John Lanchester, a Blair supporter since the 1980's turns on Blair in this article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,998769,00.htmlThe key issue for Blair seems to be his own sincerity. He is desperate to convince us that he believes in the rightness of his actions. This has been a faultline in his personality from the very beginning. It's instructive, in this context, to consider the ways in which he differs from Thatcher. Thatcher never claimed to be Good, just Right. Blair's political personality has always been predicated on the proposition "I am good." His brilliantly articulate impersonation of earnest inarticulacy has all along been tied to this self-projection as a Good Man. He is careful about not touting his religion in public, but he doesn't need to, since the conviction of his own goodness is imprinted in everything he says and does. It is one of the things he has in common with the party he leads, and one of the reasons people are wrong when they say that Blair is a natural Tory. Thatcher's sense of being right fits into the Tory party's self-image as the home of unpopular and uncomfortable truths. Blair's sense of being good fits the Labour self-image as the party of virtue: the party we would all vote for if we were less selfish and greedy.
Blair seems to want this sense of himself to override all the boring factual details about things like why we went to war, the legal basis of war, whether Saddam had WMD, whether he in fact posed any risk to the UK, whether MI6 is incompetent or merely ill-used or both; Blair just wants us to take his word for all of it. Inside the Downing Street Wolfsschanze, all this is seen as an issue for the "chattering classes" - a phrase as beloved of New Labour as it was of the Tories and one which would have caused Goebbels a snicker of professional respect. This world-view means that the government doesn't have to listen to a word said by its critics since all our arguments come pre-dismissed. It is exactly analogous to the point Thatcher got to when her sense of her own rightness began to override her sense of external reality. It may be too simple to say, as Clare Short said, quoting an unnamed Tory, that "no one ever leaves Downing Street entirely sane". But there is a moment in most premierships when it is clear that the external world no longer counts quite as much in the prime minister's deliberations as it once did; a point where we no longer believe them, and they no longer much care what we think. That boyish figure rushing down the corridor to the LRB's offices has travelled a long way.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
