No-one should be knighted for just doing their job and certainly not Tony Blair

A letter from Dr WB Smith:
Tony Blair, seen with Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams in 2005, with whom he negotiated in secretTony Blair, seen with Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams in 2005, with whom he negotiated in secret
Tony Blair, seen with Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams in 2005, with whom he negotiated in secret

I cannot agree with the editor’s opinion that Tony Blair should get a knighthood (‘Blair was a flawed PM but of course he should be called Sir,’ Ben Lowry, January 8, see link below)

Nobody should get an honour simply for doing their job, and certainly not if they performed dishonourably.

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For all his charm, Blair did great damage to the Union and to the integrity of government across the UK. H

Letter to the editorLetter to the editor
Letter to the editor

e has rightly been criticised for his role in the murderous invasion of Iraq, but his fans continue to credit him for his role in the “Irish peace process”.

In fact the security forces terminated the IRA insurgency: Blair undermined them.

He deceived his partners in the multiparty talks, negotiating in secret with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness terms of appeasement which would never have been made public but for the Downey trial in 2014.

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The sequence of events through which Blair abused the authority of his office is clearly set out in Austen Morgan’s Tony Blair and the IRA (2016).

The salient facts are these:

Sinn Féin/IRA did not sign up to the Belfast Agreement in April 1998

they continued to demand further concessions from the British government

their main bargaining counter was the threat of renewed violence

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Blair conceded their two main demands: the early release of IRA prisoners and an undertaking that specified IRA fugitives from justice would not be pursued or prosecuted.

These concessions constituted political interference in and undermined the operation of the criminal justice system.

If a victim of IRA terrorism had known what had been agreed, they could have initiated a judicial review with a strong prospect of success.

Blair usurped the role of the Crown Prosecution Service; overrode the professional advice of his Attorney-General; and abused the power of his office.

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But all this was done in secret, so no victim could have challenged it.

Dr WB Smith, Belfast 15

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