An Oracle Speaks

Somebody has to do it. And today many people have given up their time spending their triple-locked state retirement or riding around in their mobility scheme luxury vehicles in order to read the latest pronouncements from the Oracle of Delphi, Sir Tony Blair. The oracle’s latest thoughts have been communicated in a 5,700 word long essay and yours truly has read it so you don’t have to. The interesting thing going on here is that it comes amidst a rather existential battle for the future of Labour, at least as some more wistful pundits would have it. In actual fact, there is currently no real battle going on. There are no ’big ideas’ flying out like sparks from a welder’s torch. More like the spluttering of a dying flame overwhelmed by unconsumed wax. Tony, who is almost exactly the same age as me, still feels terribly relevant but hasn’t the self-awareness to perceive that he is merely presenting as new thoughts those which are essentially retreads. In fact, he comes across as a bit confused, and as a fellow septuagenarian I have sympathy with his plight. He talks still of the ‘Radical Centre’ that woolly and pretentious term which could only ever appeal to politicos who strut around as if they were the ‘adults in the room’ but have nothing original between their ears. Yet they harbour a secret admiration for the disruptors. They acknowledge:
 
‘The people don’t want ‘politics as usual’. The real reason behind the rise of the leaders from Donald Trump to Giorgia Meloni to Javier Milei is that they answer this call. You can like them or dislike them, but their chief characteristic is they appear to be unbound, not constrained by conventional thinking.’
 
Problematically for Tony, the 'Radical Centre’ is nothing more than conventional thinking, albeit tarted up with the latest technology, and what does it mean in practice?
 
‘Our aim, for the long term, should be a Reimagined State in which taxes and spending can be lower, productivity higher and government seen as enabling not directing, with political consensus behind such a radical restructuring of the state.’
 
There you have it. It doesn't come more conventional than that. Shrink the state, privatise more public services and we’ll somehow cling onto our leading status in the world. Tony, who has served dictators and made a handsome cash pile has found the remedy. He doesn’t get more conventional, so much so he couldn’t mention climate change which is the biggest, least conventional gamechanger there is. On that front North Sea oil and gas is a bounty not to be abandoned. For him the Climate Change Act must now feature as one of his biggest regrets.
 
According to a poll reported today, Blair is second only to Liz Truss as the least wanted ex-PM when it comes to whom people might want advice from.  Pay attention Tony!