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| Tony Blair sounded stricken – but his self-belief was unshaken | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Prime ministers blamed for catastrophic diplomatic failure tend to go quietly to their country houses to grow roses. Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain, paralysed by fear of the cost of war then blamed for failing to rearm in the 1930s, Anthony Eden for the lying deception of Suez in the 1950s, retreated entirely from public life. | Prime ministers blamed for catastrophic diplomatic failure tend to go quietly to their country houses to grow roses. Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain, paralysed by fear of the cost of war then blamed for failing to rearm in the 1930s, Anthony Eden for the lying deception of Suez in the 1950s, retreated entirely from public life. |
| Related: Chilcot report live: George Bush says 'world is better off' without Saddam as Tony Blair mounts Iraq war defence | Related: Chilcot report live: George Bush says 'world is better off' without Saddam as Tony Blair mounts Iraq war defence |
| In contrast, Tony Blair, although no longer the representative of the Middle East quartet, has a sports foundation, a faith foundation, an Africa governance initiative, a climate change initiative, and of course Tony Blair Associates, whose earnings fund them all. | In contrast, Tony Blair, although no longer the representative of the Middle East quartet, has a sports foundation, a faith foundation, an Africa governance initiative, a climate change initiative, and of course Tony Blair Associates, whose earnings fund them all. |
| The criticisms of the Chilcot report were familiar to him from the privileged access given months ago so that he could challenge the conclusions. They had been trawled over by him and, no doubt, his lawyers. Thus, soon after Chilcot had made his statement, at about the time Rose Gentle was accusing him of murdering her son at the press conference for the families, Blair’s office was ready with a rebuttal, insisting the report had exonerated him of all charges of falsification, deception and a secret war pact with George W Bush. | |
| A couple of hours later, in the mid-afternoon, Blair himself launched his press conference with an expression of responsibility for the Iraq war, for which he felt “more sorrow and regret and apology … than you can ever believe”. He looked, and sounded, utterly stricken. | A couple of hours later, in the mid-afternoon, Blair himself launched his press conference with an expression of responsibility for the Iraq war, for which he felt “more sorrow and regret and apology … than you can ever believe”. He looked, and sounded, utterly stricken. |
| It feels cheap at such a time to doubt someone’s sincerity. But I have seen him look stricken before – and like millions of other voters, I don’t trust him any more. | It feels cheap at such a time to doubt someone’s sincerity. But I have seen him look stricken before – and like millions of other voters, I don’t trust him any more. |
| Soon, Blair was needled by a questioner into that blend of impatience and messianic zeal that had been a hallmark of his decade as prime minister. He was provoked into an impassioned defence of leadership and the importance of taking decisions, revealing the qualities that made him at times a brilliant prime minister and at times a disastrous one. | Soon, Blair was needled by a questioner into that blend of impatience and messianic zeal that had been a hallmark of his decade as prime minister. He was provoked into an impassioned defence of leadership and the importance of taking decisions, revealing the qualities that made him at times a brilliant prime minister and at times a disastrous one. |
| Blair’s defence is that the decision on Iraq was the kind of hard decision that had to be taken to make the world a safer place. Chilcot, in contrast, was teaching the lessons not of political strategy but of political safety. There was no sense of what Britain’s place in the world should be or how best we should leverage power. | Blair’s defence is that the decision on Iraq was the kind of hard decision that had to be taken to make the world a safer place. Chilcot, in contrast, was teaching the lessons not of political strategy but of political safety. There was no sense of what Britain’s place in the world should be or how best we should leverage power. |
| But behind that beguiling fluency the contradictions kept cropping up: intervention to achieve regime change in Iraq was, on the evidence he had before him at the time, imperative. (At this point, it is worth rereading Robin Cook’s resignation speech to remind yourself how a different person, lacking neither intelligence nor strategic grasp, could come to the opposite conclusion on the basis of the same evidence. Or the official options paper from some months earlier.) | But behind that beguiling fluency the contradictions kept cropping up: intervention to achieve regime change in Iraq was, on the evidence he had before him at the time, imperative. (At this point, it is worth rereading Robin Cook’s resignation speech to remind yourself how a different person, lacking neither intelligence nor strategic grasp, could come to the opposite conclusion on the basis of the same evidence. Or the official options paper from some months earlier.) |
| Yet a little later, turning to the lessons of Iraq, Blair acknowledged that removing a dictator did create just those ungoverned spaces that were an invitation to terrorist organisations. Evolution was perhaps better than revolution, transition better than regime change. | Yet a little later, turning to the lessons of Iraq, Blair acknowledged that removing a dictator did create just those ungoverned spaces that were an invitation to terrorist organisations. Evolution was perhaps better than revolution, transition better than regime change. |
| Related: 'Tony Blair's epitaph was engraved today'. Our writers' verdicts on the Chilcot report | Related: 'Tony Blair's epitaph was engraved today'. Our writers' verdicts on the Chilcot report |
| When he stood down, in 2007, he gave his Sedgefield constituents his own version of his political epitaph: “I was, and remain, as a person and as a prime minister, an optimist. Politics may be the art of the possible, but at least in life, give the impossible a go. Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong, that’s your call. But believe one thing, if nothing else. I did what I thought was right for our country.” | When he stood down, in 2007, he gave his Sedgefield constituents his own version of his political epitaph: “I was, and remain, as a person and as a prime minister, an optimist. Politics may be the art of the possible, but at least in life, give the impossible a go. Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong, that’s your call. But believe one thing, if nothing else. I did what I thought was right for our country.” |
| No one could become a politician, least of all a politician with no great political convictions, without an unshakeable self-belief. The political process is designed to be both a platform for leadership and a restraint on it. Today in the Chilcot report we have had the self-effacing 2.6m word-report-writing caveated caution of Whitehall, and we have had the unbowed arrogance of Tony Blair. And it is easy to see how the latter kicked against the limits of the former and ultimately demolished them. But then we read the small print. We consider the hundreds of thousands of dead and the millions of people displaced, families shattered, livelihoods destroyed. And it is clear that dull caution is often the wiser, saner course. | No one could become a politician, least of all a politician with no great political convictions, without an unshakeable self-belief. The political process is designed to be both a platform for leadership and a restraint on it. Today in the Chilcot report we have had the self-effacing 2.6m word-report-writing caveated caution of Whitehall, and we have had the unbowed arrogance of Tony Blair. And it is easy to see how the latter kicked against the limits of the former and ultimately demolished them. But then we read the small print. We consider the hundreds of thousands of dead and the millions of people displaced, families shattered, livelihoods destroyed. And it is clear that dull caution is often the wiser, saner course. |