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Tony Blair

Tony Blair wonders what’s gone wrong with politics. How sad he can’t see it

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Tony Blair wonders what’s gone wrong with politics. How sad he can’t see it

He oversaw the Iraq war and calamitous financial deregulation, and did lucrative work for foreign tyrants. No wonder faith in the centre-left has evaporated

IMAGE Tony Blair ‘Tony Blair is one of the most loathed politicians in Britain.’ Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

If Tony Blair is the answer, then the question is high on illicit substances. He is reported to be launching an organisation to examine why the “centre left” has been overwhelmed by the forces of populism. It’s as though he’s a spectator, a passive commentator, a bystander, rather than a leading contributor to this age of political calamity. Someone who should be in the dock is electing himself chief prosecutor.

Just consider this. In July, Tony Blair was damned by an official inquiry for his role in a war that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of human beings, including 179 British service personnel, and which contributed to the rise of fanatical Islamist terrorism. That’s before we even mention Blair’s lucrative service for foreign tyrants. If normal rules applied to men of power, he would retire from active political life in disgrace. And yet, less than five months later, here he is, plotting a return to the frontline of politics. His career is like the T-1000 at the end of Terminator 2: it just will not die. If Blair wants material for his vanity project – “why are people so disillusioned with establishment politics?” – then how about starting with politicians who face no penalties for their colossal misdeeds, and continue to exert huge power and influence without any apparent shame or even penitence?

Even before the Chilcot report was published, polls showed that more than half the population would never forgive him

Tony Blair is one of the most loathed politicians in Britain. His small but determined fanclub might not like this, they might believe it is unfair and the British public are all suffering from some form of mass delusion or false consciousness that prevents them from seeing his greatness, but there it is anyway. Even before the Chilcot report was published, polls showed that more than half the population said they would never forgive him. “And the reason this country’s full of people who are so cynical about politicians is down to Tony Blair,” as Labour voters who have defected to Ukip tell focus groups.

When Blair became prime minister in 1997, social democratic parties under “centrist” leadership such as Lionel Jospin in France and Gerhard Schröder in Germany were on the march across western Europe. The Clintons were in the White House. This was a different era, and it is gone. This form of politics had its last hurrah earlier this month when it was defeated by an unhinged proto-fascist in the United States. Its USP was electability: you may trade some principles, but at least you’ll get elected. Donald Trump saw that off. Hillary Clinton was the only bulwark against the calamity of his presidency, but her establishment “centrism”, in part, doomed her.

Perhaps Blair thinks that the plight of Europe’s centre-left parties can be explained by their abandonment of his form of politics. Why, then, does Labour’s terrible polling in Britain still leave it one of the best-polling social democratic parties in Europe? Why are the German Social Democrats – whose leader espouses third way, Blairite-type politics – in the electoral doldrums?

I am not one of those who overlooks the achievements of the 1997-2010 Labour governments such as the minimum wage, public investment, and LGBT rights. But nobody can explain Britain’s current political situation without referring back to other aspects of Blairism. First, the Iraq war, without which Jeremy Corbyn would almost certainly not be Labour leader, and which provoked fury across the political spectrum. Second, a pact with Lucifer, otherwise known as an improperly regulated financial sector, which left Britain exposed to a financial calamity that still defines political life. Third, mass immigration without making the case for it, and without addressing economic grievances such as the lack of housing or secure jobs. Fourth, the failure to reverse the economic damage suffered by many former industrial areas, many of which decisively voted for Brexit.

Yes, the new left in the US and across Europe has serious questions to answer. But while I’m more than willing to ask troubling questions of my own side, there is still precious little evidence that proponents of “centrism” have any interest in self-reflection. They believe they are in the political wasteland not because of their own faults, but because everybody else has gone mad. And so they wheel out one of the most loathed men in British politics to try to save themselves. It is baffling, disturbing, and more than a little bit sad.

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