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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDavid Cameron Rips Into Tony Blair Over His Save The Children Award
Should Tony Blair get a global legacy award from Save the Children for taking us to war unnecessarily in Iraq? asked Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons Thursday. Blair was handed the award for his successful efforts to get G-8 nations to pledge $40 billion to the Make Poverty History campaign.
The petition to revoke the award has already received 10,000 signatures along with a letter from 500 dissatisfied employees of the charity. An internal letter called the award to Blair "morally reprehensible" and said it endangers our credibility globally.
We consider this award inappropriate and a betrayal to Save the Children's founding principles and values. Management staff in the region were not communicated with, nor consulted about the award and were caught by surprise with this decision, the letter protest said.
After Cameron's outburst in Parliament on Thursday, further questions were being asked about the political independence of the charity following revelations that former Prime Ministers Blair and Gordon Brown have personal links to its leadership. The group's U.K. chief executive, Justin Forsythe, was formerly a special adviser to Blair.
http://www.ibtimes.com/david-cameron-rips-tony-blair-over-his-save-children-award-1730666?ft=3aj78&utm_medium=Nov_29_2014_0401_198230&utm_source=TailoredMail&utm_term=%20Tony+Blair+Mocked+For+Getting+Charity+Award&utm_campaign=Nov_29_2014_0401
Britain's smirking chimp
Mike Nelson
(9,962 posts)...confused by this award.
samsingh
(17,600 posts)blair is a huge disappointment
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)If it wasn't for the fact that HIS party gave unquestioning parliamentary backing to Blair on that war...sometimes saving Blair from defeat in the Commons when most of the Labour MPs voted against the war at certain times.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,349 posts)To give the Tory MP Andrew Turner, who did ask the question, his due, he did vote for the 'case for war is unproven' motion in 2003:
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2003-02-26&number=96&mpn=Andrew_Turner&mpc=Isle_of_Wight&house=commons
which made him 1 of 14 rebel Tories on that, and one of 16 in the next vote:
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2003-03-18&number=117&mpn=Andrew_Turner&mpc=Isle_of_Wight&house=commons
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpid=40333&dmp=1049
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)and Blair won that vote in the Commons because of Tory support; there were a large number of Labour MPs who voted "no".
muriel_volestrangler
(101,349 posts)and it was Wednesday.
Cameron said it was not for him to get involved but that it was remarkable it was given to Blair by a former staffer of his arch political rival Gordon Brown.
Obviously the person who gave the award knows about peacemaking and peacekeeping, he said.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/26/david-cameron-mocks-tony-blair-save-the-children-award
so the 'revelations' that article talks about were already being talked about before Wednesday, because they have always been public knowledge. And it's 'Forsyth' without an 'e'.
What Cameron actually said about the award was "it's not for me to get involved". From 32:40 here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04t106h/prime-ministers-questions-26112014
Better reporting (ie without the involvement of the incompetent International Business Times) here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025875602