Peace activists' dismay as warmongering PM Tony Blair knighted

PEACE campaigners expressed dismay following the announcement of a knighthood for Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who took the country to war with Iraq based on lies about “weapons of mass destruction” that turned out not to exist.

Mr Blair has been made a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Britain’s top chivalric order. Appointments are supposedly made by the Queen without taking advice from the government of the day.

Mr Blair’s 1997-2007 administration is most famous for participating in the unprovoked invasion of Iraq, which left a million dead and permanently destabilised the region. The conflict is widely blamed for the subsequent huge increase in influence and reach by Islamist terror groups such as al-Qaida and later Islamic State.

Polls suggest around one-third of British people believe Mr Blair should face trial at The Hague for the war crime of starting a war of aggression — defined at Nuremberg as “the supreme international crime.”

“He should be in the dock but yet again Tony Blair rewarded for war crimes,” said Stop the War convener Lindsey German, while the People’s Assembly’s John Rees remarked: “Unusual to be knighted for losing a crusade in the Middle East.”

Mr Blair also took Britain to war against Yugoslavia in 1999 and into Afghanistan in 2001, leading to a 20-year occupation that ended in ignominy and defeat this summer.

Within Britain Mr Blair – who will now be known as Sir Tony – introduced the private finance initiative (PFI) which crippled many hospital trusts with debt and was a keen promoter of private-sector delivery of public services.

He is credited with the introduction of Sure Start however and reductions in child poverty later reversed by subsequent Tory administrations.

Since leaving office his business affairs have been shrouded in secrecy but he has amassed a fortune worth hundreds of millions in an operation dubbed “the Blair rich project.”

Mr Blair said his elevation was “an immense honour.”