The former Prime Minister was accused of creating a “dispossessed, impoverished underclass” in the UK after he opened the door to mass immigration 11 years ago.
But Mr Blair said it was not a mistake to open Britain’s borders to eight former Communist countries.
Mr Blair was responding to Labour leader Ed Miliband, who said he had “got it wrong” when he let people from Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic work in Britain without restrictions, while most EU countries had imposed controls to slow the rate of migration.
The decision led to around 170,000 Eastern Europeans a year moving to the UK.
Mr Blair said: “I don’t agree it was a mistake.
"All we did was bring forward what would have happened anyway.
All we did was bring forward what would have happened anyway
Tony Blair
"In 2004 the economy was booming and we had a requirement for skilled workers from abroad.
“Supposing you put all those people from Eastern Europe back out of Britain again, would we be a stronger, better country?
"The answer is no.”
Mr Blair claimed the only way to defeat Ukip and other anti-immigration parties was to expose their plans.
He made the remarks in an interview with Trevor Phillips, former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, for a Channel 4 documentary to be shown on Thursday.
Ukip’s Migration spokesman Steven Woolfe said last night: “By allowing these UK members of the labour force to be substituted by immigrant labour and paying its members benefits instead of helping them to become productive members of our society, Labour and Tony Blair doomed whole sections of our communities to lives with little or no hope.”
The row comes amid reports Mr Blair is to step down from his role as a Middle East peace envoy mediating in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He has reportedy met US Secretary of State John Kerry and the EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to discuss a possible job change.
I wonder what words all those lovely, friendly foreigners use when talking of British people and all others of a different colour/nationality/ethnic background. Do the race relations acts cover insulting words uttered in a 'foreign' tongue ?.
Tony Mowbray as king of the hunt ? .. now I've seen it all ((:>)
All very "funny" but what exactly is wrong with this photo?
Let me explain - fox hunting is disgusting and anyone prepared to shake the hand of a participant of said disgusting act whilst laughing like a gormless goon, in my opinion, is a dick.
Tony Mowbray as king of the hunt ? .. now I've seen it all ((:>)
All very "funny" but what exactly is wrong with this photo?
Let me explain - fox hunting is disgusting and anyone prepared to shake the hand of a participant of said disgusting act whilst laughing like a gormless goon, in my opinion, is a dick.
Not that difficult to figure out.
Pretty sure we could find an even worse photo of a politician you like shaking hands with someone, depending on who you're voting for (I'm guessing Labour).
Tony Mowbray as king of the hunt ? .. now I've seen it all ((:>)
All very "funny" but what exactly is wrong with this photo?
Let me explain - fox hunting is disgusting and anyone prepared to shake the hand of a participant of said disgusting act whilst laughing like a gormless goon, in my opinion, is a dick.
Not that difficult to figure out.
Pretty sure we could find an even worse photo of a politician you like shaking hands with someone, depending on who you're voting for (I'm guessing Labour).
Tony Mowbray as king of the hunt ? .. now I've seen it all ((:>)
All very "funny" but what exactly is wrong with this photo?
Let me explain - fox hunting is disgusting and anyone prepared to shake the hand of a participant of said disgusting act whilst laughing like a gormless goon, in my opinion, is a dick.
Not that difficult to figure out.
1. I'm guessing it was actually not obvious to a lot of people. 2. It's disgusting to you but not necessarily Nigel. I think smoking is disgusting and more dangerous but wouldn't get all soppy if some politician shook hands with a smoker. 3. I'd rather him be shaking hands with a (relatively) harmless bloke on a horse than someone like Gerry Adams etc etc etc.
Tony Mowbray as king of the hunt ? .. now I've seen it all ((:>)
All very "funny" but what exactly is wrong with this photo?
Let me explain - fox hunting is disgusting and anyone prepared to shake the hand of a participant of said disgusting act whilst laughing like a gormless goon, in my opinion, is a dick.
Not that difficult to figure out.
1. I'm guessing it was actually not obvious to a lot of people. 2. It's disgusting to you but not necessarily Nigel. I think smoking is disgusting and more dangerous but wouldn't get all soppy if some politician shook hands with a smoker. 3. I'd rather him be shaking hands with a (relatively) harmless bloke on a horse than someone like Gerry Adams etc etc etc.
