PRIMA FACIE - On the strength of the evidence before us, Tony Blair and his advisers at that time could be tried by the International Criminal Court, under the Rome Statute. Giving anyone a title for the deception alleged, is taking the piss.

THE GUARDIAN 4 JANUARY 2021 - UK government urged to rescind Tony Blair’s knighthood

More than half a million people have called on the government to rescind the knighthood given to Sir Tony Blair, but Keir Starmer has defended the former prime minister, saying the honour was deserved.

Is Tony Blair a worthy recipient of the Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter? We say most emphatically not. Since the 4th of January, the Petition is closing on 1 million backers as @ 7th January 2022.

THE ORDER OF THE GARTER

The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George Cross. The Order of the Garter is dedicated to the image and arms of Saint George, England's patron saint.

Appointments are at the sovereign's sole discretion and are usually in recognition of a national contribution, for public service, or for personal service to the sovereign. Membership of the order is limited to the sovereign, the Prince of Wales, and no more than 24 living members, or Companions. The order also includes supernumerary knights and ladies (e.g., members of the British royal family and foreign monarchs).

The order's emblem is a garter with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense (Middle French: "Shame on him who thinks evil of it") in gold lettering. Members of the order wear it on ceremonial occasions.

Membership in the Order is strictly limited and includes the Monarch, the Prince of Wales, not more than 24 companion members, and various supernumerary members. The monarch alone can grant membership. Monarchs are known as the Sovereign of the Garter, and the Prince of Wales is known as a Royal Knight Companion of the Garter.

Male members of the Order are titled "Knights Companion" and female members are called "Ladies Companion". Formerly, the Sovereign filled vacancies upon the nomination of the members. Each member would nominate nine candidates, of whom three had to have the rank of earl or higher, three the rank of baron or higher, and three the rank of knight or higher. The Sovereign would choose as many nominees as were necessary to fill any vacancies in the Order. They were not obliged to choose those who received the most nominations. Candidates were last nominated in 1860, and appointments have since been made by the Sovereign acting alone, with no prior nominations. The statutes proscribing the former procedure were not amended, however, until 1953. 

From the 18th century, the Sovereign made their choices on the advice of the Government. In 1946, with the agreement of Prime Minister Clement Attlee and Leader of the Opposition Winston Churchill, membership of the United Kingdom's highest ranking orders of chivalry (the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle and the dormant Order of St Patrick) became a personal gift of the Sovereign once again. Thus, the Sovereign personally selects Knights and Ladies Companion of the Garter, and need not act on or solicit the advice of the Government. Appointments are typically announced on Saint George's Day (23 April).

DEGRADATION OF MEMBERS

The Sovereign may "degrade" members who have taken up arms against the Sovereign. From the late 15th century, there was a formal ceremony of degradation, in which Garter King of Arms, accompanied by the rest of the heralds, proceeded to St George's Chapel. While the Garter King of Arms read aloud the Instrument of Degradation, a herald climbed up a ladder and removed the former knight's banner, crest, helm, and sword, throwing them down into the quire. Then the rest of the heralds kicked them down the length of the chapel, out of the doors, and into the castle ditch. The last such formal degradation was that of James, Duke of Ormonde in 1716.

During the First World War, two Royal Knights and six Stranger Knights, all monarchs or princes of enemy nations and including Wilhelm II, German Emperor, and Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria, were struck off the roll of the Order or had their appointments annulled in 1915. The banner of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy was removed from the chapel after Italy entered World War II against the United Kingdom and her Allies in 1940. The banner of Emperor Hirohito of Japan was removed from St George's Chapel when Japan entered World War II in 1941, but that banner and his knighthood were restored by Elizabeth II in 1971, when Hirohito made a state visit to the United Kingdom. The Emperor was particularly pleased by the restoration of his banner as a Knight of the Garter.

