Forums
Posted By: Anonymous Tony Blair pelted with eggs and shoes at book sign - 4th Sep 2010 1:17pm
Violent skirmishes broke out between protesters and police at the first public signing for Tony Blair's memoirs, with shoes and eggs hurled at the former prime minister.

Three men were arrested after they broke through a security barrier at around 10.45am today outside Eason's bookshop on O'Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland.

The demonstrators, ranging from anti-war demonstrators to the Continuity IRA-aligned Republican Sinn Fein, who oppose the Northern Ireland peace process, are now marching to a garda police station in the city centre demanding the release of the three arrested men.

Gardai had earlier dragged a number of demonstrators off the street and during the fracas a male protester in a wheelchair was knocked to the ground.

Protesters shouted "Whose cops? Blair's cops!" as they taunted the gardai while Blair remained inside the bookshop. They also shouted: "Hey hey Tony hey, how many kids have you killed today?"

About 400 people were queuing up around the side of the store in Middle Abbey Street to meet Blair. They were verbally abused by a number of left-wing demonstrators who denounced them as "west Brits".

Protester Pixie ni hEicht, from Dublin, criticised both the garda and the hundreds who had turned out for the book signing: "The police are west Brits who are protecting a British terrorist and the people queuing up over there should be ashamed of themselves. All these people buying the book are jackeens and traitors."

Following the skirmishes, the city tram service was suspended and shops in the surrounding area were also closed.

Buyers at the signing had to hand over bags and mobile phones before entering the store. Undercover detectives mingled with the crowds taking names before Blair arrived at about 10.30am.

A huge security operation was put in place around Dublin's main thoroughfare in preparation for the Blair visit. The northbound end of O'Connell Street was closed to traffic from early this morning while the city's main northside tram link, the Luas line, was closed down.

Plain-clothes detectives were also deployed around O'Connell Street as part of the security operation.

After the signing, the former prime minister was whisked from a side entrance of the store at about 12.40pm.

In his memoirs, A Journey, Blair defends his decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003. The book, which was released earlier this week, has become one of the fastest selling autobiographies on record.

Before the signing he had already enraged the anti-war movement in Ireland with comments on the Irish TV programme The Late Late Show last night.

During his interview on RTE, Blair warned that Iran was now one of the biggest state sponsors of radical Islam. It must be prevented from developing a nuclear weapon, even if that meant taking military action, he said.

Blair defended the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, despite Saddam Hussein not possessing weapons of mass destruction.

He tried to convince the audience that he acted against the one million people who marched in opposition to the war because he could not take decisions "based on those that shout most".

Blair, who was greeted by about 50 protesters at the RTE studios, also denied he had "blood on his hands" and said he didn't believe he was a "war criminal".

It is believed he chose Ireland for his only live interview since his memoirs' publication because he felt he would get a better hearing because of the peace he secured in Northern Ireland.

He said: "When we finally got the whole lot together, literally weeks before I left office in 2007, and there was Martin McGuinness sitting with Ian Paisley, and it was such a strange and extraordinary sight and it was one of the few times in politics I felt really proud actually."
Didnt look that violent on sky news. Waste of eggs and a shoe lol
there's no such thing as bad publicity.......
Where's me shoes!?
It was a horrid shoe, like a granny sandle.
For years now we have had to put up with these anti war demonstrators, going on about an illegal war and how wrong it all was, and yet we still haven't heard an alternative way of stopping a lunatic in power from killing and torturing the Shiite population, mainly in the south of Iraq and the torturing and gassing of the Kurds in the North. If they did then they might get some credit. How on earth did they expect to remove a dictator with one of the most powerful armies in the region, who wasn't afraid of using it against his own people. UN sanctions didn't work, i would like to know what they think would have done.
Originally Posted by bert1
For years now we have had to put up with these anti war demonstrators, going on about an illegal war and how wrong it all was, and yet we still haven't heard an alternative way of stopping a lunatic in power from killing and torturing the Shiite population, mainly in the south of Iraq and the torturing and gassing of the Kurds in the North. If they did then they might get some credit. How on earth did they expect to remove a dictator with one of the most powerful armies in the region, who wasn't afraid of using it against his own people. UN sanctions didn't work, i would like to know what they think would have done.
But thats not why they/we invaded was it??? i thought it was about"WMD"....and we probably should have done a better job in gulf war1 instead of leaving the Kurds and Shia to get on with it
Posted By: Anonymous Re: Tony Blair pelted with eggs and shoes at book sign - 4th Sep 2010 6:28pm
Originally Posted by bert1
For years now we have had to put up with these anti war demonstrators, going on about an illegal war and how wrong it all was, and yet we still haven't heard an alternative way of stopping a lunatic in power from killing and torturing the Shiite population, mainly in the south of Iraq and the torturing and gassing of the Kurds in the North. If they did then they might get some credit. How on earth did they expect to remove a dictator with one of the most powerful armies in the region, who wasn't afraid of using it against his own people. UN sanctions didn't work, i would like to know what they think would have done.