''a (relatively) harmless man'' is not how I'd describe Mark Bycroft. He's a thug who just happens to be a huntsman for the Old Surrey Burstow & West Kent Foxhounds. He already has a conviction for assaulting a hunt monitor yet the police did nothing when he assaulted another hunt monitor in 2013 despite the incident being caught on film and Bycroft himself admitting the assault. He's an arrogant piece of work and the kind of individual who looks down on the working man, considering himself better than the oiks. Farage will identify more with him than he ever will the ordinary man in the street no matter how many photo ops he sets up portraying himself as an ordinary bloke just enjoying a quiet pint in his local.
THE UK Independence Party caused a stir at Worcester's General Election hustings - by denying global warming exists.
Richard Delingpole, who is standing in the St Clement ward at Worcester City Council this May, was heckled inside the packed Cap 'N' Gown pub last night for casting severe doubts on the popular view of climate change.
During the debate, which was all around the environment, all the parliamentary candidates admitted they were worried about the implications of congestion and pollution of the planet.
Mr Delingpole was standing in for UKIP hopeful James Goad and used his session to hammer those who keen on promoting global warming.
"Global warming, as you probably know it, is not happening," he said to boos inside the pub.
He told the venue wind turbines "serve only to chop up birds and bats", labelled them "useless"
If you ever wonder why you don't see David Bellamy on TV anymore - it's because he thinks the same, and the restrictions surrounding GW are a useful tool for governments.
If you ever wonder why you don't see David Bellamy on TV anymore - it's because he thinks the same, and the restrictions surrounding GW are a useful tool for governments.
In his foreword to the 1989 book The Greenhouse Effect, Bellamy wrote:
"The profligate demands of humankind are causing far reaching changes to the atmosphere of planet Earth, of this there is no doubt. Earth's temperature is showing an upward swing, the so-called greenhouse effect, now a subject of international concern. The greenhouse effect may melt the glaciers and ice caps of the world causing the sea to rise and flood many of our great cities and much of our best farmland."
Bellamy's later statements on global warming indicate that he subsequently changed his views completely. In 2004, he wrote an article in the Daily Mail in which he described the theory of man-made global warming as "poppycock".
A letter he published on 16 April 2005 in New Scientist asserted that a large percentage (555 of 625) of the glaciers being observed by the World Glacier Monitoring Service were advancing, not retreating. George Monbiot of The Guardian tracked down Bellamy's original source for this information and found that it was Fred Singer's website.
Singer claimed to have obtained these figures from a 1989 article in the journal Science, but no such article exists. Bellamy has since stated that his figures on glaciers were wrong, and announced in a letter to The Sunday Times in 2005 that he had "decided to draw back from the debate on global warming".
Yep, they're separate from Hunt Sabs if that's what your snidey lol was about. They do what the police should be doing by making sure that a law of the land is upheld. If you find that amusing then that's up to you. I personally feel it's a noble act, especially when confronted by such hostility from hunters and their paid help.
Anyway, so UKIP want to get out of Europe. One of my old (very old) friends is a retired international businessman/salesman. When he started out it was his job to sell British canned peas to France - he remembers that France charged 26% import duty which made his job almost impossible. People who fondly imagine that we will have all the benefits of a free trade area without the cost of EU membership if we pull out could be in for a shock.
Yep, they're separate from Hunt Sabs if that's what your snidey lol was about. They do what the police should be doing by making sure that a law of the land is upheld. If you find that amusing then that's up to you. I personally feel it's a noble act, especially when confronted by such hostility from hunters and their paid help.
Anyway, so UKIP want to get out of Europe. One of my old (very old) friends is a retired international businessman/salesman. When he started out it was his job to sell British canned peas to France - he remembers that France charged 26% import duty which made his job almost impossible. People who fondly imagine that we will have all the benefits of a free trade area without the cost of EU membership if we pull out could be in for a shock.
We don't make anything that anybody wants anymore though.
