‘“HE’S GOD!” CRIED ALL THE ANIMALS”’
Following close behind the remarkable John Pilger TV programme, there was a fascinating documentary on Tony Blair on Sunday night. No great surprises, of course. The psychological profiling – all of it sober, considered stuff – revealed a somewhat rootless, restless background. His father suffered a severe stroke early in Blair’s childhood. Formative years were spent as a boarder in a very traditional public school followed by Oxford University. Academic achievement was undistinguished in both & there were no early signs of political ambition or even conspicuous interest. Tellingly, his principal achievements were in the areas of performance. The rock band involvement is well documented, but Tony also trod the boards with some distinction.
None of which data explains, or even begins to characterise uniquely, the driven, stubborn, beleaguered figure whose political future seems so precarious at present. But there are elements within that background that do give pause for thought. A consistent theme highlighted in the biographical timeline was a desire to be liked, to be taken seriously, to be seen as a figure of substance. Prominent personality traits that emerged early were the charm, the apparent candour, underpinned by a steely resolve to see a project through come what may.
Apparently Tony Blair was an outsider in the Labour Party from the time of his relatively early eminence. Traditional supporters – the Old Left, the trade unionists - were alienated by his middle class centrism. They found (& still find) his preoccupation with ‘newness’ & with fresh initiatives glib at best & at worst a positive denial of fundamental social democratic principle. So Blair surrounded himself with cronies, men & women motivated as much by a sense of zeitgeist as by reforming zeal. From them he received the validation & reassurance that he craved. Their acute perception of what he is reaching for has enabled them to interpret at source & then ‘spin’ for public consumption the composite image that is the world’s picture of Tony Blair.
The protection offered by this loyal cabal has enabled Blair to conduct business with speed & efficiency. He receives a steady dataflow from those closest to him & their cheery but ruthless pragmatism ensures the Leader is untroubled by the minutiae of day-to-day processes. An inevitable consequence of such withdrawal into the citadel is, of course, personal isolation. And, as the programme pointed out, an inevitable consequence of such removal from the broad, informing currents of the larger Party environment is the development of the idée fixe. His continuing unswerving insistence that the War in Iraq was justified is absolute. Although the premises upon which his justifications were firmly based have melted away like the dew in the morning, some immoveable condition of faith has him clinging to the chimera still.
Here the documentary identified some particularly interesting correlations. Whilst Tony Blair may have abandoned wholesale the old collectivist principles of Labour Party social democracy, ideology remains in another form. Sited centrally within his High Anglican beliefs, there seems to exist a messianic conviction of intertwined personal & national destiny. When Blair predicts, pronounces, proselytises he tells us of his ‘mission’, his ‘covenant’, the next thousand years. Instead of putting himself forward as a leader ready to get his hands dirty in the implementation of radical social policy, he represents himself as a sort of warrior in a world caught up in an elemental battle between the forces of Good & Evil. At times the fixed stare, the brilliant smile have an almost millennialist dimension.
This naïve purblindness explains in part Blair’s apparent adulation of George W. Bush, a man whose crude, ill-hewn perceptions couldn’t be more at odds with his own thoroughly English middle class urbanity. He is aware only of the oxygen generated by the terrifying amount of power invested in the office of the President of the United States of America. And as Blair himself draws more power to the centre of operations at Number 10 Downing Street the very base element of power itself seems to infatuate him. He seems almost to draw strength from being under pressure. The solitude excites him & he becomes his own best audience, thrilling to the certainty that ‘out of this nettle danger, we pluck the flower safety’.
Well, such was the essence of this serious, measured profile. The fact that today Tony Blair received a seven-minute standing ovation on the opening day of the Labour Party Conference in no way mitigates the damage that he is doing both to his own fortunes & the fortunes of the party that six years ago could do no wrong. The Party faithful do not represent the jaded, sceptical-fading-to-cynical British public. Whether they supported or opposed the War in Iraq, they are acutely aware that they have been lied to by the very men & women who promised an end to dissembling, equivocating, backsliding, procrastinating - & lying.
Surely when all is said & done, the one question that we should be putting to all those who would lead us into the New Jerusalem is not, ‘What will you lead us towards? What will we find there” but “Why do you want to lead us? What’s in it for you?” It seems to me that leadership ambition is rarely a matter of selfless social concern. Almost invariably it’s a matter of all-consuming personal psychological need.
12:43:36 AM 
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