Why Tony Blair was a Christian

Easter Monday marks the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. One of the most interesting things ever written by its most famous architect, Tony Blair, appeared (in the Sunday Telegraph) at Easter 1996, two years earlier. The piece, largely devoid of his vague boosterism, suggested he had thought about his subject. Under the title, ‘Why I am a Christian’, Blair wrote of Pontius Pilate: ‘The intriguing thing… is the degree to which he tried to do the good thing rather than the bad. He commands our moral attention not because he was a bad man but because he was so nearly a good man. One can imagine him agonising, seeing that Jesus had done nothing wrong, and wishing to release him. Just as easily, however, one can envisage Pilate’s advisers telling him of the risks, warning him not to cause a riot or inflame Jewish opinion.’ Pilate was ‘the archetypal politician, caught on the horns of an age-old political dilemma…Should we do what appears principled or what is politically expedient?’ I think Tony’s answer to that question was best expressed in Peter Mandelson’s formulation that New Labour offered ‘the politics of both/and rather than either/or’. It must both appear principled and be politically expedient. Then all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well. In fairness to Tony, the GFA was a bravura effort in this perilous genre. Most people were reluctant to point out its underlying flaws, and so it sort of worked. Its flaws remain, however. They help explain why we have twice (including right now) had the suspension of the power-sharing institutions in Northern Ireland. The baddies, especially Sinn Fein/IRA, did better than the goodies out of the deal without having to give up their badness. So they still do not have peace in their hearts.