Inspired by this article about Greg Dyke on Tony Blair.
Tony Blair has been called “a shady figure” and a “very sad man” by former BBC director-general Greg Dyke.
In an explosive interview with the Financial Times, he also said the former Prime Minister had betrayed the very ethos of the Labour Party.
…
In his 2004 autobiography, Inside Story, Mr Dyke, 66, condemned the former PM as “a man without real principle.”
He wrote: “He was either incompetent and took Britain to war on a misunderstanding or he lied.”
“We were all duped. What is really frightening is that Blair still doesn’t believe or understand that what he did was fundamentally wrong.”
Dyke is correct in stating that Tony Blair betrayed the very ethos of the Labour Party. That was intentional: Blair hijacked the Labour Party and used it to pursue his own NeoCon policies. I also agree that Blair is a man without real principle.
Dyke’s analysis of Blair over the dodgy dossier being “sexed up” is too simplistic and depends on an incorrect binary oposition when the truth is more complex.
We were not all misled (‘duped’). There were many people who appreciated Blair & Co fully well by then and realised that he would do anything to go to war. There were also whole sections of society – subcultures if you like – that were fully aware of Blair’s actions.
Similarly it’s not either he was incompetent and had made a mistake or he lied. He was and continues to be amoral, insane and a Neo-Conservative.
I’m not sure that he’s sad although I am certain that he’s insecure. That much is certain from the absolute nonsense peddled out at the time. It is clear that spin doctors massaged his ego repeatedly.
While there are suggestions that Blair provided boys to paedos at Selby Wright’s summer school that he helped organise, he is most definitely not the straight kinda guy he liked to portray.
Blair is a NeoCon through and through. That’s what drives him. That’s why – actually combined with not being … – he was so closely-coupled to Dubya Bush.
He’s also absolutely barking mad – a part of that is being able to rationalise all of the atrocious things that he’s done.