Mediterranean Living

A mug that says it all

Daily Mail Comment
2nd September 2006

Anthony…your refined inner voice drives your thoughts and your deeds. You're a man who's in charge, others follow your lead. You possess great depth and have a passionate mind. Others think you're influential, ethical and kind.

Thus Mr Blair presents himself to what he presumably believes is an admiring world as he poses for a carefully managed photocall at Chequers, clutching the tea mug that bears this toe-curling message.

Was he perhaps engaging in a bit of self-mockery? Attempting a little joke, to cheer us all up? It would be charitable to think so. But it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this most vain and self-deluding of politicians means every word.

Even as that picture was being taken, Mr Blair made it clear that he regards himself as indispensable. Though much of his own party aches for him to go, he refuses point blank to name a date for his departure, insisting he has great reforming work still to do.

Not surprisingly, his declaration has provoked a furious reaction from those Labour MPs who can't wait to see the back of him. With no obvious mechanism to force him out - short of a Cabinet revolt - they are stuck with a leader in denial, who simply won't accept his time is up.

So now we are back in miserably familiar New Labour territory; Gordon Brown frustrated yet again; mutual loathing between No 10 and the Treasury; the Government all but paralysed by rivalry at the top; drift and indecision everywhere.

And for what? Is there the slightest advantage to Britain or anyone else (apart from his best buddy, George Bush) to have a lame duck leader clinging like a limpet to office?

At home, he presides over a shaming litany of sleaze. Investigations continue into the cash for peerages affair and Mr Blair may yet suffer the indignity of becoming the first Prime Minister to have his collar felt by the police.

Meanwhile, despite all those wasted billions, his administration has become a byword for incompetence on everything from immigration to the NHS and the criminal justice system.

Reform? The bitter Labour feuding over Mr Blair's education plans - which had to be watered down to such an extent that they became virtually meaningless - exposes the emptiness of his ambitions. This Prime Minister is incapable of imposing real change, when his own party no longer respects or trusts him.

And now it seems the public feels the same way. The latest polls reveal that Labour support has slumped to just 31 per cent - its lowest rating in 19 years. Support for the Tories is at 40 per cent.

It gets worse. Labour MPs are bracing themselves for shattering reverses in Scotland and Wales next May. Many fear for their seats at the next election, unless the leadership issue is resolved soon.

But if Mr Blair is a sadly diminished figure at home, could he yet make a significant contribution on the world stage? He certainly dreams of it, talking grandly of embarking on a new search for peace in the Middle East.

Sometimes you just have to wonder what planet he inhabits. So damaged is his reputation over Iraq, Lebanon and his 'Yo, Blair' subservience to President Bush that the UN had to tell him to keep his nose out of negotiations for a Middle East ceasefire, fearing that he would make matters worse.

No, if any progress is to be made in that unhappy region of the world, it won't come from the discredited, distrusted and embarrassingly vainglorious Tony Blair. He is as much a busted flush abroad as he is at home.

And the longer he hangs pointlessly on, the more Britain will pay the price.