I think a bit of blind mans buff and pin the tail on the donkey
and there would be no shiite partys lol I know sick joke lol
Yes, we should have made a better job of it (gulf war 1) but we stuck to a mandate and left the Shiites and Kurds hanging. Gulf war 2, well it all depends what one's belief is on whats a weapon of mass destruction, most people would think nuclear, i happen to think the gassing of 5000 Kurds is very much mass destruction. The constant torture and murder of a population is also mass destruction. Hiding behind UN mandates is another way of saying, for the want of better phrase is fook them, we don't want to know or get involved.
we invaded the wrong country first, it should have been Iran then Iraq would not have been so big a problem for the years after the invasion
I think less of the 'we' should be used. Everything that's said still doesn't back up the reason Tony Blair gave for going into Iraq, genocide isn't a physical weapon of mass destruction that you could put your hands on, these crimes had already been undertaken, Iraq had nothing which should've even partly satisfied the agenda of the war.
Even if Tony Blair gave us spin for the invasion I feel that if we had known the truth we would have all said that action was needed, I believe that Blair was lying more to senior officals so the war never looked illegal at the time and really us citizens were never even considered.
For FaceBook users wink

Clicky
Love thy neighbour lol smile
rather than subversivly move Blairs book , just dont touch it , leave it alone.....dont encourage them...
when i see books i don't like the look of i just turn them the other way round - like all those books that seemed to be about kids being neglected eg jodi picoult et al
Originally Posted by DavidB
I think less of the 'we' should be used. Everything that's said still doesn't back up the reason Tony Blair gave for going into Iraq, genocide isn't a physical weapon of mass destruction that you could put your hands on, these crimes had already been undertaken, Iraq had nothing which should've even partly satisfied the agenda of the war.



Iraq's physical weapon of mass destruction was an evil dictator and his Baath party backed up by an equally evil army. What determines a weapon of mass destruction, nearing the end of the war with Japan more people were killed in Tokyo by so called conventional means than at Hiroshima by a one off bomb, Hitler killed 6 million Jews in his gas chambers, compare that with the one hundred thousand killed at Hiroshima its easy enough to see which is the biggest mass.
These anti war protesters still haven't come up with an alternative solution to how they would have relieved the suffering of a burdened nation by an evil dictator.
The spineless UN has a policy that they won't oust a leader of a country even though they know they were elected by foul means and yet allow them to inflict suffering to their peoples, this policy then has other countries scurrying around try to find what seems to be legit-able means. We all know the truth of the matter, certain countries wanted Saddam and his evil regime out, i sometimes wonder, do these anti war protesters wish he was still there.
All I'm saying is why didn't they just say they were going in for Saddam (again) because it failed the first time?
That would have been much easier and would of stopped all this illegal war fiasco, the UN won't sanction the removal of leaders, no matter how murderess or corrupt. Gulf war 1 had to ended when he was booted out of Kuwait, that was the mandate, Gulf war 2 was put into operation under the pretense of WMD, though some still think he had them and shipped them out to bordering countries. My argument is and always has been, when thousands of people are losing their lives does it matter what method of mass destruction is used.
Maybe Bush junior was trying to please Bush Senior? Finishing the job for Daddy?
withthat
© Wirral-Wikiwirral