Sorry, you’re no Mrs Thatcher

One of Tony Blair’s most cunning and cynical ploys in his early years as Labour leader was to model himself explicitly upon Margaret Thatcher.

One of Tony Blair’s most cunning and cynical ploys in his early years as Labour leader was to model himself explicitly upon Margaret Thatcher. In 1995 he said, ‘She was a thoroughly determined person and that is an admirable qual-ity. It is important in politics to have a clear sense of direction, to know what you want.’ It was the Iron Lady, not his Labour predecessor, Jim Callaghan, whom he invited to No. 10 in his first days as Prime Minister. He postured — and postured is the word — as her true successor: a great domestic reformer and global statesman.

How embarrassing it was to hear Mr Blair signal at his monthly press conference last Monday that he did not want to suffer the same fate as his supposed role model.