Express & Star comment: The years have not been kind
The years have not been kind. And history will be even less forgiving.
Yet Tony Blair remains an enigmatic presence in British politics.
Who would have thought that in those heady days on 1997 this bright young thing would become as despised in some quarters as Margaret Thatcher is in others? Bright young thing no more, he physically resembles a man many years beyond his age of 65.
It seems no-one will ever know for sure why this ‘pretty straight kinda guy’ led the country into the Iraq War in 2003. And getting straight answers from the former Prime Minister has never been an easy task.
After years away from mainstream British politics, he has dipped his toe in the troubled waters again recently.
Almost inevitably, he is a supporter of the so-called ‘People’s Vote’ – a Second Referendum in plain terms.
It is characteristic that he should be involved in such a disingenuous project, designed to overturn the will of more people than ever voted for him in any single election.
But, damaged as he is, he remains a sharp operator; smooth with his answers and slick with his demeanour.
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Even faced with some tough questioning from the Express & Star’s political correspondent, he barely flinched.
Answers, one suspects, were well rehearsed, inquiries batted away. A message was to be delivered. This was old Labour showing how it is done. But what of the new breed?
Mr Blair was in the region supporting one of the Black Country’s best local MPs, Ian Austin in Dudley North.
Both have history with Jeremy Corbyn and his hysterical Momentum henchmen.
Mr Blair said he worried about the ‘far left’, something the vast majority of the population would probably agree with.
But he also said, predictably, that Labour was ready for government.
He touched on the rampant anti-Semitism in parts of the party, saying those at the top ‘don’t understand the problem’.
But ready or not, with the mess the Conservatives are making of everything in sight, it may well be we are landed with a Corbyn administration before too long.
Maybe after that, history will not judge him too harshly after all.