Yep, they're separate from Hunt Sabs if that's what your snidey lol was about. They do what the police should be doing by making sure that a law of the land is upheld. If you find that amusing then that's up to you. I personally feel it's a noble act, especially when confronted by such hostility from hunters and their paid help.
Anyway, so UKIP want to get out of Europe. One of my old (very old) friends is a retired international businessman/salesman. When he started out it was his job to sell British canned peas to France - he remembers that France charged 26% import duty which made his job almost impossible. People who fondly imagine that we will have all the benefits of a free trade area without the cost of EU membership if we pull out could be in for a shock.
Yep, they're separate from Hunt Sabs if that's what your snidey lol was about. They do what the police should be doing by making sure that a law of the land is upheld. If you find that amusing then that's up to you. I personally feel it's a noble act, especially when confronted by such hostility from hunters and their paid help.
Sounds like a tremendously good use of police time and resources, making sure hundreds of people minding their own business are killing vermin in a humane manner. I'm glad all the murders, robberies and assaults have been solved in this country so police can take up such a noble duty. Jesus wept. It's about as noble as sitting on your porch with a speed camera.
Yep, they're separate from Hunt Sabs if that's what your snidey lol was about. They do what the police should be doing by making sure that a law of the land is upheld. If you find that amusing then that's up to you. I personally feel it's a noble act, especially when confronted by such hostility from hunters and their paid help.
Sounds like a tremendously good use of police time and resources, making sure hundreds of people minding their own business are killing vermin in a humane manner. I'm glad all the murders, robberies and assaults have been solved in this country so police can take up such a noble duty. Jesus wept. It's about as noble as sitting on your porch with a speed camera.
Answer me this - is hunting with hounds illegal in this country?
Last time I checked it was indeed a criminal offence. Whether you like it or not that is the case. I'm sure you'd be happy if everybody chose to just ignore the laws they feel shouldn't apply to them.
For a rabid right winger, you sure seem to have a lax view of upholding law and order. I thought anarchy was restricted to unwashed commie types.
Yep, they're separate from Hunt Sabs if that's what your snidey lol was about. They do what the police should be doing by making sure that a law of the land is upheld. If you find that amusing then that's up to you. I personally feel it's a noble act, especially when confronted by such hostility from hunters and their paid help.
I've only come across 'sabs'.
None of whom I'd describe as 'noble'.
According to the Hunt Saboteurs Association website, the person punched by this bloke was a hunt saboteur. I think they would be in a position to know.
That does not make assaulting him ok but without knowing the reason behind it I wouldnt want to judge. Evidently the old bill were content to let him off with a caution for some reason which is surprising on the face of it as he apparently admitted the punch and I don't reckon I'd be so lucky if I lamped someone at the Valley.
Yep, they're separate from Hunt Sabs if that's what your snidey lol was about. They do what the police should be doing by making sure that a law of the land is upheld. If you find that amusing then that's up to you. I personally feel it's a noble act, especially when confronted by such hostility from hunters and their paid help.
Sounds like a tremendously good use of police time and resources, making sure hundreds of people minding their own business are killing vermin in a humane manner. I'm glad all the murders, robberies and assaults have been solved in this country so police can take up such a noble duty. Jesus wept. It's about as noble as sitting on your porch with a speed camera.
Answer me this - is hunting with hounds illegal in this country?
Last time I checked it was indeed a criminal offence. Whether you like it or not that is the case. I'm sure you'd be happy if everybody chose to just ignore the laws they feel shouldn't apply to them.
For a rabid right winger, you sure seem to have a lax view of upholding law and order. I thought anarchy was restricted to unwashed commie types.
I'm not a rabid right-winger, although there are people on this board who seem to confuse common sense with right-wing politics.
First of all, not all forms of fox hunting, even with hounds, are illegal, as long as certain measures are taken.
Second of all, should these measures be ignored, the absolute worst thing that could happen is that an animal widely considered to be vermin dies a more unpleasant death than had the measures been followed. By no means do I find this thought tasteful but in the grand scheme of things it is absolutely insignificant. A child pouring boiling water into an ant hill is just as bad.
Thirdly, plenty of laws are ignored without any detriment to society, as are plenty of laws broken which do damage society or cause real harm. I would much rather the police concentrated on the latter rather than the former.
