Tony Blair

[DimPrawn]

BTL has raped Britain.

And didn't even offer a reach round.

[BlasterBates]

Wasn't RBS the worlds biggest bank at one point before the financial crash?

The spin that the US was almost entirely to blame is a complete joke.

Credit to the Americans, at least they let their banks go to the wall.

How much did our bail out cost? £135bn. Then maybe another £500bn QE.

RBS went bankrupt because it had expanded into the US and was brought down by the US subprime crisis, i.e. it owned US companies with exposure to sub-prime mortgages.

I don't see how a British government could have prevented that, other than to make it illegal to do business in the US, which would in itself precipitated a crisis of a different type.

[PurpleGorilla]

RBS went bankrupt because it had expanded into the US and was brought down by the US subprime crisis, i.e. it owned US companies with exposure to sub-prime mortgages.

I don't see how a British government could have prevented that, other than to make it illegal to do business in the US, which would in itself precipitated a crisis of a different type.

More regulation was needed as well as better capital requirements.

The warning signs were clear - HMG chose to turn a blind eye to the magic rocking horse poo machine.

[GB9]

The financial crash was triggered primarily by US sub-prime mortgages and trading thereof. It was exacerbated by the general easy availability of credit and other factors like self-cert mortgages. BtL took advantage of easy credit/self-cert, and made the credit crunch worse. How much it made it worse is a matter of debate.

The crash in the UK was triggered by the above happening in the UK. The us situation had no immediate impact on our mortgage market.

Luckily for me I got a few good pieces of work sorting the mess out.

[SueEllen]

The crash in the UK was triggered by the above happening in the UK. The us situation had no immediate impact on our mortgage market.

Luckily for me I got a few good pieces of work sorting the mess out.

Northern Rock so steady not...

[darmstadt]

The financial crash was triggered primarily by US sub-prime mortgages and trading thereof. It was exacerbated by the general easy availability of credit and other factors like self-cert mortgages. BtL took advantage of easy credit/self-cert, and made the credit crunch worse. How much it made it worse is a matter of debate.

I suspect another one is lurking just around the corner but this time with cars. Too many people are taking out PCP loans on buying them and these debts are being sold on to pension funds...

[PurpleGorilla]

Tony Blair

‘We will negotiate a withdrawal from the EEC which has drained our natural resources and destroyed jobs’

–Tony Blair, Election address, 1983.


http://metro.co.uk/2007/05/02/the-th...#ixzz4Yz9WpUAc

[GB9]

And Jezza tells Tone to get back in his box.

[chopper]

I like Blair, made a mistake with a failed war and a bit of a god botherer but still he was successful.

This. I do suppose that people's recollections of the Blair years would be different if the Iraq bit hadn't happened.

Labour would likely still have won in 1997 under John Smith, probably by a smaller margin. Alas, Labour's attempts to distance themselves from Blair will likely weaken them for a long time. Popular Blairites, such as David Milliband, have been sidelined for Corbyn and Owen Smith (who?) and their ilk.

For me, Blair's biggest faux pas was handing over to Gordon Brown, but he likely did that knowing what was around the corner.

Labour will never govern again without another Blair-like centre ground leader. Some people would say 'yeah great', but a lifetime of a single party of government is not a good thing. Theresa May is not a good thing, she should (in theory) be a sitting duck in 2020, but there will be no credible Labour opposition and no credible third way.

(2010 showed that despite the Lib Dems almost unanimous popularity ("I agree with Nick", FFS), they only increased their share of the vote from 22 to 23% between 2005 and 2010).

[SueEllen]

And Jezza tells Tone to get back in his box.

Tony Blair worked out if you get in to power then you can change things. That point hasn't sunk in with Komrade Korbyn.

So while I detest Tony Blair due to the type of politics he left as his legacy, I dislike Corbyn due to being a crap opposition leader. At least the Tories in opposition told IBS to resign because he was equally as useless and he did.