All Blair’s Fault, contd.

I have been inundated with a request, from Polly Toynbee, for my opinion on an article in The Observer by my friend Nick Cohen, in which he describes Tony Blair, on account of his association with President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, as “a George Galloway with a Learjet at his disposal”. I have told her that I was disappointed by the article.

I would say more, but I have been busy trying to hold the line for sane, balanced and career-limiting analysis of Blair’s relations with Rupert Murdoch. The Independent has a particularly bad case of the Daily Mails today. I haven’t got as far as the sports pages, but I suspect that football racism in Poland and Ukraine is “all Blair’s fault”. In the Daily Mail itself David Lawley-Wakelin seems to be writing under the name “Stephen Glover”. (Lawley-Wakelin had a busy day yesterday, as he also seems to have been allowed to write the anonymous leading articles in both the Mail and the Telegraph: at least, they bear the marks of his outburst yesterday, being dangerous, obsessed with forcing Blair to atone for things he has not done and factually inaccurate.)

So I have not had time to read up about the current balance between reform and repression in Kazakhstan. I am not keen in principle on the idea of taking money from rulers with questionable human rights records, but I think Cohen was wrong to fail even to mention the possibility of counter-argument.

In the age old debate between isolation and engagement there is at least a case to be put on the other side.

Democracy promotion in Kazakhstan seems like a noble purpose to me. Unfortunately I have no idea how that is going. But then, neither has Cohen, I suspect. But at least he quotes John Humphrys’s unfinest hour, in which the Great Pooh Bah of the BBC implies that foreigners prefer a less democratic democracy.

The thing that makes me uncomfortable is of course the money, but then I have no idea about that either, and suspect that the Financial Times’s estimate of Blair’s fee at $13m is, shall we say, speculative.

The Office of Tony Blair response to Nick Cohen is here.

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• Kugelschreiber

  SUSANTYLER,

  No no, I meant that Polly Toynbee would IMPROVE the Sun.

  And also provide some political balance, to prevent bias & to discourage wealthy people from buying up newspapers just to push their own political views.

  Sorry if I was a bit ambiguous & not very clear. Looking back at the post, I can see that it could indeed be taken in 2 different ways.

• takeoman

  I was requesting specific, detailed examples which can be evaluated as to what they have achieved and thus prove or disprove your claim.

• timberanddamp

  I would certainly agree with the observation that under Blair’s leadership Education has failed completely, no one ever brought in so much legislation in favor of the lawyers, Bankers, Media Barons, and the Accountants, together with all of the corrupt financial institutions, all to the detriment of the Public, the electorate, and worst of all the family traditions, and longstanding values, as Blair’s successive government and legislators did, these accumulation of actions by him, only ever benefited his cronies, which has resulted in the feral society, that’s now taking place, each time you make a comment in defense of this Cheshire cat fraudster, you seem to shoot yourself in the feet, notice the use of pluralism, one injured member just doesn’t seem appropriate, you lose on every point, there will of course be investigation, and inquiry, the crimes committed are far to extensive, and far reaching to be ignored, it would seem like any junkie, Blair doesn’t have any boundaries, and just cannot stop, his addiction will in due course implode his shallow and obvious self service, and previous now revealed and exposed activities. 

• JohnJustice

  I suggest you visit the websites of these Tony Blair charities if you’re really interested, which I doubt.

• timberanddamp

  The religion card has been played down the ages, just another mask that he has put on to curry middle eastern, and worldwide admission and kudos, he is certainly no road to Damascus conversion, maybe St Tony next, with idiots like you, and Blairsupporter, with the usual tripe from Rentoul, who knows ? even you three foolish followers must have a limit to your blind stupidity, Please do me a favour.

• takeoman

   Already done that, found them lacking in detail but what was clear is that they are much smaller organizations than the titles suggest; The Sports Foundation is confined to the North East, in Africa there is a presence in only four countries and less staff than most small NGOs, the Faith Foundation comes across as elitist and faintly creepy. I had hoped an expert like you would have some more concrete information to share. You really shouldn’t be such a doubting Thomas, unlike the “”happy few” we “haters” are quite prepared to examine all relevant material.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RWQW5VGWYSRA5K3VBT7ZWOEJLE Stephen

  Mr Rentoul’s mania for white-washing Blair has been going on for years and gets more bizarre and creepy the more Blair proves beyond any doubt that he is and always has been a sleazy and immoral global fixer for dodgy foreign interests.  He ‘advises’ a US bank with a long criminal record and a murderous Central Asian dictator.  These criminal entities pay him, through a series of suspiciously secretive front companies, millions of pounds of their victims’ money.  What is it about these activities that Rentoul can’t grasp?  I imagine, after a decade of publicly defending the man, it is now impossible for Rentoul to face the obvious truth that his numerous critics were right and that he and ‘Blairsupporter’ alone continue to toil in the thankless task of honouring the now discredited leader.  I wonder what new revelation about Blair and at what depth of sleaze and greedy depravity would make Rentoul publicly reappraise his sycophancy.