Blair is a rag soaked in oil, not a model factory

The Labour candidate in my area asked me why I was not enthusiastic about her party. I am not one of the wealthy people in this area, where I have lived for over a decade, and which is almost exclusively reserved for wealthy Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. I said it was because I did not want to see another Tony Blair at the head of the government.
She said, “Exactly, we don’t want another Blair at the head of the party either.”
What happened next? The Labour candidate I did not vote for won in my area, and Labour won, but with a deceptive version of Blair represented by Keir Starmer, Blair’s loyal disciple.
I recalled that conversation with the release of Tony Blair’s new book, “On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century,” in which he claims to offer a guide for leaders with all the advice he wishes he had known when he was prime minister for two terms. This is yet another piece of propaganda from Blair, who is known in British circles as a liar, a defining characteristic of his political persona. Internationally, this was summed up by the late South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s refusal to share the podium with Blair during an international summit hosted by South Africa, because of his ‘crimes and lies’ about the invasion of Iraq.
Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, said, “Blair’s support for the invasion of Iraq is morally indefensible, and it would be inappropriate for me to participate alongside him at this event.”
In fact, regardless of its political value, the book is an advertisement for Blair’s political consulting firm, which he opened after leaving office and from which he has so far amassed a fortune of two million pounds. For example, he received -$-43 million from Kuwait as his company’s first client in exchange for a consulting contract on the future of the oil-rich emirate! This million-dollar contract was a blatant bribe for his ‘wonderful and firm’ stance on the lies of the Iraq occupation, to the extent that he was described in the British media at the time as ‘the dog and its tail,’ with Blair being the tail that could not be politically separated from Bush.
This British Labour politician is described as a skilled ‘revolving door’ player. He gives the impression that he is moving forward, but he always returns to the same point.
In his book, which has been reviewed by politicians in the British press, Blair describes leadership as a mysterious, dangerous and extremely important art, and sets out a set of characteristics for a political leader. Of course, ‘lying’ is not one of them, as he refuses to confirm the truth that has stuck to him about the fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction that he and Bush claimed were one of the infamous historical pretexts for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Blair does not like to talk about the details of this empty lie in his new book on the pretext that he has already addressed it in his memoirs, Journey, published in 2010. Thus, he continues his policy of turning a deaf ear whenever he is accused of lying about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
Blair is free to criticise himself. But he is not free when the liar is the source of political ideals as valuable advice. He saw ethical foreign policy as the foolish promise he had demanded from the British. In Iraq and Afghanistan, he was arrogant about the ease of establishing democracy in these two countries, which have become historical examples of political failure, corruption and social collapse.
It would not be surprising if some British politicians described Blair’s book as ‘brilliant and unusual,’ even if they were from the Conservative Party. For them, Blair is a contemporary figure who embodies British arrogance and conceit, to use the French expression.
Blair cannot protect his legacy, which has become like a worn-out rag soaked in oil, for facts remain facts. But colour, interpretation, framing of motives and influences are all judgements, and will ultimately be irrelevant when history gets to the heart of the matter. Blair is guilty not only of lying, but also of the resulting deaths of more than a million Iraqis and the destruction of a nation. Yet he still insists that he and Bush contributed to turning Iraq into an oasis of democracy and that the world is a better place after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The problem lies in Blair’s political instincts and his duplicitous advice. In this book, many things fall under the category of ‘easier said than done.’ Although he is content with this statement, he fails to address the many factors that conspire daily to derail any politician,´-or-to offer any practical advice on how to overcome these challenges.
According to Nicola Sturgeon, former First Minister of Scotland, the book “On Leadership” could have been richer had it included Blair’s examination of his time in office, how he insisted on following his own arrogance and rushing ahead, ignoring all responsible legal and political advice, with some insights into how he managed´-or-failed to get back on track. In fact, one of the oddities of this book is that it does not include any real reflection on Blair’s own strengths and weaknesses as he continues with the historical lie that it is better than the truth.

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