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→ Tony Blair: only centrism can defeat populism
Tony Blair’s book tour is in full swing. Fresh off an interview with the BBC’s Amol Rajan during which he targeted the UK’s post-Brexit immigration system, the former prime minister has made further eye-catching comments. This time he told Sky News that he was “worried” about the rise of populism leading to strongman leaders.
“The centre is not the mushy middle between left and right. It should be the place of solutions.”
Former prime minister Sir Tony Blair tells @SophyRidgeSky he is “worried” about the rise of populism.#PoliticsHub https://t.co/GlTNastFii
Sky 501, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/fhTwSnGLYH
— Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge (@SkyPoliticsHub) September 5, 2024
But, Blair said, it is the centre ground that will defeat the extremes. He told Sophy Ridge: “The centre is not the mushy middle between Left and Right. It should be the place of solutions.” Reviewing Blair’s new book in The Guardian this week, former first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon wrote: “I think history will, and should, judge him much more kindly than contemporary opinion does.” Of course, Blair’s reputation has only risen since he left office…
→ ‘Weird’ political insult crosses the Atlantic
It has long been acknowledged that the UK, in its cultural consumption and political discourse, is increasingly becoming a vassal state of America. Now another US export has belatedly reached British shores: calling your opponents “weird”. After the Democrats found success in using the word to describe the GOP’s Trump-Vance ticket, The Guardian has now applied it to the UK’s Tory Party — twice in the space of a day.
The first of the articles observes that the “weird” moniker has been “deployed to devastating effect in the US”, and accuses the Conservative leadership candidates of “com[ing] off as weird, for their obsessive focus on things no one else is talking about”. The examples cited of things the public doesn’t care about include limiting migration and “the scourge of woke”. Are those issues really so unpopular?
→ Viktor Orbán clashes with EU over migration — again
Viktor Orbán has not made himself a popular man in Brussels of late, and the Hungarian PM has today caused further problems by demanding the EU introduce new laws tackling migration. Speaking at the Cernobbio Forum near Lake Como in Italy, Orbán claimed that in the last decade the bloc had undergone a “disintegration process period”, and that immigration had become an “existential issue” for the EU.
Hungary currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, a position it will relinquish at the end of this year. Orbán, evidently keen to make the most of that time, followed up today’s statements by posting on X that migration “is tearing the European Union apart. Let Hungary and others have an opt-out of the common migration policy!” When it comes to migration laws, Brussels has had a less than harmonious relationship with its troublesome member in the last couple of years…
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Subscribe‘Centrism’, or more accurately, one’s own political beliefs. Blair’s ‘centrism’: mass-mass-massive-immigration…massive curb on the non ‘centrists’ to speak freely online…keeping the plebs at bay through even more ‘independence’ of democratic institutions…more massive immigration…lowering voting age to 8 for those deemed to be marginalised…etc, etc
“Centrism”, the fairy-tale of the moron and the cheap card trick of the ideologue.
Absolutely. A centrist IMO opposes mass migration and economy crushing net zero policies. Yet, this is considered far right.
And the beautiful thing JV is a centrist can be anything you want it to be to help your contention. Come on you can do better than this.
Take your own advice JW.
Yes, an actual centrist is moderate on policy. A moderate ‘immigration’ policy would mean massive reductions in it.
Jeez I just typed in my own comment and then scanned down to this rant. Comical. Right on cue.
You scanned up 11 hours later? I know you are very slow, your drippy comments prove it. But even I’m shocked…
The “centre’s” other pitch is that it is “impartial”….. just like the BBC is “impartial” and Blair’s Supreme Court is “impartial”. It’s a good trick…. works surprisingly well on those not paying close attention to what’s going on under the table.
Leftists love their words games, lies in others words. If they say ‘Impartial’ and not ‘far-right’ it means it’s definitely leftist.
I don’t take advice from people I consider to be a war criminal. Alastair Campbell seeking to justify himself over Iraq on TRIP this week. They disgust me. Dr David Kelly, Chilcott.
Also, The cringey creepy weirdness of the ‘copy and paste’ British left.
And you aren’t weird yourself? You stood back and read alot of the comments that often emanate here? Proper set of survivalist ‘the end is nigh’ nutjobs half the time.
Yeah, wonder why you stay here. Go over on FB and see the left wing (top fan) loons trolling the likes of The Telegraph and The Spectator. The left would describe it as a “bot farm”.
Blair turned the UK into a dangerous Afro Islamic kip. Stuffed the country with incompatible migrants. (As indeed did the Consocialists after him) He destroyed the legal system and tied the country up in an international quagmire of HR legislation. He started our catastrophic devolution experiment.
He partially caused the migrant crisis, the rise of ISIS, destroyed Iraq over a known lie and is at least partially responsible for millions of lives lost and ruined.
He is the personification of a life support system for an ego.
