Notwithstanding the current involvement of Gordon Brown in the current political debate surrounding the Scottish Referendum vote, it is customary for former prime ministers of the United Kingdom to fade gracefully in to the background and make way for the new breed.
Margaret Thatcher, Edward Heath, Jim Callaghan and Harold Wilson all achieved this simple task without too much fuss. John Major occasionally interjects with an opinion but usually long after the boat has left the harbour. Tony Blair alone seems quite oblivious to this unspoken rule of British political life. An eleventh year leading the country was quite enough for Lady Thatcher when her party dispensed with her services. It seems that Tony Blair can't get enough of power. He is beginning to come across as one of those computer viruses which just won't go away once it has been granted access. We begin to rue the day we ever clicked the "yes" button. The virus invades our entire system and seems ubiquitous. Wherever we look, the virus is still there even after we thought we'd seen the last of it.
By definition a virus has no life of it's own until such time as it can find a suitable host cell. Blair must rank as one of the most virulent of them all having apparently decided to invade all of us. With even a modicum of good grace, he would have retired from public life and left the public to appraise his legacy. If that appraisal was negative before, it will be positively caustic now. It was Mark Twain who uttered the immortal words, "it is sometimes better to just stand there and look stupid rather than open your mouth and remove all doubt". I do wish somebody had shared this truism with Mr Blair because he is fast becoming a sad figure of fun.
In spite of this, he remains full of the arrogance and self belief which came to dominate his years in Downing Street. Having astutely passed the poison chalice to his long term rival Gordon Brown in 2007 just as the Titanic approached that fateful iceberg, he miraculously engineered a new prestigious job for himself as a Middle East peace envoy! If you believe in the concept of horses for courses, this was as audacious an achievement as I have ever witnessed. Having created most of the trouble in the Middle East through his determination to wage war on Iraq, he was now charged with establishing peace. You just couldn't make it up! It was just typical of the old adage that bureaucracy is like an enormous cesspit in which the really big bits float to the top.
If UKIP really are as nasty and unpleasant as he recently pronounced, I struggle to think of suitable adjectives to describe him. Arrogant, pig-headed, insensitive, ignorant and reprehensible all spring to mind. His continued presence will be severely jeopardising the electoral chances of the present Labour leader who is struggling as it is. Having a photo opportunity to promote the Sun newspaper in a city which is traditionally a hotbed of Labour support speaks of a man totally out of touch with the real world. That said, even Miliband has a long way to go before he can be considered to be as out of touch as his former party leader.
Margaret Thatcher, Edward Heath, Jim Callaghan and Harold Wilson all achieved this simple task without too much fuss. John Major occasionally interjects with an opinion but usually long after the boat has left the harbour. Tony Blair alone seems quite oblivious to this unspoken rule of British political life. An eleventh year leading the country was quite enough for Lady Thatcher when her party dispensed with her services. It seems that Tony Blair can't get enough of power. He is beginning to come across as one of those computer viruses which just won't go away once it has been granted access. We begin to rue the day we ever clicked the "yes" button. The virus invades our entire system and seems ubiquitous. Wherever we look, the virus is still there even after we thought we'd seen the last of it.
By definition a virus has no life of it's own until such time as it can find a suitable host cell. Blair must rank as one of the most virulent of them all having apparently decided to invade all of us. With even a modicum of good grace, he would have retired from public life and left the public to appraise his legacy. If that appraisal was negative before, it will be positively caustic now. It was Mark Twain who uttered the immortal words, "it is sometimes better to just stand there and look stupid rather than open your mouth and remove all doubt". I do wish somebody had shared this truism with Mr Blair because he is fast becoming a sad figure of fun.
In spite of this, he remains full of the arrogance and self belief which came to dominate his years in Downing Street. Having astutely passed the poison chalice to his long term rival Gordon Brown in 2007 just as the Titanic approached that fateful iceberg, he miraculously engineered a new prestigious job for himself as a Middle East peace envoy! If you believe in the concept of horses for courses, this was as audacious an achievement as I have ever witnessed. Having created most of the trouble in the Middle East through his determination to wage war on Iraq, he was now charged with establishing peace. You just couldn't make it up! It was just typical of the old adage that bureaucracy is like an enormous cesspit in which the really big bits float to the top.
If UKIP really are as nasty and unpleasant as he recently pronounced, I struggle to think of suitable adjectives to describe him. Arrogant, pig-headed, insensitive, ignorant and reprehensible all spring to mind. His continued presence will be severely jeopardising the electoral chances of the present Labour leader who is struggling as it is. Having a photo opportunity to promote the Sun newspaper in a city which is traditionally a hotbed of Labour support speaks of a man totally out of touch with the real world. That said, even Miliband has a long way to go before he can be considered to be as out of touch as his former party leader.
excellent writing Alistair, loved it. You have vividly captured to me the depth of distaste i have for this man. What shocks me is that he seems to have no one in his personal life who will share the above truths and realities with him and just stop him! I like how your writing is grounded in medical knowledge and your description of the need for a 'suitable host cell' for a virus to thrive is perceptive. What further shocks me is that the BBC and the 'British establishment' are clearly still willing to be such a 'host cell' for this man and enable him to spout his viral nonsense!
ReplyDeleteThere is a UK Government epetition asking the relevant powers to get him removed as Middle East Special Envoy:
ReplyDeletehttp://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/66467
I urge readers of this blog to sign it and pass it on. It's the very least we can do. I realise, of course, that nothing will stop this odious psychopath (and his equally repugnant wife) from getting a peerage and making even more money than he already has, but we still need to stand up and be counted.
Signed! Thank you for sharing this link.
ReplyDelete