Peter Oborne

Is Blair just an empty, vainglorious, narcissistic creep?

Is Blair just an empty, vainglorious, narcissistic creep?

British politics has been frozen in a kind of reiterative cycle ever since Black Wednesday 1992: the Conservatives becalmed at 30 per cent in the polls, the Liberal Democrats making stealthy gains, New Labour dominant. Just six weeks ago there seemed some reason to believe that the Iraq war would bring some fluidity to this tedious state of affairs. Not so. The recent conflict has left everything the same; only more so.

This means that Tony Blair has never been as strong or enjoyed so much freedom of action as is the case this weekend. The defeat of Saddam has granted him what comes the way of very few prime ministers: the chance to reinvent his premiership. Whether he is capable of making use of this opportunity remains to be seen; so far the initial signs are discouraging.

It is characteristic of the Prime Minister that, while publicly disavowing triumphalism, he should simultaneously endeavour to extract every last ounce of political advantage from the immediate result of the conflict against Saddam. His interview with the Sun last Friday – repeated word for word, for reasons which remain obscure, in the Daily Telegraph the following day – ranks as one of the most embarrassing episodes of the Blair premiership so far, which is saying a great deal.

The melodramatic description of how he gathered his family around him ahead of the Commons vote on the war to warn them that he might lose his job was peculiarly blush-making. One can only guess what led the Prime Minister – normally so protective of his privacy – to disclose the details of this intimate family occasion. Perhaps he was trying to exaggerate the political dangers that he faced on the eve of war.

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