In regards to Martin Kettle's article (Iraq must not blind us to Blair's skills and seriousness, 28 February), it had more than a touch of the "at least he made the trains run on time". Blair was one of the instigators of a war that led to the deaths of three-quarters of a million people, that became the best recruiting tool of jihadists from Dhaka to Vancouver, that destabilised a region, that re-enforced the attitudes of the most tyrannical and violent regimes around the world, that fractured this nation's belief in ethical and honest government, and in large part contributed to the economic mess we find ourselves in now. There is no excuse that these were unanticipated consequences – each were foreseen prior to the invasion.
Ignoring this poor judgment and massive leap of hubris regarding the Iraq war, Blair's government failed to undo the worst excesses of the earlier Tory governments, with New Labour effectively becoming Thatcherism-lite. The PFIs were kept in place and strengthened, the City allowed its head, civil liberties weakened, unemployment and the welfare rolls allowed to grow while employers were given the wink to keep their workforce "flexible", the nation torn apart by inequality and geography, all in the name of political expediency.
While it's true that Blair had no control over the historical and economic forces that placed him in power, once his government had come to office there is little vindication for its sins, both of commission and omission, especially in the face of what was a weakened and demoralised opposition.
How much of the successes of New Labour – increased educational spending, Sure Start – can be credited to Blair is debateable. I suspect others fashioned these agendas while Blair pushed plastic tanks around a map and considered where in Parliament Square his statue might be erected.
Simon Kennedy
London
• The Blair decade provided a sharp contrast to the mean-spirited Tory years when unemployment and homelessness were rife across our our towns and cities and our public services were systematically starved of funds. From the moment it was elected, the Labour government initiated a complete reform of attitudes towards public services and provided the largest sustained increase in funding for social infrastructure. However, Blair was constantly thwarted by the left wanting to hark back to some rose-tinted past.
This rebuilding of Britain only came apart with the collapse of banking systems around the world and the subsequent diversion of public funds to pay the massive debt of the private sector.Blair was always an open-minded pragmatist and, as Kettle acknowledges, was always serious and purposefully in what he did. Most importantly he had a plan and he and his team (always a team) put it into practice. The Iraq war was an unavoidable tragedy, leftover from a failure of political courage by Bush Sr and John Major a decade earlier. Because of the failure by the public to understand the real issues of the Iraq war, we lost an inspirational leader who was totally committed to making Britain a better place.
Chris Trude
London
• Martin Kettle omits to acknowledge the unhappiness and betrayal felt among a great number of Labour supporters for what they see as the absurd and cowardly New Labour years. Blair had not been leader long when I was told by a distinguished and dedicated Labour MP: "The trouble with Tony is that he's a Tory."
As a slave to his environment, he was unable to muster a persuasive spirit of unity and courage to all sections of Labour, a spirit indispensable for any true reversal of the worst of the Thatcher years – as we're still seeing today. This made Labour reformingly weak, philosophy-lite, and no longer a hopeful spirit for the hardest-pressed. Blair wanted to lead (as opposed to represent) a top-down organisation like the US Democrats – he made conference a Democrat-style rally, abolished the succinct goals of clause IV, and was happy to wallow in the company of the self-seeking rich and the shallow gifted.
How can anybody, who has not actually been robotised, repeat the same hollow platitudes over and over again about the years which saw Labour eviscerated and hundreds of thousands killed as part of British foreign policy?
Ian Flintoff
Oxford
• Kuwait must not blind us to Saddam's skills and seriousness. Kosovo must not blind us to Milosevic's skills and seriousness. Poland must not blind us to Hitler's skills and seriousness. You get the point…
Ian Sinclair
London
• Those who marched us into Iraq like Tony Blair are once again raising the spectre of WMD in the Middle East, not the region's only "existing" nuclear arsenal but Iran's "alleged" nuclear weapons programme (Report, 28 February). Our leaders need reminding that international treaties freely entered into are the bedrock of international law. Iran is a signatory of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and as such is entitled to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. Yet the west, far from upholding the treaty, is resorting to acts of war against Iran in the form of international sanctions and cyber warfare.
The nuclear issue barely begins to explain western hostility towards Iran. Could it be that Tehran's great crime is to point out the emperor has no clothes. The ongoing colonisation of the West Bank with Israeli settlements has put paid to a viable two-state solution, as proposed by Tony Blair as the Quartet's special representative in the Middle East. The only options are an apartheid Greater Israel or, as in the case of present-day South Africa, a common state with common citizenship for all Israelis and Palestinians.
Yugo Kovach
Winterborne Houghton, Dorset
• Steve Bell 1, Martin Kettle 0 (28 February).
David Greig
London