Blair pulls out of book launch

It is profoundly depressing that Tony Blair has had to pull out of his London book signing. Whatever you think of Blair, he is a man who led his party to three general elections victories and is the second longest serving Prime Minister of the post-war era. There is something very wrong if he feels he has to cancel an appearance at a book shop because of the threat of disruption from protesters whose intentions do not appear to be entirely peaceful.

One other thing that should be noted is that the polling suggests that Blair is nowhere near as unpopular in this country as much of the coverage of his book suggests. A YouGov poll, timed to coincide with the book’s launch, found that a plurality, albeit narrow, of voters believe Blair was a good Prime Minister.