Teflon Tony Blair rides into town now as Teak
Tony. Like that precious endangered wood, he should be valued for his ability
to mature well and remain impervious. At Leveson, he behaved as if he was a
management guru eager to share his wisdom.
But he is everywhere now, to remind us that
Labour is no longer in power since it dumped him. All expansive hand gestures
and the knowledge that comes from a life in First Class, he gave a wistful
interview. Asked whether he would do it all again (Would he? Could he?), he
replied: ‘Yes sure, it’s not likely to happen is it, so . . .’
Sad, creepy, slightly insane – but then ex-PMs
all seem to be.
Bringing peace to the Middle East is not a
full-time job for a man of Tony’s talents, but surely he can find something to
do. Sudoku?
Too young to retire, too tainted to start again, he
tells us to keep faith with New Labour, though the conditions that created it
have totally changed because of the financial crisis.
Of course his insight that to get elected Labour
would have to appeal beyond its so-called traditional base and win over Middle
England remains true. But his legacy – apart from the awful wars – is still a
rumbling battle within his own party. Just as the Tories rework Thatcherism
without Thatcher, Labour is knobbled by Blairism without Blair.
At the time, like many outside the Westminster
bubble, I thought the animosity between Blair and Gordon Brown was hammed up.
Then I sat in on an interview with one of Brown’s Ministers – let’s, for the
sake of argument, call him Ed Balls. I have never experienced so much
contradiction between ‘on-the-record’ and ‘off-the-record’ stuff.
This may be the way clever politicians work, but
it is actually barking. Tell the truth or don’t. Afterwards I needed a drink,
and the savvy editor I was with asked me if I wanted to go to the Brown pub or
the Blair pub.
This was at a time when we were being told all in
the garden was lovely – but, hey, remember when we were told, too, that Charles
and Diana were happily married and all else was ‘gossip’?
Now Blair, that perma-tanned blast from the past,
is back to advise Ed Miliband, just as the Coalition is floundering. If
charisma can be transmitted by osmosis, so that Ed appears less of a gonk,
fine. But otherwise what does Blair offer?
Simple. He won three elections. He moved the
party to the centre, where he believes it should stay.
He also lost four million Labour votes, has been
branded a war criminal, and left a legacy of taxes needed to fund the private
finance initiatives that built the schools and hospitals of which he boasts. He
was overly impressed by money, business and the private sector – but now we see
just how unethical their practices are.
The political centre is now more radical in
wanting to reform these institutions than he ever was.
Any idea that Labour can reconnect with its
traditional base is a fantasy. We are not stupid. Instinctively people
understand that power lies not with politicians but with vague entities such as
‘the markets’ or Europe. Politicians – even masters of the universe like Blair
– look small.
Bringing in as policy chief Jon Cruddas – who
thinks about the past but also the future – is a smart move by Labour for he
will ask big questions. What ethically does Labour stand for? What story can it
tell when, during a recession, redistribution becomes a dirty word? Blair by
the end of his reign had lost touch with that essence.
What a peculiar half-life this radioactive ex-PM
has now, still glowing with power, still poisoned by it. He says: ‘There are
two types of politician: there are the reality creators and reality managers’ –
thus creating a reality in which he is still in charge.
Someone tell him: he isn’t.
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