Blair’s vision of the Middle East is wrong on an epic and magnificent level

Ah, what it is to have the gift of self-awareness, and how we pity those without it. Tony Blair got off the phone to his friend Muammar Gaddafi and reported that the Libyan leader was delusional and could not face reality. He did not understand that the people had put up with him for long enough and it was time to stand aside for a new leader. I suppose we should be grateful that Tone didn’t use the RAF or mustard gas when he was of a similar mindset.

The Blair-Gaddafi business, the criticisms of the former New Labour regime for its ‘cosy’ relationship with the psychopathic Arab fruitcake, have attacked the right people for the wrong reason. Blair’s narcissistic desperation to be seen as a statesman with a larger role abroad than Britain deserves was almost always wrong-headed and was ultimately disastrous — and we’ll come to that later. But cajoling Gaddafi to come in from the cold and renounce whatever weapons programmes he was working on was rational, pragmatic and surely to be applauded.