Yes, I know it’s a rotten pun. My only excuse is that it’s applied to the most rotten personage ever to disgrace Westminster.
The scary news is that Blair has launched a political comeback. The scarier news is that he just may succeed.
Blair has spotted “a massive hole in British politics” – and the absolutely scariest news is that he’s right. A hole does exist, although Blair’s toxic presence is more likely to widen, not fill, it.
He regards Corbyn as a “nutter” and Mrs May as a “ total lightweight”, and he’s right on both counts. However, a man who, as prime minister, elevated corruption, cronyism and constitutional vandalism to hitherto unseen levels, commits an unspeakable effrontery when daring to criticise others and suggest he could do better.
Following the Chilcot report, inculpating Blair for lying about Iraq, he should have been charged with treason. I don’t know what else to call Blair’s promise to Bush that “I will be with you whatever”.
‘Whatever’ covered a plethora of obstacles to this unconstitutional commitment: absence of parliamentary or indeed cabinet approval, any thought for the assured consequences, life-threatening shortage of appropriate hardware and training in the armed forces, intelligence data showing that, in Chilcot’s language, there was “no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein”.
Having criminally caused the on-going Middle Eastern disaster now threatening us all, Blair proceeded to vandalise our ancient constitution by creating unnecessary institutions, such as the Supreme Court, and destroying or emasculating necessary ones, such as the House of Lords and the office of Lord Chancellor.
As a side line, in 2004 he flung open doors already ajar by going along with the EU’s suicidal decision to admit unlimited numbers of immigrants from places where hatred of the West is an article of faith.
While the Iraq caper may constitute treason de jure, Blair’s constitutional mayhem was treasonous de facto. As he and his lieutenants have admitted with refreshing cynicism, all that was done with a single purpose in mind: perpetuating his own power and that of his fellow spivs.
I realise that wishing to see Blair behind bars betokens a lack of realism, but it’s natural to expect that this creature be banned from politics for the rest of his miserable life. (Those interested in its auspicious beginning should Google ‘Tony Blair Miranda’. Let’s just say that young Tone added a whole new meaning to the Miranda warning.)
Or rather it would be natural to expect that in a country where some vestiges of political integrity survive. In Britain, however, Blair clearly expects the currently unelectable Labour Party to bring him back, putting all its rotten eggs into one bastard.
To that end he’s about to launch a comeback campaign, marshalling the support of cross-party malcontents, especially those desperate to undermine Brexit.
Blair’s so far unspoken manifesto should start with the words “Spivs of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your brains (of which you haven’t got much to begin with)”. He has already had talks with the former (Tory!) chancellor George Osborne, who’s still smarting from the unceremonious manner in which his own party dumped him.
You don’t win any prizes for guessing the main subject of the Tory-Tony conversation. For keeping Britain in the EU at all costs is the Trojan horse Blair has saddled to ride all the way back to power. The ensign flapping off his lance has ‘second referendum’ written on it.
If that doesn’t work, he and his new friend George will think up something else, and I’m sure Dave will resurface to add a helping hand. You see, Dave and George are biting every reachable portion of their anatomy over their decision to call the first referendum.
With the smug overconfidence typical of that lot, they were sure they’d win, thereby closing the issue of British sovereignty forever. True enough, had the referendum gone the other way, its results would have been declared ironclad in perpetuity: the EU and its Quislings only ever reverse referendums that go against them.
Now Blair is demanding a second vote even after Mrs May manages to invoke Article 50. This only shows that EU laws don’t matter to Blair any more than British ones do: this article of the Lisbon Treaty says that any country triggering it will leave automatically within two years.
According to Blair, “You can’t change this [referendum] decision, unless it becomes clear in one way or another, that the British people have had a change of mind because they have seen the reality of the alternative.”
For the British people to see “the reality of the alternative”, Britain must actually leave the EU. But that’s not what Blair means. His ‘alternative’ to Brexit is the current state of limbo.
This is created by using every casuistic holdup to force Mrs May to continue shilly-shallying until the will of the British people has been denied – not that she takes much forcing, being a Remainer herself.
Should Blair get and lose his second referendum, he’ll be screaming for a third. Spivs of the world are united, and they won’t be denied – barring the sort of cataclysm that doesn’t bear thinking about.
Who will rid us of this loathsome creature?