British Prime Minister (1953- )
You know, nowadays, if you step out at all into any area of public controversy, you're going to get a bucket of something unpleasant poured over you, so you just get used to that.
TONY BLAIR
interview, Politico, September 25, 2017
The Labour Party is presently marooned on fantasy island. I understand would-be leaders will want to go there and speak the native language in the hope of persuading enough eventually to migrate to the mainland of reality.
TONY BLAIR
New Statesman, December 18, 2019
September 11 was not an isolated event, but a tragic prologue, Iraq another act, and many further struggles will be set upon this stage before it's over. There never has been a time when the power of America was so necessary or so misunderstood, or when, except in the most general sense, a study of history provides so little instruction for our present day.
TONY BLAIR
speech to joint session of the U.S. Congress, July 17, 2003
I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.
TONY BLAIR
speech to the Labour Party conference, 3 October 1995
What amazes me is how many people are happy for Saddam to stay. They ask why we don't get rid of Mugabe, why not the Burmese lot. Yes, let's get rid of them all. I don't because I can't, but when you can you should.
TONY BLAIR
New York Times, 5 September 2003
The threat comes because in another part of our globe there is shadow and darkness, where not all the world is free, where many millions suffer under brutal dictatorship, where a third of our planet lives in a poverty beyond anything even the poorest in our societies can imagine, and where a fanatical strain of religious extremism has arisen, that is a mutation of the true and peaceful faith of Islam. And because in the combination of these afflictions a new and deadly virus has emerged. The virus is terrorism whose intent to inflict destruction is unconstrained by human feeling and whose capacity to inflict it is enlarged by technology.
TONY BLAIR
speech to joint session of the U.S. Congress, July 17, 2003
The first rule in politics is that there are no rules, at least not in the sense of inevitable defeats or inevitable victories. If you have the right policy and the right strategy, you always have a chance of winning. Without them, you can lose no matter how certain the victory seems.
TONY BLAIR
A Journey: My Political Life
Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.
TONY BLAIR
speech in House of Commons, 9 November 2005
Broadsheets today face the same pressures as tabloids, broadcasters increasingly the same pressure as broadsheets. The audience needs to be arrested, held and their emotions engaged, something that is interesting is less powerful than something that makes you angry or shocked. And the consequences of this are acute. First, scandal or controversy beats ordinary reporting hands down. News is rarely news unless it generates heat as much as or more than light. Second, attacking motive is far more potent than attacking judgment. It is not enough for someone to make an error, it has to be venal, conspiratorial.
TONY BLAIR
lecture, "Our Nation's Future", 12 June 2007
Okay, so one thing I've learned over a long period time in politics is not to get mixed up in someone else's politics. I've got enough problems back here at home, so we'll leave all these questions around Ukraine and impeachment to American politics.
TONY BLAIR
interview, CNBC, November 5, 2019
I think the same feelings that gave rise to Brexit gave rise to the election of Donald Trump. In my view, the important thing for those of us from the progressive side of politics is not just to go in head-on opposition to all that, but to try and work out why it happened, and how we meet the anxieties of people without getting into the politics of fear.
TONY BLAIR
interview, Politico, September 25, 2017
Before people crow about the absence of Weapons of Mass Destruction, I suggest they wait a bit.
TONY BLAIR
Prime Minister's monthly press conference, 28 April 2003
You know, one thing I've learned about peace processes: They're always frustrating, they're often agonizing, and occasionally they seem hopeless. But for all that, having a peace process is better than not having one.
TONY BLAIR
speech to joint session of the U.S. Congress, July 17, 2003
The British are special. The world knows it. In our innermost thoughts we know it. This is the greatest nation on earth. So it has been an honour to serve it. I give my thanks to you, the British people, for the times that I have succeeded, and my apologies to you for the times I have fallen short. But good luck.
TONY BLAIR
announcing his impending resignation, Trimdon Labour Club, 10 May 2007
Any parent wants the best for their children. I am not going to make a choice for my child on the basis of what is the politically correct thing to do.
TONY BLAIR
defending his decision to send his eldest son Euan to the London Oratory School which had opted out of local education authority control under a policy which the Labour Party opposed, "Mr. Blair Opts Out", Guardian, 2 December 1994
The spirit of our age is one in which the prejudices of the past are put behind us, where our diversity is our strength.
TONY BLAIR
speech to the Labour Party National Policy Forum, 16 July 2005
I can't stand politicians who wear God on their sleeves.
TONY BLAIR
Sunday Telegraph, 7 April 1996
For the moment, let me say this: Saddam Hussein's regime is despicable, he is developing weapons of mass destruction, and we cannot leave him doing so unchecked. He is a threat to his own people and to the region and, if allowed to develop these weapons, a threat to us also.
TONY BLAIR
House of Commons statement on discussions with President Bush over the Middle East, 10 April 2002
Bluntly, what Labour has stood for in terms of values has been magnificent; its achievements in government huge; but as a political competitor, it has too often been a failure. It has only once been elected for two successive full terms; only once for three; and both as New Labour, a period much of today's party wants to disown.
TONY BLAIR
New Statesman, February 20, 2020
What always happens, in my experience, is that people always think American politics is very different, but usually it is a predictor of what happens in the politics elsewhere.
TONY BLAIR
interview, Politico, August 24, 2016