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London Calling
Tony for President
Outwardly smiling, open, frank, and uncomplicated, he is inwardly complex and unfathomable.
(Page 2 of 2)
“No,” I said, “But he is here as the President of Europe.”
“You got the Belgians running Europe?” He shook his head, now aghast at our stupidity.
Blair was tremendously impressed by Bush’s willingness to take difficult decisions and stick to them. Each man got to admire the other wholeheartedly, and so long as the Bush-Blair axis held, there was nothing unsure and hesitant about the leadership of the West, and the policies followed.
By contrast, Blair is clearly puzzled by Barack Obama, though he will not admit it. There is a paragraph toward the end of his memoir which completely baffled me:
The genius of Barack Obama was precisely that he reached out and over the partisan divisions. He did so explicitly. The desire of some of his present-day critics to drag him back from the centre is absurd. The espousal of centrist politics is not a betrayal. It is what he promised.
I have read this paragraph forward and backward, sideways and upside down. Whatever way, it makes no sense. I think even Blair would have found it hard to work with Obama, not so much because Obama is anti-British — though he is, fundamentally so — but because he is also, albeit less obviously, anti-American. And Blair is pro-American, to a fault.
WHEN BLAIR ALLOWED HIMSELF to be pushed out by the Gordon Brown faction he was only in his mid-fifties. He is still a mere 57.
The only comparable example, in British history, of an outstanding politician being retired so young is that of Lloyd George, the victor in World War I, who was pushed out in 1922 at the age of 58, and never came back to power. This waste of talent, indeed genius, during the meager inter-war years is one of the most tragic stories in modern British history. I am not suggesting that Blair is a leader in the Lloyd George class. Far from it. But he is a valuable figure nonetheless, not just in a narrow British context but in the wider picture of Anglo-American relations and the leadership of the West. It is desirable that we should make full use of his qualities: friendliness, absence of party rancor, wide popular appeal, open-minded tolerance, and not least courage.
Happily Blair has not made the mistake of making himself ineligible for a return to active politics by going into the impotence of the House of Lords or the Brussels bureaucracy. He can respond to a summons or an opportunity. Britain seems to be entering an era of coalitions, turning its back on the strict dualism of monolithic parties, and pushing men of all parties toward the center. This is a good climate to give birth to a Second Spring for Blair.
Both Labour and the Liberals will probably split in the near future. Blair is well placed to take over the leadership of a merger of the responsible rumps of both. And this could be the prelude to his assuming the leadership of a much wider merger with the Tories. His temperament, his views, his commitments (including the lack of them), and his enviable capacity to get himself liked all point in this direction. So does his book, if you read between the lines. A Blair revival, it is true, does not fit in with a continued Obama presence in the White House. But nor does any other good news for the West.
Christopher Holland| 11.4.10 @ 7:26PM
I am trying to square this account with Blair's performance as Prime Minister. He was vain, shallow and incompetent, he ruined everything that the touched, and boy, did he like meddling in things that he did not understand. Britain will probably never recover from the damage that this guy inflicted on his country. Yes, he liked the US, but the price he paid was blundering into wars where he never did anything to win while doing much to lose. His advice has always been wrong and it puts the fear of God into me when he gallivants around the Middle East, promoting yet another compromise, another surrender. He talks about the threat of Islamic terrorism, but he never mentions how little he did to oppose it, and how often he impeded those who were trying to fight it. He paid a key role in the release of the Lockerbie bomber and I am constantly surprised how often Americans overlook that. Blair is a good example of the old adage whereby you buy the man for what he is worth and you sell him for what he thinks he is worth.
Alan Brooks| 11.18.10 @ 1:48PM
"Britain will probably never recover from the damage that this guy inflicted on his country."
As America will never recover from Vietnam & LBJ?
REB| 11.4.10 @ 10:38PM
Is there another Tony Blair out there that I dont know about?? This guy sounds really great...not at all like "camera on every corner" a scanner in everything else) guy I remember!
PCC| 11.5.10 @ 5:10AM
I read with admiring interest this article by the esteemed Paul Johnson until the final paragraph, when the author suddenly veers off into a fantasy world of crazily fracturing UK political parties magically re-assembling themselves under the messianic leadership of Mr. Blair. Would Mr. Johnson please pass the bong?
PELLIGRINO| 11.6.10 @ 7:07AM
Mr. Paul Johnson and so many others enter into what can only be called "fantasy" as they look back (it wasn't that long ago!) in history. Yes, it was only a few years ago that Tony Blair was PM.
Mr. Johnson, you are delusional. Mr. Blair is only a mediocre PM in the history books insofar as there are many worse people who could have occupied 10 Downing Street during those years.
Just one of many genuine gripes I have with a Tony Blair and those like him: A non Christian. One who thinks that his earthly reasoning in a modern world with a pedigree education suffices.
One cannot govern in a topsy turvy world without knowing God Almighty. It's just not possible.
You seem to forget all the blunders, gaffes, missteps very convieniently. And the death spiral for the whole UK during his tutelage. Yes, we are all human. But one will have no compass for one's own life, let alone that of a nation, if you purposely shun a relationship with the Almighty.
But if you seek and attain high office, you'd better know that you need to spend a lot of time on your knees, you need the treasures of wisdom in Old Testament books like Proverbs, and, frankly, you'd better know Jesus.
Thinking you can lead, manage, or avoid gigantic mismanagement without knowing God and leaning on Him is pure ego. It is absurd.
No, Tony Blair was not a great or good leader. He's a man who was blessed with an opportunity, and he blew it.