HISTORY

King Edward III founded the Order of the Garter around the time of his claim to the French throne. The traditional year of foundation is usually given as 1348 (when it was formally proclaimed). However, The Complete Peerage, under "The Founders of the Order of the Garter", states the order was first instituted on 23 April 1344, listing each founding member as knighted in 1344. The list includes Sir Sanchet D'Abrichecourt, who died on 20 October 1345. Other dates from 1344 to 1351 have also been proposed.

The King's wardrobe account shows Garter habits first issued in the autumn of 1348. Also, its original statutes required that each member of the Order already be a knight (what would now be referred to as a knight bachelor) and some of the initial members listed were only knighted that year. The foundation is likely to have been inspired by the Spanish Order of the Band, established in about 1330.

The earliest written mention of the Order is found in Tirant lo Blanch, a chivalric romance written in Catalan mainly by Valencian Joanot Martorell. It was first published in 1490. This book devotes a chapter to the description of the origin of the Order of the Garter.

LEGENDARY ORIGINS

Various legends account for the origin of the Order. The most popular involves the "Countess of Salisbury", whose garter is said to have slipped from her leg while she was dancing at a court ball at Calais. When the surrounding courtiers sniggered, the king picked it up and returned it to her, exclaiming, "Honi soit qui mal y pense!" ('Shame on him who thinks ill of it!'), the phrase that has become the motto of the Order.

However, the earliest written version of this story dates from the 1460s, and it seems to have been conceived as a retrospective explanation for the adoption of what was then seen as an item of female underclothing as the symbol of a band of knights. In fact, at the time of the Order's establishment in the mid-14th century, the garter was predominantly an item of male attire.

According to another legend, King Richard I was inspired in the 12th century by St George the Martyr while fighting in the Crusades to tie garters around the legs of his knights, who subsequently won the battle. King Edward supposedly recalled the event in the 14th century when he founded the Order. This story is recounted in a letter to the Annual Register in 1774:

"In Rastel's Chronicle, I. vi. under the life of Edward III is the following curious passage: "About the 19 yere [sic] of this kinge, he made a solempne feest at Wyndesore, and a greate justes and turnament, where he devysed, and perfyted substanegally, the order of the knyghtes of the garter; howe be it some afferme that this order began fyrst by kynge Rycharde, Cure de Lyon, at the sege of the citye of Acres; where, in his great necessyte, there were but 26 knyghtes that fyrmely and surely abode by the kynge; where he caused all them to were thonges of blew leyther about theyr legges. And afterwarde they were called the knyghtes of the blew thonge." I am obliged for this passage to John Fenn, Esq; a curious and ingenious gentleman of East-Dereham, in Norfolk, who is in possession of the most rare book whence it is taken. Hence some affirm, that the origin of the garter is to be dated from Richard I* and that it owes its pomp and splendor to Edward III."

*Winstanley, in his Life of Edward III says that the original book of the institution deduces the invention from King Richard the First.

The motto in fact refers to Edward's claim to the French throne, and the Order of the Garter was created to help pursue this claim. The use of the garter as an emblem may have derived from straps used to fasten armour, and may have been chosen because it held overtones of a tight-knit "band" or "bond" of knightly "supporters" of Edward's cause.

There is a connection between the Order of the Garter and the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (late 14th century). The motto is inscribed, as hony soyt qui mal pence, at the end of the text in the sole surviving manuscript in the British Library, albeit in a later hand. In the poem, a girdle, very similar in its erotic undertones to the garter, plays a prominent role. A rough equivalent of the Order's motto has been identified in Gawain's exclamation corsed worth cowarddyse and couetyse boþe ("cursed be both cowardice and coveting", v. 2374). While the author of that poem remains disputed, there seems to be a connection between two of the top candidates and the Order of the Garter, John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and Enguerrand de Coucy, seventh Sire de Coucy. De Coucy was married to King Edward III's daughter, Isabella, and was given admittance to the Order of the Garter on their wedding day."

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM  - Bill Clinton, US President, Bill Gates, Thabo Mbek,Tony Blair, Bono, Olusegun Obasanjo

ACCUSATIONS OF WAR CRIMES

Since the Iraq War, Blair has been the subject of war crimes accusations. Critics of his actions, including Bishop Desmond Tutu, Harold Pinter and Arundhati Roy have called for his trial at the International Criminal Court.

