Today's Times carries a powerful article by Sir Ken Macdonald, director of public prosecutions between 2003 and 2008, that says Blair was drunk on power when it came to dragging us into the Iraq war, engaging in "an alarming subterfuge with his partner George Bush" and going on to "mislead and cajole the British people into a deadly war they had made perfectly clear they didn’t want".
"In this sense he was weak and, as we can see, he remains so. Since those sorry days we have frequently heard him repeating the self-regarding mantra that 'hand on heart, I only did what I thought was right'. But this is a narcissist's defence, and self-belief is no answer to misjudgment: it is certainly no answer to death."
But he warns that the Chilcot inquiry may turn out to be a whitewash.
"In British public life, loyalty and service to power can sometimes count for more to insiders than any tricky questions of wider reputation. It's the regard you are held in by your peers that really counts, so that steadfastness in the face of attack and threatened exposure brings its own rich hierarchy of honour and reward."
We all knew Blair had a weak character. Why couldn't his own party see it?
See Blair admits war lies
Why couldn't his own party see it? Because -- Nelsonically -- the vast majority of them had their collective blind eye to the telescope (all honourable exceptions accepted, of course).
ReplyDeleteBlind tribal loyalty is one of the besetting sins all across the political spectrum -- my party (or my faction of the party) right or wrong, whatever the realities of the situation.
'S'why I've never joined any party ... sooner or later, they'd be bound to do or say something disgusting to which I couldn't sign up.
Because they all do ... whatever it says on the tin.
Why couldn't his own party see it?
ReplyDeleteIt's the sheepish human nature. It's the "whip" system. It's the contemporary Labour party, where people believe in nothing but their own career. It's a lot of things...
I will always remember one of my mates, Labour voter, February 2003, saying more or less: I trust Tony Blair and the government. If they're going to war it means they have the right reasons for that.