Yep, they're separate from Hunt Sabs if that's what your snidey lol was about. They do what the police should be doing by making sure that a law of the land is upheld. If you find that amusing then that's up to you. I personally feel it's a noble act, especially when confronted by such hostility from hunters and their paid help.
Sounds like a tremendously good use of police time and resources, making sure hundreds of people minding their own business are killing vermin in a humane manner. I'm glad all the murders, robberies and assaults have been solved in this country so police can take up such a noble duty. Jesus wept. It's about as noble as sitting on your porch with a speed camera.
Answer me this - is hunting with hounds illegal in this country?
Last time I checked it was indeed a criminal offence. Whether you like it or not that is the case. I'm sure you'd be happy if everybody chose to just ignore the laws they feel shouldn't apply to them.
For a rabid right winger, you sure seem to have a lax view of upholding law and order. I thought anarchy was restricted to unwashed commie types.
I'm not a rabid right-winger, although there are people on this board who seem to confuse common sense with right-wing politics.
First of all, not all forms of fox hunting, even with hounds, are illegal, as long as certain measures are taken.
Second of all, should these measures be ignored, the absolute worst thing that could happen is that an animal widely considered to be vermin dies a more unpleasant death than had the measures been followed. By no means do I find this thought tasteful but in the grand scheme of things it is absolutely insignificant. A child pouring boiling water into an ant hill is just as bad.
Thirdly, plenty of laws are ignored without any detriment to society, as are plenty of laws broken which do damage society or cause real harm. I would much rather the police concentrated on the latter rather than the former.
Yep, they're separate from Hunt Sabs if that's what your snidey lol was about. They do what the police should be doing by making sure that a law of the land is upheld. If you find that amusing then that's up to you. I personally feel it's a noble act, especially when confronted by such hostility from hunters and their paid help.
I've only come across 'sabs'.
None of whom I'd describe as 'noble'.
According to the Hunt Saboteurs Association website, the person punched by this bloke was a hunt saboteur. I think they would be in a position to know.
That does not make assaulting him ok but without knowing the reason behind it I wouldnt want to judge. Evidently the old bill were content to let him off with a caution for some reason which is surprising on the face of it as he apparently admitted the punch and I don't reckon I'd be so lucky if I lamped someone at the Valley.
You probably don't greet people with funny handshakes so undoubtedly true.
Comments
But Mr Blair said it was not a mistake to open Britain’s borders to eight former Communist countries.
Mr Blair was responding to Labour leader Ed Miliband, who said he had “got it wrong” when he let people from Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic work in Britain without restrictions, while most EU countries had imposed controls to slow the rate of migration.
The decision led to around 170,000 Eastern Europeans a year moving to the UK.
Mr Blair said: “I don’t agree it was a mistake.
"All we did was bring forward what would have happened anyway.
All we did was bring forward what would have happened anyway
Tony Blair
"In 2004 the economy was booming and we had a requirement for skilled workers from abroad.
“Supposing you put all those people from Eastern Europe back out of Britain again, would we be a stronger, better country?
"The answer is no.”
Mr Blair claimed the only way to defeat Ukip and other anti-immigration parties was to expose their plans.
He made the remarks in an interview with Trevor Phillips, former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, for a Channel 4 documentary to be shown on Thursday.
Ukip’s Migration spokesman Steven Woolfe said last night: “By allowing these UK members of the labour force to be substituted by immigrant labour and paying its members benefits instead of helping them to become productive members of our society, Labour and Tony Blair doomed whole sections of our communities to lives with little or no hope.”
The row comes amid reports Mr Blair is to step down from his role as a Middle East peace envoy mediating in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He has reportedy met US Secretary of State John Kerry and the EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to discuss a possible job change.
Let me explain - fox hunting is disgusting and anyone prepared to shake the hand of a participant of said disgusting act whilst laughing like a gormless goon, in my opinion, is a dick.
Not that difficult to figure out.
Guessed wrong fella.
2. It's disgusting to you but not necessarily Nigel. I think smoking is disgusting and more dangerous but wouldn't get all soppy if some politician shook hands with a smoker.
