Tony blair

The very best impressionists do not simply mimic the mannerisms, speech patterns and facial expressions of their targets — they also cleverly satirise the beliefs, character and political dispositions of those targets. Most of us would not remember Mike Yarwood with great fondness because he was quite unable to do any of that. It was enough for Mike simply to raise his shoulders and laugh when evoking Ted Heath; there was no depth to the performance, nothing which gnawed away at Heath’s petulance and obstinacy and insecurity. So we should be grateful for Rory Bremner, who has pulled off a superb impression of a smug, simpering, Remainer London luvvie. With

The campaign against Brexit continues today with Tony Blair’s speech in Brussels. I personally think that this campaign is unlikely to succeed, it is simply too much of a replay of the In campaign’s arguments from the 2016 referendum. But if this attempt to reverse the referendum result is to have any hope of succeeding, Blair’s leg is the most important. For he is asking the EU to make the UK an improved offer, to show that it is trying to address the concerns that led to so many people voting to Leave. Every time the European Union has asked a country to vote again on a treaty it has

As expected, Tony Blair’s latest Brexit intervention has proved universally unpopular. Brexiteers have hailed his criticism as the best advert for leaving the EU in weeks, while Corbynistas have gone on the offensive over his harsh words concerning the dear leader. Despite all this, Tony Blair can at least still count on one man to back him up: himself. In an interview with ITV, it was put to Blair that Corbyn actually did better than the former Prime Minister in the 2017 snap election than Blair in 2005. The reasoning goes that Corbyn won a higher percentage of the vote, at 40pc to Blair’s 35.2pc. Somewhat unsurprisingly, Blair didn’t take

Tony Blair once remarked, during one of the periodic feeding frenzies that engulf British politics, that public life was becoming a game of ‘gotcha’. These days feeding frenzies, like Atlantic hurricanes, seem to strike with increasing frequency. No week passes without someone, somewhere calling for this or that minister to quit. When a minister does resign the focus quickly switches to whomever is next in line. No sooner has the defence secretary gone than Damian Green enters the frame, until Priti Patel obligingly puts her head on the block, only to be followed by Boris Johnson, and so on. Now, three weeks on, Damian Green is again back in the spotlight.

In this week’s Books Podcast I’m talking to the Times columnist and former speechwriter for Tony Blair, Philip Collins, about one of my favourite subjects: rhetoric. His new book When They Go Low, We Go High is a fascinating look at political oratory from Pericles to (Michelle) Obama, and a vigorous argument for politics itself as a bulwark against the false promises of populism. We talk about what it was like writing for Blair, the greatest speech he wrote that was never delivered, how a speechwriter can trick a Prime Minister into announcing a policy he didn’t expect to announce – and why he’s proud to be a “Centrist Dad”.

Tony Blair – Britain can limit immigration without leaving the EU Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has been trying to find a way to reduce immigration to the UK without leaving the European Union. The Institute for Global Change, the organisation that Blair set up earlier this year, has published a report on this very topic. Outlining his proposals to Andrew Marr, Blair also called on sympathetic MPs to unite against Brexit in order to prevent ‘economic and political damage’: AM: A lot of people already this morning have said ‘It’s a little bit rich coming from you given how you opened the doors back in the 2000s to mass

When Tony Blair was selling out the Labour Party by introducing a minimum wage, paid holiday leave and free nursery education, the hard left reckoned it had his measure. Semi-Trots and leftover Bennites, since decamped to one of the many exciting acronyms British Leninism has to offer, filled monochrome magazines and academish journals with tracts denouncing Blair as a Tory, a Thatcherite and both a neoliberal and a neocon. The charge sheet was echoed with righteous indignation by proud purists on the backbenches and in the columns of the Guardian and the Independent. New Labour was so far to the right it was indistinguishable from the Conservatives. What was the

It was the first PMQs since Mrs May crawled triumphantly back into Downing Street after her humiliating victory in the general election. She has brilliantly disposed of her cumbersome Commons majority – always a drawback to a statesman – and replaced it with a thrillingly unstable parliament and a government characterised by its ruthless indecision and single-minded hesitancy. The genius of Mrs May is to keep her gift for politics so fully concealed that it appears to be non-existent. And the historic alliance she has forged with her despised colleagues in the DUP looks set to endure for a hundred years. Or maybe days. The high-rise crisis dominated the session.

Once, politicians remained in their safe spaces and elections were fought in a handful of swing seats. This time Theresa May is campaigning in Labour heartlands, pitching herself at people who have never considered voting Conservative before. Tories are targeting seats they have not held since the 1930s and social class seems almost irrelevant. Pollsters YouGov recently observed that class now tells us ‘little more about a person’s voting intention that looking at their horoscope or reading their palms’. As Tony Blair might have put it, the political kaleidoscope has been shaken and the pieces are in flux. A picture of a Britain with new fault lines is emerging. To

What is Tony Blair playing at? Our permatanned former Prime Minister recently declared himself to be closer to the Liberal Democrats than his own party due to his position on Brexit. “Unique circumstances demand a unique response,” he said, so Labour voters in certain seats “should cross party lines” and vote for Liberal Democrats – in the cause of Remain. Might the love be reciprocated? Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, was on the Andrew Marr show today and he was asked about whether he had met Blair told discuss such an alliance. He fessed up. “Several months ago I met with Tony Blair at his request. I thought it was