REVIEW OF A WAR CRIMINALS BOOK

Tony Blair

On Leadership.

Lessons for the 21st. Century.

LEAD US NOT INTO ACCOUNTABILITY FOR MINE IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER AND THE GLORY FOR EVER AND EVER AMEN.

Tony Blair, known to his mates as TB, has demonstrated yet again that politics was never for him. It involves discussion of social values and there is the possibility of losing an argument. Power and getting his way is not only what he stands for but also what he believes others like him should acquire and strive to keep. Teachers of politics for so many years explained and explored the notion of Accountability: holding government accountable to the people. Blair stood that concept on its head and made the people accountable to government. They had to hit the targets he set for them. Policies were initiatives and came with targets to be hit, or else.

Yes there were consultation events but they were limited to requiring people to discuss how they planned to hit their targets. If, like me, you questioned a target you would be told that it was ‘A Government Given’ and could not be questioned.

Afghanistan, Iraq, the abolition of Local Education Authorities, Faith Schools, Academies, Tuition Fees, all were Government Givens.

And ‘Deliverology’? Blair cannot stop himself praising Sir Michael Barber, the head of his Delivery Unit, the man behind the ‘Government Givens’ cracking the whip; the man who uses the word ‘instruction’ to define teaching; of whom I believe civil servants would complain that they came out of meetings bemused by graphs and power points.

Afghanistan and Iraq? The big problem was that neither country proved to be capable of adapting to Blair’s model of how countries should be run. Cameron, who called Blair ‘The Master’, felt the same about Libya. In his book he admits that it all went wrong but tells us it was not his fault. Millions of displaced refugees? Not the fault of the Leader.

The World would be a much better place if people and countries allowed themselves to be led by those that have read and inwardly digested his handbook on making others accountable to the whims of Great Leaders like him.

Of course it would, you must know that.