Time for Blair

[elbows]

Plenty of telling reasons why he is shit in this:

Tony Blair on Keir Starmer, AI and globalisation

The former Prime Minister says today's political mood is "more anxious" than when he came to power.

www.bbc.co.uk

Aside from the UK being very different under each of their tenures, Sir Tony and Sir Keir have very different political antennae and life experiences.

Mr Blair, while concerned about inequality and the plight of the poor, wrote in his memoir, A Journey, that he identified more with the aspirations of the middle class than the anxieties of the working class.

He said he wanted to move Labour beyond class struggle.

Sir Keir has said his "project" is "to return Labour to the service of working people, to become once again the natural vehicle for their hopes and aspirations."

But I am told that the question "What would Tony do?" is often heard, explicitly or implicitly, within the new government, just as those who ran the coalition government referred to him, with tongue only loosely in cheek, as the Master.

Luckily for all concerned, he has written down some answers in a new book, called On Leadership.

I put to him an argument that Gordon Brown has made, external: that globalisation created a lot of losers, and that perhaps his government wasn't sufficiently ready for, or sensitive to, that.

And that national populism, which is surging across much of the world, is in part a reaction to that.

He resists.

An unrepentant globalist, Mr Blair insists that "the world is not going to slow down", and that you have to re-skill and equip people for a world that is doing the opposite.

But the biggest surprise in his new book is the constant Biblical references, and in particular, Moses.

In his 2010 memoir, Sir Tony said he always had a passion greater than politics, which is religion.

That can be keenly felt now.

When, in preparation for this interview, I spoke to over a dozen people who know him well, including former prime ministers, the word they most frequently attached to him was "messianic".

At 71, he retains that zeal. Whether for good or for ill you can decide; but his continued influence around the world, and in 10 Downing Street, is not in doubt.

 

[agricola]

Plenty of telling reasons why he is shit in this:

Tony Blair on Keir Starmer, AI and globalisation

The former Prime Minister says today's political mood is "more anxious" than when he came to power.

www.bbc.co.uk

I agree with that last bit, across the world you can see his legacy. To borrow a phrase, he has left us with his trousers full of shit.

 

[skyscraper101]

The Telegraph has given his new book two stars.

Why Tony Blair is a genius, by Tony Blair

On Leadership, by Labour’s longest-serving PM, mixes centrist bromides, weird analogies and kind words for Genghis Khan. Take note, Sir Keir

www.telegraph.co.uk