Yes, the Queen is right to snub Tony Blair

TRADITIONALLY it has been obligatory that former British prime ministers are given the Order of the Garter. It seems, however, that the Queen is making an exception in the case of Tony Blair. Last week, she added two more names to the oldest and most coveted order of chivalry in the world: former Olympian Dame Mary Peters, whose work has supported thousands of young sporting talents across Northern Ireland over many decades, and the Tory grandee Lord Salisbury, who was the chairman of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Foundation. But Tony Blair was yet again the glaring omission. His predecessor, John Major, was awarded the honour in 2005, eight years after leaving office. Yet still no offer has made for Blair, despite his resigning the Labour leadership 12 years ago. I believe the Queen is right to take this exceptional step and snub Blair. He can never be forgiven for having taken Britain into an illegal war in Iraq on the basis of fabricated intelligence that Saddam Hussein was in possession of weapons of mass destruction. However, there is one unfortunate side-effect of the Queen’s decision. She clearly feels that she cannot give Gordon Brown, who succeeded Blair, the Order of the Garter, perhaps because it would make the snub explicit. And yet it is an honour that Mr Brown so clearly deserves.