Tony Blair wins 2010 Liberty Medal award for work on peace

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian

Tony Blair, in his inevitable career progression from world leader to elder statesman, picks up another award, this time the 2010 Liberty Medal, a prize given annually by the National Constitution Centre in Philadelphia.

In announcing the $100,000 prize, Philadelphia's mayor Michael Nutter praised Blair's "relentless pursuit of a long-elusive peace in Northern Ireland as British prime minister and his dedication to the Middle East peace process".
...
Blair's peace efforts in the Middle East presumably don't encompass his support for the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Philadelphia blogger Duncan Black noted: "I guess Tony Blair won this for his success in helping to liberate souls from the earthly existence."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/jun/30/tony-blair-liberty-medal-award-2010

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Indeed, the press release goes on for many paragraphs, without mentioning Iraq in any form. Maybe it should be renamed the Collective Amnesia Medal, or the Basil Fawlty Medal ("whatever you do, don't mention the war!").

I'm so pleased to see that to give Blair a medal for 'liberty', you must be a Nutter, though.