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So farewell then...

Watching Blair last night, it is tempting to be charitable. "He will be missed", "He had good intentions", "He had some successes". Indeed several fairly hard nosed commentators have been getting nearly as emotional as Blair himself- a positive chorus of E.J. Thribb-like commentary.
I, however, can not see it that way.
Blair's mistakes have been catastrophic:
"Ethical Foreign Policy"
Mishandling relations with the European Union
Wasting two pounds in every three spent on Health
Running up massive future debts in misconceived PPP deals
Running up massive future debts in misconceived PFI deals
Peter Mandelson as Trade Minister
The Millennium Dome
Freedom of Information Act farce
Jo Moore Affair
Estelle Morris
Failure to recognise that devolution applied to England as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Failure to budget properly for Olympic Games
Failure to budget properly for Infrastructure expenditure
School tables
Cheriegate
Betrayal of Robin Cook
Iraq
Alastair Campbell and lies
Centralisation of Power
Building houses in flood plains
David Kelly
David Blunkett
Ken Livingstone- first throwing him out, then letting him back into Labour
Iraq
Dodgy Dossier
Iraq
Hutton Whitewash
Iraq
Abu Graib, Guantanamo Bay and illegal and unconstitutional imprisonment in UK
Iraq
Lord Levy
Iraq
Peter Mandelson as EU Commissioner
Cash for Honours
Supercasino fiasco
Iraq
Iran seizes British Sailors and Marines
Iraq
Iraq
Iraq

Off set?

Not Much.
Perhaps giving independence to the Bank of England (in fact a Lib Dem policy opposed by Labour until 24 hours before they announced it)

There is something curiously unBritish about Blair's emotions. We don't usually go in for being emotional, indeed we are famous for not being emotional.

Blair has been some kind of exotic alien: an English Edinburgh Scotsman with Middle Class French who spent his earliest years in Australia. Perhaps this is why his engagement with foreigners, despite his disastrous foreign policy, has been more consistent than his engagement with domestic affairs.

In any event, we can only give vent to a sigh of relief: Perhaps Gordon Brown will be a Prime Minister who actually cares more about the domestic than the international.

We can only hope so.
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Comments

Falling on a bruise said…
I do not hold out high hopes for Gordy, mainly because he is drenched in the stink of Blair and his disasterous adventures in Iraq.
Kinda stinks because i would rather suck out my eyeballs with a sink plunger than vote Tory but Gordon was as complicit in Iraq as Blair.
11:40 pm
Cicero said…
Yep
10:28 pm
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