![]() Whereas another person called the decision by the Queen a " joke." One online critic said that "Tony Blair got awarded a knighthood for killing one million innocent civilians." No British political figure is arguably as polarising as Tony Blair. "I think it's a kick in the teeth for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and a kick in the teeth for all the people who protested against the war in Iraq and who have been proved right," said German.Īs one of the chief architects of the Iraq war, Blair is widely blamed not just for the horrific death toll the war had on Iraqis - estimated at least 460,000 deaths, with some estimates putting the number as high as one million - but also how the war was sold to the British public and internationally.īefore the 2003 war against Iraq, Blair argued that the country's leader Saddam Hussein - was on the cusp of attaining weapons of mass destruction, claims that never materialised - and which were later proved to be unequivocally false.Īn official investigation later found the “intelligence had not established beyond doubt that Saddam Hussein had continued to produce chemical and biological weapons." ![]() Established in the 14th century, the Queen gives it exclusively as a personal gift, and the membership is capped at 24 people.Ī leader in the country's anti-war coalition, Lindsey German, said she was "amazed" that Blair had been given the award. The Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter is one of the oldest and most senior orders of knighthood in the British honours system. "Tony Blair is the least deserving person of any public honour, particularly anything awarded by Her Majesty the Queen," the petition concluded. The petition states that Blair was "personally responsible" for the deaths of countless innocent lives and that he should be held accountable for "war crimes". "Tony Blair caused irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation's society," says the petition seeking a reversal of Blair's knighthood. It hasn't taken long for widespread opposition to mount against Blair's award by Queen Elizabeth, the country's monarch and head of state. A petition demanding the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair be stripped of his knighthood is fast approaching 500,000 signatures as anger grows amongst anti-war campaigners and the wider public.īlair, or as he will now be referred to in the UK, Sir Tony, was awarded the 'Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter’, the oldest and most senior British Order of Chivalry.
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