The hypocrisy of Tony Blair wanting to halt the tide of uncontrolled immigration truly is staggering
This is coming from a man who unleashed a flood of uncontrolled immigration into the UK while he was leading our country
IN his time, Tony Blair has been all things to all men – a Marxist, a socialist and a capitalist.
Now he has emerged, by his own definition, as a full-blown “racist”.
The man who single-handedly unleashed a flood of uncontrolled immigration into the UK is today calling for a crackdown on our borders.
He wants newcomers to register on arrival or be banned from entry.
They must be counted in and counted out.
Failure to comply will disqualify them from holding a bank account, renting a home or claiming benefits.
Perched excitedly on Andrew Marr’s BBC sofa, the walnut-coloured multi-millionaire demanded “discriminatory” rules barring access to health care.
Even for Tony Blair, the ultimate chameleon politician, the hypocrisy is truly breathtaking.
Such measures — sensible some might think — would have been denounced as “racist” or even “fascist” by the Blair government and his pop-eyed toadies.
“Racist” was the vicious term of abuse hurled at anyone who raised doubts over the flood of uncontrolled immigration unleashed by Labour.
It was a smear that silenced furious British voters as they found themselves squeezed out of jobs, housing and health care by the influx of millions of people.
It was an insulting lie — to cover up an unforgivable act of social vandalism.
But it gagged all protest and, after morphing into all sorts of concocted “phobias” and “isms”, continues to haunt every aspect of our daily lives.
So is Tony Blair, caught last week smooching with oily Eurocrat Jean-Claude Juncker, now apologising?
No way.
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With the supreme arrogance of a truly deluded man, he insists it was a good idea at the time.
“Back then the economy was strong, the jobs needed,” he preached.
“The times were different. The sentiment was different. Intelligent politics takes account of such change.”
This, too, is a lie. Nothing is different.
The sentiment then was as hostile to mass immigration as it is today — here and across Europe.
Voters suddenly facing ferocious competition for their jobs recognised a stunt to import cheap labour when they saw it.
No, Tony Blair wants to slam the stable door because he knows his free-for-all immigration policy was the single most potent reason why we voted to quit the EU.
But for the disruptive tidal wave of migration under his premiership, we would never have had a referendum, let alone voted Out.
Now he wants to halt the tide so we will change our minds and stay. Or pretends to.
There is no way Brussels is going to budge to accommodate his outlandish ideas.
Laughably, he urges Jeremy Corbyn to avoid painting Labour as “the open borders party”, the tag for ever attached to New Labour.
Ever the opportunist, Blair prattles on: “We can curtail the things people feel are damaging about European immigration. This is precisely the territory the Labour Party should camp upon.”
He is living in security-gated cloud cuckoo land. After taking the momentous decision to leave the EU, British voters won’t be conned into going back in.
As Tony Blair jet-sets around the world, fawning over foreign dictators while his charities and company fill their boots with their cash, his ex-voters’ wages have remained stagnant or fallen.
As the stampede across the Channel gathered pace, they wanted to know why — if immigration is so good for the economy — were their wages stagnant.
Greedy and unprincipled employers hunt abroad for skilled workers rather than recruit at home.
They too have failed their moral duty to train skilled workers and apprentices here.
There was uproar last week from the Guardian and what remains of New Labour when a leaked report revealed Government plans to slash immigration, especially among low-skilled workers.
They scoffed at calls for British jobs to go to British workers.
How will these hand-wringing lefties now react to Blair’s chicanery?
As Defence supremo Michael Fallon reminded Marr, it was Blair who landed us in this mess in the first place.
“It’s a pity he didn’t think of this when all these countries were admitted to the EU on his watch,” he said.
“Leaving the EU means freedom of movement has to end whether we like it or not. Tony Blair has to get over it.”
BORIS JOHNSON emerges with considerable credit from revelations about the summer election meltdown.
A tearful Theresa May feared a BoJo coup after the BBC exit poll revealed the scale of her humiliation.
Instead, loyal Boris texted to insist he remained foursquare behind her.
Interestingly, in three separate conversations with assorted Tories this week, there was agreement on just one thing.
Boris is the only politician with even half a chance of leading the Tories to victory next time – and saving the necks of those who will choose the next leader.