TB is a traitorous, self serving plague who with any luck will be recognised as such internationally before too long at which point he will have to crawl under a very large and remote rock never to be heard from again.
Tony Blair probably believes this, but that doesn’t make it true! The remedy for populism is action based on a solid and inspiring political vision.
What a disgusting, predictable pitch for more elitist bullschitt.
TRANSLATION
Only Tyranny can defeat the people
‘former first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon wrote: “I think history will, and should, judge him much more kindly than contemporary opinion does.”’ Possibly NS is wishing this for herself. Anyhow, Blair lives in Starmer, he’s never gone away, much as many wish he would.
Tony Blair is the reason Britain is in this mess in the first place. The rot started with him.
I think Blair (and Starmer etc) genuinely think ‘Populism’ is the cause rather than the symptom. As if it’s just some nasty political movement that spontaneously appeared after 2016, rather than the predictable democratic response to democracy being ignored. They will never accept this as it undermines their whole world view
Populism is democracy, they renamed it so they could openly attack it.
Why is there no International Arrest Warrant in place for this man?
Tony blair how just the devil!
I have no idea what centrism is supposed to mean. I don’t much care if the Government is in the hands of leftists, rightists, centrists, populists or Wee Frees as long as they defend the realm, keep the streets safe, maintain sound money and run the public services properly. It would also help if the people in charge weren’t all congenital fibbers.
Groan. Every 3 wks Unherd has an article about Blair or the Guardian as Clickbait for it’s subscriber base. You can set your clock by it.
That said Blair’s book does give a decent excuse and one should expect a further Article or two yet so the ‘base’ can have a further mouth-foam about old TB.
Centrism of course is becoming just the latest vague scapegoat the same ranters can shout at. It’s like the mad person in the asylum shouting at a wall. You can project all your demons onto it. Add ‘Blob’ and it’s perfect for the neuronally challenged. Doesn’t require much thought or sophistication yet can sound intelligent to the unintelligent. Just the job.
Groan… he’s selling a book, doing interviews and shilling for his NGO (The Blob). I wish this goon would have the good taste to retire from public life but his narcissism won’t allow it.
Does someone pay you to write the same garbage day in day out. Give us a well thought out argument just one, or you can keep coming over as being unhinged.
The question you should ask is – why did Unherd give him the publicity? I contend it’s because it allows you/others to have a rage. They could just ignore him and the Guardian yet they don’t.
I’m not a big fan of TB, but occasionally can be insightful hearing what someone who’s had power learnt from it. Of course the narrative will be distorted by their own bias, but usually you can still discern some useful kernels.
The Article just picked one specific comment and was never intended to create much thought. But they’ll have algorithm one suspects saying you like this and thus someone gets tasked with chucking out the red meat.
They’re not giving him any publicity, any more than the BBC or The Guardian. Funny thing is, you didn’t feel compelled to ignore it. So what does that say about you.
But you’d expect them to wouldn’t you given what you feel about them? Unherd more for the sort less interested in Blair, which was my point. And hence I stand by the red meat theory. Guardian gets more mentioned in Unherd articles than any other Newspaper. Remarkable.
“Red meat” eye roll.
Under Katherine Viner the paper has become a joke, the poorly written begging the question op-eds are one thing but to have news articles that struggle to maintain impartiality is something else, with their hyperbolic, emotive language.
When UnHerd started out it was described by writers in The Guardian and the left wing student rag Byline Times as a far right publication. Wouldn’t you describe that as giving their readers a bit of “red meat”. I doubt very much that their opinion has changed even with the number of left wing authors given a space here.
Blair is just as despised on the left as the right. He might believe he’s a centrist but he’s not, Blair is a technocrat and is responsible for some of the most damaging policies that Britain is struggling to recover from. He also gave us Cameron another so called centrist. I’m from the centre but lean slightly to the right, I have nothing in common with those two charlatans.
You underline the point – never happier than when raging at Blair/Guardian.
Sigh…
That’s because the Guardian stands for everything that independent minded people loathe. It’s the mouthpiece of the hive mind.
Ditto. The Red Meat works.
You’re not a big fan of TB? Every word you write is taken straight from his mouth FFS.
Come on no need to swear even if foaming at the mouth.
What exactly do you stand for?
All you do is sneer at others. You never engage meaningfully with their beliefs or opinions.
All I can gather about your views is that you’d like everything to more-or-less stay the same. And you’re entitled to want that, but there are plenty of others who would like things to be better.
That’s not something to be sneered at.
JW has spent his entire life in the bosom of the cradle to grave state and been very well rewarded for it. The real world might as well be on Mars for all he knows about it.
I always read your comments and take them seriously. You seem to have a good heart (as my Nan would have said) but there is a vacuity at the heart of everything you say. Centrism has failed and will continue to do so. What is that you would actually get behind?