Bagehot: The persecution of Tony Blair

摘要

One of the most hated men in Britain gave a speech on April 23rd that was fated to remind Britons why they so hate him. Listening to Tony Blair talk on "Engaging the Middle East", at a plush City venue, your columnist could almost sense the gathering invective. The former prime minister's familiar yet still odd mannerisms- the glottalised accent, designed to erase any trace of his privileged roots, the paddle-wheeling hand movements-seemed almost to invite it, so thoroughly is he reviled. But the main problem was the speech itself, in which Mr Blair showed amazingly little appreciation of this.