Watching people give frank opinions on Tony Blair will restore your faith in humanity

GoogleBox viewer and Tony Blair
Avatar


In the show Gogglebox, people recently gave frank opinions on an appearance by Tony Blair on the Andrew Marr Show. Marr was interviewing Blair about the Labour and Conservative MPs who splintered from their parties to join a new ‘centrist’ parliamentary faction.

If you’re fed up with the Westminster bubble simpering over Blair, the comments from Gogglebox participants will restore your faith in humanity:

 

A toxic legacy

The opinions aired on Gogglebox chime with Blair’s 72% disapproval ratings. Taken together, they suggest that Labour’s fundamental shift away from Blairism under Jeremy Corbyn is key to its newfound success. The party increased its voteshare by more than at any point since 1945 in the 2017 election.

On Gogglebox – where we watch others watching TV, one participant put the notion of returning to Blair’s era to bed:

Back to what? This is why… we’re in the shit like we are.

Responding to Blair talking about himself, another epitomised how most people are done with personality politics. She ridiculed the former prime minister, singing:

Me me me me me me me me me

Another concurred:

Ah he’s fucking singing his own praises again. Tony, that’s old news – fuck off.

The Iraq war seems to overshadow Blair’s investment in education and healthcare. And rightly so. Approximately one million Iraqi people died because of Blair and George W Bush’s neo-colonial invasion in order to privatise the country’s oil reserves. The war also provided fertile ground for the rise of extremist groups such as Daesh (Isis/Isil). It was based on Tony Blair’s “dodgy dossier” – a fabrication paraded across the corporate media that has allegedly made the former prime minister a fortune.

The Gogglebox clip is further evidence that Labour should continue to distance itself from Blair. It certainly helps that Corbyn – a man who opposed the Iraq war and Blair’s capitulation to Thatcherism – is the Labour leader. The only people who still treat Blair as a serious voice, meanwhile, are political and media elites.

Featured image via YouTube – Podcast Devotee / YouTube – BrexitCentral

We need your help ...

The coronavirus pandemic is changing our world, fast. And we will do all we can to keep bringing you news and analysis throughout. But we are worried about maintaining enough income to pay our staff and minimal overheads.

Now, more than ever, we need a vibrant, independent media that holds the government to account and calls it out when it puts vested economic interests above human lives. We need a media that shows solidarity with the people most affected by the crisis – and one that can help to build a world based on collaboration and compassion.

We have been fighting against an establishment that is trying to shut us down. And like most independent media, we don’t have the deep pockets of investors to call on to bail us out.

Can you help by chipping in a few pounds each month?

The Canary Support us

Related articles