Howling at the Moon
John McTernan has some fun with this column in The Telegraph in which he delivers a positive assessment of Tony Blair's legacy.
But however rational McTernan's analysis may be, he knows that any praise for the former Labour leader draws the Blair-haters out in force who then begin to howl at the moon, politically speaking, instead of having anything forward looking or intelligent to say.
Hate is a very powerful emotion, but ultimately a destructive one if taken too far as the Labour Party is finding out to its cost.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/24/labours-deluded-corbynite-twitterati-are-sealing-it-off-from-the/
Labour's deluded Corbynite Twitterati are sealing it off from the electorate
By JOHN MCTERNAN - The Telegraph
CREDIT: DOMINIC LIPINSKI/PA WIRE
"Si monumentum requiris, circumspice," Tony Blair told Bronwen Maddox, editor of Prospect magazine, during a fascinating and wide-ranging interview.
Not literally. What he actually said when he was asked whether his time in government had been a success was:
"Just look at London. It’s successful because it’s a multicultural city."
Summing up achievements, he said:
"You can be great by respecting the past but not living in it."
And he’s right. London is Tony Blair’s legacy. The Olympics. The jobs. The boom. The excitement. Hipsters. Silicon roundabout. Diversity. Equality. Marriage (as Obama pointed out, it’s just "marriage" now, marriage for all). The greatest city in the world in the greatest country in the world.
I should stop now and just post this blog as it is. I’ve said enough. Not enough to make the case for Tony Blair as the most important post-war Prime Minister, or as Labour’s most successful leader in its 110 year history. But definitely enough to get the anti-Blairites out on Twitter in force.