3. I'd rather him be shaking hands with a (relatively) harmless bloke on a horse than someone like Gerry Adams etc etc etc.
''a (relatively) harmless man'' is not how I'd describe Mark Bycroft. He's a thug who just happens to be a huntsman for the Old Surrey Burstow & West Kent Foxhounds. He already has a conviction for assaulting a hunt monitor yet the police did nothing when he assaulted another hunt monitor in 2013 despite the incident being caught on film and Bycroft himself admitting the assault. He's an arrogant piece of work and the kind of individual who looks down on the working man, considering himself better than the oiks. Farage will identify more with him than he ever will the ordinary man in the street no matter how many photo ops he sets up portraying himself as an ordinary bloke just enjoying a quiet pint in his local.
THE UK Independence Party caused a stir at Worcester's General Election hustings - by denying global warming exists.
Richard Delingpole, who is standing in the St Clement ward at Worcester City Council this May, was heckled inside the packed Cap 'N' Gown pub last night for casting severe doubts on the popular view of climate change.
During the debate, which was all around the environment, all the parliamentary candidates admitted they were worried about the implications of congestion and pollution of the planet.
Mr Delingpole was standing in for UKIP hopeful James Goad and used his session to hammer those who keen on promoting global warming.
"Global warming, as you probably know it, is not happening," he said to boos inside the pub.
He told the venue wind turbines "serve only to chop up birds and bats", labelled them "useless"
"The profligate demands of humankind are causing far reaching changes to the atmosphere of planet Earth, of this there is no doubt. Earth's temperature is showing an upward swing, the so-called greenhouse effect, now a subject of international concern. The greenhouse effect may melt the glaciers and ice caps of the world causing the sea to rise and flood many of our great cities and much of our best farmland."
Bellamy's later statements on global warming indicate that he subsequently changed his views completely. In 2004, he wrote an article in the Daily Mail in which he described the theory of man-made global warming as "poppycock".
A letter he published on 16 April 2005 in New Scientist asserted that a large percentage (555 of 625) of the glaciers being observed by the World Glacier Monitoring Service were advancing, not retreating. George Monbiot of The Guardian tracked down Bellamy's original source for this information and found that it was Fred Singer's website.
Singer claimed to have obtained these figures from a 1989 article in the journal Science, but no such article exists. Bellamy has since stated that his figures on glaciers were wrong, and announced in a letter to The Sunday Times in 2005 that he had "decided to draw back from the debate on global warming".
Yep, they're separate from Hunt Sabs if that's what your snidey lol was about. They do what the police should be doing by making sure that a law of the land is upheld. If you find that amusing then that's up to you. I personally feel it's a noble act, especially when confronted by such hostility from hunters and their paid help.
None of whom I'd describe as 'noble'.
Well we'll agree to disagree then.
Back to the thread topic.................
Answer me this - is hunting with hounds illegal in this country?
Last time I checked it was indeed a criminal offence. Whether you like it or not that is the case. I'm sure you'd be happy if everybody chose to just ignore the laws they feel shouldn't apply to them.
For a rabid right winger, you sure seem to have a lax view of upholding law and order. I thought anarchy was restricted to unwashed commie types.
That does not make assaulting him ok but without knowing the reason behind it I wouldnt want to judge. Evidently the old bill were content to let him off with a caution for some reason which is surprising on the face of it as he apparently admitted the punch and I don't reckon I'd be so lucky if I lamped someone at the Valley.
First of all, not all forms of fox hunting, even with hounds, are illegal, as long as certain measures are taken.
Second of all, should these measures be ignored, the absolute worst thing that could happen is that an animal widely considered to be vermin dies a more unpleasant death than had the measures been followed. By no means do I find this thought tasteful but in the grand scheme of things it is absolutely insignificant. A child pouring boiling water into an ant hill is just as bad.
Thirdly, plenty of laws are ignored without any detriment to society, as are plenty of laws broken which do damage society or cause real harm. I would much rather the police concentrated on the latter rather than the former.
''confuse common sense with right-wing politics''
Ha such arrogance.
You probably don't greet people with funny handshakes so undoubtedly true.
;-)