Blair - genius or lunatic? Or both?!

Simon Hoggart's sketch in The Guardian today sums it up well. In fact, it's one of the best columns I've read for some time.

…at his press conference in Downing Street when the assembled hacks more or less accused him of running a private, secret and corrupt slush fund, and suggested it was time for him to resign. Other politicians might get angry. Some would bluster. Some would wheedle evasively. Blair looks as if it's a perfectly natural thing to say, even if he disagrees with you, as in: "No, I didn't think Brokeback Mountain went on too long," or, "Honestly, I've never found that Chinese food keeps me awake at night." There is a cyborg quality to him; you can almost hear the clang as the bullets bounce off. Are the attacks causing internal haemorrhaging? I don't suppose so. Asked directly this week he implied strongly that, since his programme for the future was now laid out, his "direction of travel" clear, there was no reason at all for him to resign.

It really is incredible that Blair resists all the legitimate accusations of corruption and demands for his resignation. But party coruption is the least of his crimes.

The lies he told to Parliament should have brought about his impeachment. The way he forced the BBC to take the blame for publicising his lies was obscene. The death of Dr David Kelly - whether by executive order or by extreme pressure - is the tragic evidence of what happens if you 'get sucked in'. The anti-terrorism legislation he has introduced (which began prior to September 11th 2001) has resulted in the stopping-and-searching and sometimes detention without charge of hundreds of thousands of people - mainly black and Asian males - hardly any ever charged with a crime. Figurehead policies (gun control, health service reforms, ASBOs etc) have either not happened or have been executed in a shockingly inept manner.

There's no doubt that Blair has been a better Prime Minister than, say, William Hague or John Major. But the honeymoon can't carry on for a decade. It's time he faces charges for the criminal activity which has been the mainstay of his regime.

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March 19, 2006 | Filed Under 'Terror' 

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