Blair rage
“Politics of the anger in the era of the loud-mouth”
Tony Blair in his interview with Lionel Barber in the Financial Times magazine (subscription, some articles free) today says three important things.
1. “The purpose of this is not to make money, it’s to make a difference,” he says of his work for the Kazakhstan government.
2. He is bustling with impatience to take a more public [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 30 June 2012 at 11:23 am
How to change one’s mind
Ian Leslie has written a brilliant essay about changing one’s mind. He is writing about this brilliant essay about changing one’s mind, by someone who has changed his mind about gay marriage.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 27 June 2012 at 3:01 pm
“Mr Blair’s commitment to extending aspiration”
My friend Stan Rosenthal complained to the BBC about Jeremy Paxman’s bias in describing Tony Blair as “the multimillionaire messiah” in an article in the Daily Mail in November. As I said, I like the multimillionaire TV presenter, but I do think he is biased and is allowed to get away with it on the BBC. The BBC rejected the complaint, and the BBC Trust has now rejected Rosenthal’s appeal.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 14 June 2012 at 2:20 pm
“Best just to shake your head,” part II
No sooner has Matthew Parris retired from the Blair-baiting business than his place is taken, rather closer to home, by my good colleague Owen Jones.
Fortunately, while Parris’s satirical purpose was often buried deep under his self-deprecating exterior, Jones’s humour is easier for the reader to grasp.
His skit this morning includes a line about the four [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 1 June 2012 at 6:27 pm
“Best just to shake your head”
I bring you good news from behind the Times pay wall. This, from Matthew Parris:
On Monday I withdrew from the Blair commentary industry. Asked if I would offer a report from that morning’s session of the Leveson Inquiry, I had to choose between doing so and attending an old friend’s funeral in Derby. I took [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 31 May 2012 at 6:58 pm
Blair Rage: It’s Still There, You Know
The madness: it is still distorting reality, only the fever has abated somewhat and so it rumbles barely audibly like a malfunctioning subwoofer.
Blair rage. I never really got to the bottom of the psychological trauma, and much of it has now been redirected towards other targets: the “extreme right-wing policies” of the Coalition Government; the [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 22 May 2012 at 7:15 pm
Captain of the Bounty
Nazir Ahmed, a Rotherham councillor elevated to the peerage by Tony Blair, has been suspended from the Labour Party while it investigates allegations that he offered a $10m bounty for the capture on war crimes charges of Barack Obama, George Bush or Blair — select any two at random, according to different reports of what he [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 16 April 2012 at 10:00 pm
BBC finds new way to admit bias: Paxman guilty of “over-compression”
I don’t know which is more entertaining: Jeremy Paxman making fun of the BBC bureaucrats who tell him off; or the BBC bureaucrats’ long-drawn-out contortions as they try to pretend that Paxo is just having a jolly impartial jape.
My friend Stan Rosenthal complained four months ago about Paxman – in the Daily Mail – describing Tony [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 13 March 2012 at 1:00 pm
Write-What-You-Like about the Hated Blair
Let’s play Spot the Difference. Here is a headline on Yahoo Finance yesterday (right):
“Pay as little tax as Tony Blair”
Here is the headline on the same page, a little later (below):
“Tax lessons from Tony Blair”
You win 10,000 house points! They both have “Tony Blair” in them. And he is, as “everyone knows”, a money-grubbing, pocket-lining [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 26 January 2012 at 10:26 pm
Thatcher: Blair in drag?
I have not reported on luvviedom’s Blair Hate Fest much recently, as the loopiness is abating. But Phyllida Lloyd, the director of The Iron Lady, provides a prize exhibit in the latest Attitude magazine. She says that Margaret Thatcher is “much more hated than Tony Blair, who caused the deaths of millions. Deaths!”
Previously in this [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 13 January 2012 at 10:18 am
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