After hearing Tony Blair’s first confession, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor is on a roll. He landed Blair for a speech on religion at Westminster Cathedral earlier this month, and now he’s lined up William Hague for another talk. The shadow foreign secretary’s lecture on Thursday, entitled “Practical politics, principled faith”, has now sold out. Is our Wilberforce biographer being primed for Tory liaison officer with God?
To fill that vast, half-finished building takes some doing – so Hague’s done well. He’ll presumably have to tone down his normal stand-up comedy routine. (“Have you lived here all your life?, I asked this voter. ‘Not yet’ he replied”). But perhaps the mark of these speeches is to make a huge howler – à la Tony Blair. “Since leaving office, I have understood better a phenomenon I understood only partially as Prime Minister,” declared our ex-PM in his speech. “China has gone from a standing start to arguably the most powerful nation on the continent of Africa.” A-ha! China is actually in Africa, despite what that dastardly Foreign Office says! I wonder what other revelations have struck Blair since leaving office. Iain Dale thought that was a typo and he actually said “influence”. Nope, the plonker actually read the script – watch him on the Cardinal’s video at 20 mins 6 seconds in.
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