Bartender Vs Tony Blair

[Dick7Access]

I just read an article where a bartender tried to make a citizens arrest om Tony Blair. Was that a joke or a little humor. I think there may have been some British innuendos that I didn't understand it properly. What is Tony Blair''s popularity these days?

 

[nanscombe]

At first I thought it would be comparing one bar steward with another.

However, it's more likely to be about The February dossier aka the "dodgy" dossier.

Part of Tony Blair's entourage appear to have altered the meaning of, or exaggerated, intelligence reports to improve his case for going to war with Iraq. The main being the claim that

...Iraq could deploy biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so...

That claim was disputed by a UN weapons inspector Dr David Kelly.

Kelly was questioned aggressively about his actions (as part of a public inquiry). He was found dead two days later

After the invasion no such weapons were found.



Some his Government's other less palatable achievements / aims:

Section 44 search

Section 44[edit]
The most commonly encountered use of the Act was outlined in Section 44 which enables the police and the Home Secretary to define any area in the country as well as a time period wherein they could stop and search any vehicle or person, and seize "articles of a kind which could be used in connection with terrorism".[15] Unlike other stop and search powers that the police can use, Section 44 does not require the police to have "reasonable suspicion" that an offence has been committed, to search an individual.
...
The stop-and-search powers under section 44 of the Act have been ruled illegal by the European Court of Human Rights.

The attempted re-introduction of Identity cards

The Identity Cards Act 2006 (c 15) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provided National Identity Cards, a personal identification document and European Union travel document, linked to a database known as the National Identity Register (NIR).
...
Many of the concerns focused on the databases underlying the identity cards rather than the cards themselves. The Act specified fifty categories of information that the National Identity Register could hold on each citizen,[2] including up to 10 fingerprints, digitised facial scan and iris scan, current and past UK and overseas places of residence of all residents of the UK throughout their lives and indexes to other Government databases (including National Insurance Number[3]) – which would allow them to be connected. The legislation on this resident register also said that any further information could be added.
...
In the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement that followed the 2010 general election, the new government announced that they planned to scrap the ID card scheme, including the National Identity Register (as well as the next generation of biometric passports and the ContactPoint database), as part of their measures 'to reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties under the Labour Government and roll back state intrusion.

Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 - Part 4

Part 4 (Immigration and asylum)[edit]

Part 4 allowed for the Home Secretary to certify any non-British citizen whom he suspected to be a terrorist and detain them indefinitely, pending deportation, even when such a deportation would be prohibited.[8] The Law Lords ruled against the law in a case brought by nine of the detained suspected terrorists on 16 December 2004 and the measure was effectively abolished the following March when it was up for review.[9] Its powers were replaced with "control orders", brought in by the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005

United Kingdom National DNA Database

The United Kingdom National DNA Database (NDNAD; officially the UK National Criminal Intelligence DNA Database) is a national DNA Database that was set up in 1995. As of the end of 2005, it carried the profiles of around 3.1 million people. In March 2012 the database contained an estimated 5,950,612 individuals. The database, which grows by 30,000 samples each month, is populated by samples recovered from crime scenes and taken from police suspects[1] and, in England and Wales, anyone arrested and detained at a police station.
...
The DNA Database's indefinite retention policy is to be curtailed following a test case filed by two claimants from Sheffield, Mr. S. and Michael Marper, both of whom had fingerprint records and DNA profiles held in the database. S and Marper were supported by the Liberty and Privacy International, non-profit pressure groups who were permitted to make amicus brief submissions to the court.

Your DNA was taken, and retained indefinitely if you were arrested, not charged, not convicted, simply arrested. That was the bit that was challenged and ruled illegal.

 

[Old Man Devin]

I just read an article where a bartender tried to make a citizens arrest om Tony Blair. Was that a joke or a little humor. I think there may have been some British innuendos that I didn't understand it properly. What is Tony Blair''s popularity these days?

There was certainly a time when he was often called a war criminal for the reasons mentioned in the post above, so it was probably a genuine effort to arrest him on those charges! I think these days Blair is just the butt of poor leadership jokes, but then pretty much all UK leaders suffer the same fate. Popularity is pretty low I'd say.