In November 2011, a war crimes tribunal of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission, established by Malaysia's former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, reached a unanimous conclusion that Blair and George W. Bush are guilty of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and genocide as a result of their roles in the 2003 Iraq War. The proceedings lasted for four days, and consisted of five judges of judicial and academic backgrounds, a tribunal-appointed defence team in lieu of the defendants or representatives, and a prosecution team including international law professor Francis Boyle.

On 31 December 2021 it was announced that the Queen had appointed Blair a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter (KG). In May 2007, before his resignation, it was speculated that Blair would be offered a knighthood in the Order of the Thistle, owing to his Scottish background (rather than the Garter, which is usually offered to former prime ministers with connections to the other three home nations). Reportedly, Blair had indicated that he did not want the traditional knighthood or peerage bestowed on former prime ministers.

TONY BLAIR - Mistakes can be forgiven, but attacking another country based on bogus intelligence is unforgivable. It is trying to justify what amounts to murder with bullshit.

IS THE HONOURS SYSTEM UP SHIT CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE ?

The Media have been screaming out that the honours system is corrupt, for sale by way of cash contributions to the Conservative Part (and presumably whichever party is in power, to shell our such awards) and now we have the icing on the cake. Now, we are giving awards to War Criminals. And to cap it all, the former Prime Minister had the cheek to accept the award, as though it is fine to kill thousands of innocent people based on fabricated intelligence. Completely wreck a country, cost the UK £millions in the process, and then just walk away Scott-Free. Not a jot of warning in the Christmas Message, good though it was concerning the late Duke of Edinburgh, nor was there any mention of climate change.

The honours system is also used to keep injustices in the British Justice System quiet. Bent coppers get good conduct medals for keeping their mouths shut about planning fraud and shooting innocent civilians. Judges become Sir this and that, for disallowing appeals, inconvenient, as they would reveal the level of Noble Cause Corruption. In that the English courts know they are wrongly convicting people at the rate of between 3-5%. What is noble about that?

But the refusal to grant the ordinary man an Effective Remedy (Article 13), is part of our Unwritten Constitution, partly controlled with honours. Partly controlled with SLAPP actions.

Do we need a Monarchy? If they were to conduct a poll, we wonder how many British citizens would want Prince Charles as King. How many would like to see the Monarchy downgraded, so as to remove them from politics altogether. 

Why? 

Because, the Queen failed to call for another Prime Minister after Boris Johnson lied to her about proroguing parliament. The Conservative Party should at the very least, have elected a new PM, or called for another General Election. Where he also lied about the UK paying the EU £350,000,000 million a week. And unbelievably, the courts ruled that when it concerned a politician, it was fine to lie to the electorate. But that also means the Government that the Queen appointed was and is based on fraud. Hey, don't you know that all politics is based on degrees of deception, procurement fraud and part time politicians. Bojo is just a master bullshitter. In his case no lives were taken overseas. But Mr Blair has blood on his hands, so takes the leadership bollocks biscuit, with invading another country, based on lies - to butcher innocent civilians in Iraq, all to secure cheap oil, and put the fear of God into other Middle Eastern nations.

It appears that for helping the US with their invasion plans, George Walker Bush arranged that his warmongering ally should receive the Presidential Medal Of Freedom (MOF). Talk about patting each other on the back. The best thing about President Bush was his drive for hydrogen technology. By contrast Blair failed to implement climate change measures, address planning corruption or provide affordable houses to tackle financial slavery from the renting society that Margaret Thatcher created. Blair's idea for securing energy, as polluting oil, was to invade Iraq

LINKS & REFERENCE

https://www.parlia.com/c/tony-blair-war-criminal

https://www.parlia.com/c/tony-blair-war-criminal

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/tony-blair-knighthood-a-kick-in-the-teeth-for-the-people-of-iraq-and-afghanistan/ar-AASkZTb
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/daily-mail-comment-award-that-mocks-the-memory-of-our-dead/ar-AASr7zH