in the minority regardless of polls, what sort of TIT does a poll anyway? I wasn't asked, were YOU? Has anybody on this site given there opinion in a poll? I talk to people and it's very rare that I meet someone who agrees with the war. Even less people seemed to agree with it at the start. Especially as it split us off from the rest of the UN, it was terrifying. Yes I feel slightly insulted, but I do realise that he can't just say, look guys I'm sorry I fucked up, I was forced into invading an innocent country with hidden agendas. It's the fact that he said, i'll be seen as a great man in the future, but not by you lot........why say that?

 

''Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right, 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."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/062a48f4-fef2-11db-aff2-000b5df10621.html

''It has been an honour to serve it [Britain]. I give my thanks to you, the British people, for the times I have succeeded, and my apologies to you for the times I have fallen short.''

mmm well perception is everything - did he REALLY say what you said he said ?.

 

Cant say I do. I realised long ago that my opinions on the majority of matters seemed opposite to what my piers thought.

Hence my conclusions, I thought the war a bad idea therefore the majority would think it a good idea.

 

Strangely my piers have no thoughts on the issue - apart from ''bomb the fuckers'' who those ''fuckers'' are alters from time to time. The majority of the time they tend to have ''towels on their heads'' - yes - my friends are THAT sophisticated.

I tend to have the alternate opinion of my piers also - must be something in the DNA - dunno -were not related are we .

 

Probably just commonality of the dysfunctional.

 

That would be me I'm a member of the Yougov panel. However you may feel about opinion polls, the science of statistical research is a pretty advanced one and these polls are usually quite rigorously weighted to reflect an accurate cross section of the population at large. There's no such thing as a perfect poll but they are pretty good indicators of what people are thinking.

Yes, I am sometimes a tit, but hopefully my titness is statistically representative of the titness of the British public as a whole

Blair's speech in full:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/tonyblair/story/0,,2076754,00.html

 

All this talk of piers

 

He will be gone soon anway..... good

 

You could of found Southend.

 

By the way if anyone wants to join YouGov and get paid an astonishing 50p per survey then use this link
http://www.yougov.com/users/registrationintro_ref.asp?refid=383414&jID=3&sID=1

:whistling

 

As I remember from the ICM polls, in the run up to the war, around 55% were opposed. During the course of the initial conflict, that dropped to around 40%, possibly below, as people swung in favour of supporting the troops regardless of their stance on the reasons for going to war. As the situation has dragged on, support has steadily fallen....

 

I feel a lot better about polls now I know people like you are actually out there taking them man.


One picture catch phrase

 

that's the one I was thinking of.

 

Little tit?