British Prime Minister (1953- )
Sometimes, and in particular dealing with a dictator, the only chance of peace is a readiness for war.
TONY BLAIR
speech to the Labour conference in Blackpool, 2 October 2002
Obviously, I'm a centrist. I'm an avowed centrist, and I believe that--centrism is often--it's almost the wrong word to use, because it's often seen as sort of splitting the difference between right and left. Or, you know, we've gotten into this situation where people talk about triangulation. My course has never been about triangulation, and neither, really, is Bill Clinton's. It's not--it's about applying your values to the future in a practical and unblinking way, and that is an ideological view that is every bit as strong as views from the left or from the right.
TONY BLAIR
interview, Politico, August 24, 2016
Labour has always won when it secured the centre of British politics, addressed the future and broadened its appeal; and yet despite this obviously being true, we have exhibited an extraordinary attachment to retreating into a narrow part of the left which has always ended in defeat.
TONY BLAIR
New Statesman, February 20, 2020
So, here we are, back where we were before. And before that. And before that.
TONY BLAIR
New Statesman, February 20, 2020
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.
TONY BLAIR
House of Commons debate on Iraq, 18 March 2003
That's the art of leadership. To make sure that what shouldn't happen, doesn't happen.
TONY BLAIR
interview, Newsweek International, February 20, 2007
Brexit reminds me a bit of the Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles where the sheriff, at one point during it, holds a gun to his own head and says: 'If you don't do what I want I'll blow my brains out.' -- you want to watch that one of the 26 (other EU members) don't say just go ahead.
TONY BLAIR
BBC News, 23 January 2013
This mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today. It is perpetrated by fanatics who are utterly indifferent to the sanctity of human life and we, the democracies of this world, are going to have to come together to fight it together and eradicate this evil completely from our world.
TONY BLAIR
speech to the Trades Union Congress shortly after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, 11 September 2001
Socialism for me was never about nationalization or the power of the state, not just about economics or even politics. It is a moral purpose to life, a set of values, a belief in society, in co-operation, in achieving together what we cannot achieve alone. It is how I try to live my life, how you try to live yours--the simple truths--I am worth no more than anyone else, I am my brother's keeper, I will not walk by on the other side. We are not simply people set in isolation from one another, face to face with eternity, but members of the same family, same community, same human race. This is my socialism and the irony of all our long years in opposition is that those values are shared by the vast majority of the British people.
TONY BLAIR
attributed, "Socialism Is So Hot Right Now", Commentary, 17 September 2018
Politics is a far more intellectual business than is often realized. You may think: Well, if it's simplicity that's required, you don't need a whole lot of detail. Wrong. The simplicity is not born of superficial analysis. It is simple precisely because it is the product of being worked through.
TONY BLAIR
A Journey: My Political Life
The genius of Barack Obama was precisely that he reached out and over the partisan divisions. He did so explicitly. The desire of some of his present-day critics to drag him back from the centre is absurd. The espousal of centrist politics is not a betrayal. It was what he promised.
TONY BLAIR
A Journey: My Political Life
I thought hard about taking stock on the Labour Party's 120th anniversary. It's not as if my advice is particularly welcome to today's party. But then it occurred to me that there are only two people born in the last 120 years who have actually won an election for Labour. And alas Harold Wilson is long gone.
TONY BLAIR
New Statesman, February 20, 2020
As I have said throughout, I have no doubt that they will find the clearest possible evidence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.
TONY BLAIR
replying to questions following statement on the G8 summit, House of Commons, 4 June 2003
A new dawn has broken, has it not?
TONY BLAIR
victory speech at Labour election-night party, Royal Festival Hall, London, 2 May 1997
Whoever leads the Labour party again I will want to be loyal and supportive to them. It's difficult frankly because the minute you make a comment about anything it can be turned round. I am very conscious of the fact, and I always used to think when I was prime minister, that when I retire the last thing I want to be is someone who causes trouble for the prime minister who comes after me. Or any other prime minister, and that includes the current one. Because I know how tough a job it is. I know how difficult it is to do and, frankly, why would anyone be interested in what I have to say about the government other than to cause trouble for it?
TONY BLAIR
Guardian, September 1, 2010
We can correct our historical and contemporary weaknesses; or be consumed by them.
TONY BLAIR
New Statesman, December 18, 2019
One of the things that I've been doing over the past few years is reevaluating my own powers of political analysis.
TONY BLAIR
interview, Politico, August 24, 2016
If you're interested in politics and you're not following it, then it's a little bizarre.
TONY BLAIR
interview, Politico, August 24, 2016
As for those that carried out these attacks there are no adequate words of condemnation. Their barbarism will stand as their shame for all eternity.
TONY BLAIR
Tony Blair in His Own Words
We've tried three forms of intervention in the Middle East; we've tried full-on intervention in Iraq, we've tried semi-intervention in Libya, and we tried non-intervention or very limited intervention in Syria. All of them are difficult.
TONY BLAIR
interview, Politico, September 25, 2017