Morning:
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I never took to Tony Blair at all. I was never impressed by his populist touch, nor was I sure that the benefits of a Labour government that sacrificed its principles to the free market could be outweighed by the gains to the British people. As for the stain of Iraq on Blair's reputation, it now seems that his successor is going to allow an inquiry - but it isn't scheduled to be completed until after the next election. And not just our general election, but after the "election" by EU leaders next year of the first European president as well, a post for which one T Blair is angling.
According to his biographer, Anthony Seldon, Blair is now interested in the job because his name is "a declining asset". Blair might have to take a drop in income - to a piddling 200 grand a year - while he's in the post but once he's left he can resume jetting around the world, earning ludicrous fees by mouthing platitudes to gullible audiences. Seldon claims that while Blair may have become accustomed to the trappings of wealth, he is not at root an avaricious man and our ex-leader's willingness to contemplate such an income drop is meant to reassure us on that fact.
I'm not reassured - are you? The likes of Seldon may think Saint Tone is only seeking to bring peace to the world with his faith foundation but what I see is a monstrous ego who hires private jets at 80 grand a pop, and who's scored a cool £15 million in fees since he left office. Why does any man who isn't avaricious require four stonking great properties? As for Blair's activities as the Quartet's envoy to Palestine, they don't bear any scrutiny at all, while his interventions on religion have all the bite of a lower sixth-form debate.
It pains me to say this, but Margaret Thatcher's activities since leaving office look positively humane and parsimonious compared with the Blair gravy train. If you go back to such reviled British prime ministers as Harold Wilson, you discover a veritable anchorite, sitting in his little bungalow in the Scilly Isles puffing his pipe.
No, Blair and the boom years in Britain are of a piece: he's the patron saint of City bunce and funny money, and his current behaviour is exactly what you'd expect from such a shameless groupie of the rich and the powerful.
Last week Blair told a 2,000-strong audience in Manila: "Politics really matters but a lot of what goes on is not great." And they not only listened to this guff, they paid him £6,000 every minute for the privilege. Yes, Blair's asset may be declining but just let him try pitching up in London and lecturing us along these lines. Far from walking away with a fat fee, I suspect he'd be lucky to escape with his Paul Smith suit still on his back.
Be free of Spector's shadow
Feast your eyes on the wrinkled visage of pop music Svengali Phil Spector — then do your best to forget him for ever more. That's what the US media and the public mostly did during his protracted second trial for the murder of Lana Clarkson — and it's easy to understand why.
That Spector, a man whose abuse of his first wife was widely chronicled and whose penchant for threatening numerous women with guns was testified to in court, should have taken six years to be convicted in an open-and-shut case is a grotesque testimony to the failings of the US criminal justice system. But at last the creator of the “wall of sound” is silently immured.
Hawk capital of the world
To the Hawk Conservancy, near Andover in Hampshire, with my own small raptors in tow. The Conservancy is, to my mind, the perfect wildlife park: short on the kind of infotainment with which many such places jazz up the natural world. The birds are comfortably housed in aviaries that blend into the sylvan setting but the highlights of the day are the regular flying sessions at which Ashley, the son of the Conservancy's founder, local farmer Reg Smith, gives the commentary. His avowed favourites were the kites who came skimming in to hover above the wildflower meadow. Ashley reminded us that, just like foxes, kites are now most prevalent in British cities. Ever since I got back to the Smoke I've had my head firmly tilted back, scanning the sky. It's nice to know that London may be one of the largest hawk conservancies in the world.
Reader views (6)
Blair is a war criminal. When are we going to see him in the dock along with the rest of the cabinet who allowed the illegal invasion of Iraq?
- Alfalan, Stalybridge
It's very troubling for me but I find myself more and more in agreement with Will Self.
It's no surprise to me that the slippery Saint Blair would eventually look to Rome. After all, he presided over the creation of an Italian style mafiosi syndicate that now commands and controls ever aspect of our lives.
- Ricky, Hackney, London
I knew what we were in for the day after the 1997 Labour victory when the BBC ecstatically reported Tone moving into No. 10, and treated us to a video of a white van pulling up outside the front door (yeah, right, that's what all Prime Ministers use to move, is the handcart following?) and there ... carefully poised in the window ... was his guitar. My heart sank, and has been sinking ever since. Ghastly man.
- Monica, guildford, uk
The freest market seen in recent times was the OTC derivatives market and its variants.
Perhaps Josh has been sleeping, but this freest of all free markets played a centre role in causing the global recession we are currently in.
- Russell, London, UK
Well said Will! The guy who ruled over and ever declining country with a failing banking system , failing education , failing healthcare etc etc accepts no responsability.
- Terry, Hennebont France
What's wrong with the free market? Free trade is responsible for lifting around 300 million people out of poverty. Not to mention the technological benefits of trade too.
- Josh, Doncaster
