Tony Blair, freelance statesman

Say what you like about Blair, but he is something of a political entrepreneur. He detects a gap in the market and fills it: he did with New Labour in the mid-1990s. And he detects a trend in the globalised world: a system where governments don’t matter so much and power is held by a global elite. This, CoffeeHousers, is what he’s up to with his memoirs. He is presenting himself in new incarnation, a statesman without a state, able to move without being tied down to an electorate. There’s a very revealing passage in his book where he talks about Condi Rice:

“She is a classic example of the absurdity of people with experience and capacity at the highest level not having big political jobs after retirement from office,” he writes. “But that’s another story!” Indeed it is. It’s the cover story of tomorrow’s Spectator.

Most popular

Matthew Lynn

Spain will regret its 100 per cent expat property tax

Blair has evidently long regarded it as “absurd” that clever, talented people like him should leave the world stage simply because an ungrateful electorate has had enough of them.