A petition to revoke the knighthood of former Labour prime minister and Iraq War architect Tony Blair has gone viral, smashing 220,000 and still rising rapidly as of the time of publication.
The deep unpopularity of “Sir Tony”, as the former premier — full name Anthony Charles Lynton Blair — has asked to be called, appears to be as firm in 2022 as it was when he left office in 2007, with the decision to make him a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter in the New Year Honours Lists provoking a massive public backlash.
A Change.org petition to rescind the honour has amassed hundreds of thousands of signatures in barely two days, and has been backed not just by politics junkies but also by innocuous pop culture figures such as Right Said Fred, the London-based band best known for ’90s hit ‘I’m Too Sexy’.
“Tony Blair caused irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation’s society,” the petition author alleges, further accusing him of “war crimes”.
“Tony Blair is the least deserving person of any public honour, particularly anything awarded by Her Majesty the Queen,” he adds.
“Who ever advised the Queen to grant honours to Toxic Blair should be sacked, as an insult to the public who revile him and also damaging to the Monarchy,” commented Andrew England Kerr, a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Brexit Party, on social media.
Noted anti-Brexit campaigner Femi Oluwole, meanwhile, remarked sarcastically of the award: “If I help create the next ISIS by destabilising an entire region under false pretences, can I get a knighthood too?” — demonstrating that hating Blair is in many respects a bipartisan cause.
British political insiders have long suggested that the Queen, who unlike with most national honours has a personal say in who is appointed to the Order of the Garter, was resistant to bestowing it on Blair, in part for his behaviour following the death of Princess Diana and in part for his classless and protocol-breaking references to “freaky” stays at her Scottish retreat of Balmoral when he was in office in his memoirs.
Some believe that, despite technically having the right to refuse Blair the honour, the 95-year-old will have felt obliged to confer it on him, as on other ex-prime ministers, to maintain the monarchy’s official position of political neutrality — and that her now-deceased husband Prince Philip was the one who had stayed her hand until now.