Bruce Anderson

Tony Blair’s new job shows how self-important and detached he has become

A spectre is haunting the world: the spectre of Tony Blair’s ego. Mr Blair has wasted eight years pretending to solve the problems of the Middle East. He has also wasted millions of pounds, and achieved nothing. He has exposed his own total ignorance of history and his megalomaniac overestimation of his own powers. Throughout this time, he also earned large sums on the American lecture circuit, speaking to rich audiences so naive as to believe he is someone worth listening to. Rarely has shallowness been so profitable.

One might have thought that his failure in the Middle East would have taught him a lesson. Not so: this man is unteachable. He also has an ego which requires constant massaging. So he has found a new grandiose outlet; a new salve for his self-importance: combating anti-Semitism in Europe.

On the face of it, that is not only a worthwhile project: it is an urgent necessity.

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