Did crime, illegal immigration, safety in the streets, national deficits, wayward government, ballooning costs, a weakened army, bloated bureaucracy....did any of that improve in GB in Blair's years? No. Even Scotland rattled the sabres of more independence.
Britain's decline -- in all areas -- continued and accelerated during his tenure. Financially, militarily, socially, and in ALL things moral.
Yosemeti Sam| 11.6.10 @ 9:57AM
Let us also not forget that under TBs' 'watch' the camels' nose of Shariaism metastasized in the UK.
Dale Cord| 11.6.10 @ 11:52AM
Tony Blair? Another liberal admirer of Bill Clinton and his radical policies, much to the detriment of the British people. The only Prime Minister of Britain that was worth their weight in gold was Sir. Winston Churchill. Their parliament is the most dis-respectable group of rude children one could ever witness, much like our congress in session, but we at least have a bit more decorum when someone has the floor. Tony Blair like Clinton, Bush, Obama is an out of control egotistical Maniac with delusions of world dominance. To allow "Muslims" another radical and violent group of “world take over mentality”, to come into your country and dictate their ideologies and violent laws, taken from a book written by a mentally disturbed fanatic, is the epitome of insanity. Britain now has 83 Muslim courts operating in their communities. With the abominable regime in Washington controlling our destiny as Americans, we too will soon be witnessing the take over of our beloved country by these Muslims. Like the illegal Mexicans, who have invaded America, with the permission of our present and passed administrations in Washington. We have become a “Mutt Nation” no longer pure bred Americans. Muted, by a mutinous group of infidels, practicing and implementing anarchy throughout the land. Our epitaph will soon read "Here lies a nation like Rome and previous nations, who forgot their Creator and became intoxicated with power and material wealth, and turning to their own inept devices became like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah: Ashes and Dust in the wind".
PELLIGRINO| 11.6.10 @ 4:39PM
Pardon. I forgot to add to the list of galling ailments aided and abetted by former PM Tony Blair: Education. MUCH tax money goes into the UK school system. Huge amounts. Today's product, the 20 and 30 year olds in their 1st, 2d, or 3d jobs (when you interact with them) leaves you bewildered and speechless.
It is nothing to meet an English young man cresting 28 years old and inquire of his education in conversation. Soon you hear in his replies the name of a storied, famed school at Oxford, Cambridge or one directly in London. You think, "My goodness. I'll be interacting now with a rather bright young fellow." No. Nothing of the kind. Learn a bit more of the "youth's" biography as the day or week progresses, and the story only gets worse.
And you get this scenario over and over as you speak with those in the 20's, 30's, and 40's aged crowds.
(It is not that education today is markedly better elsewhere in the western world. It is just so astonishing the abysmal decline of once more solid academic institutions throughout Britain.)
Yes, all modern western governments have far too much say in their education systems. (What should be rightly a local affair with the collaboration of parents) Britain's government takes it to new levels of insanity. Mr. Blair could have put the brakes on this in many different situations. He could have helped reverse the course.
I second the comments about inconceivably grotesque immigration (both legal and the massive illegal) during the Blair years. Is he the only one to blame? No. The blame can be shared by thousands. But he presided over it all and was certainly in the best place to recognize the MANY dangers and stop them.
He did nothing.
He may very well have helped usher in a pending civil war on his home soil over just legal & illegal immigration alone.
(Go spend some time in a place called Bradford and all places in and around Leeds if you think you disagree with the above.)
I'd rank him as: A complete failure.
He was friendly to the USA because it is almost always a favorable idea to collaborate and get along with the Yanks. This holds true for all the Western European leaders of the last decades, even when they tried and still try to win small props for pretending otherwise.
Please keep Mr. Blair on the book tour circuit. He never again should be in a place of responsibility. He was manifestly irresponsible.
D. Singh| 11.9.10 @ 4:16AM
Sir
The admirable Mr Johnson writes:
‘Certainly Blair seems entirely at home with basic Conservative principles, such as collective security, the "special relationship" with the United States, the rule of law and the need to enforce it strictly, both at home and internationally’.
I disagree.
I do not for one moment believe that Mr Blair was ‘entirely at home with basic Conservative principles’. In my opinion Blair never resolved the fundamental question that the leaders of the new imperial power, the European Union, always ask each successive Prime Minister: Europe or the USA?
Blair sought to position himself as the ‘bridge-head’ between the USA and Europe as if Washington, bizarrely, rings London and asks to be put through to Berlin or Paris. I am unsure whether Blair was attracted to the USA simply because he liked the USA or whether he liked to bask in the sunlight of a superpower.
Mr Blair destroyed the checks-and-balances of the British constitution. He paved the way for Britain to be submerged into a new anti-democratic power called the European Union and thereby sold our liberty, security and freedom in exchange for oppression; for example, the European Arrest Warrant which dispenses with the due process procedure known to generations of Britons (and Americans) since Magna Charta, 1215.
He paved the way for the surrender of British sovereignty for his successor Gordon Brown to sign the Lisbon Treaty – the constitution of the European Union – without asking the permission of the British people. This is the equivalent to President Obama terminating the constitution of the United States overnight.
The country was on the brink of bankruptcy – Blair’s socialism taxed, spent and taxed again until it had nothing else to resort to except the printing of money.
Under Blair’s watch the persecution of Christians and the closure of Christian adoption agencies began: Judaeo-Christian values are antithetical to the humanistic values contained in the laws of the European Union which in turn are inspired by the fascist philosophy of Hegel.