Blair politely asks Ghaddafi to stop murdering protestors

It seems that Tony Blair is looking to redeem himself somewhat for his past associations with Ghaddafi.

According to the Independent he phoned Ghaddafi twice on Friday and asked him to stop killing protesters rising up against the regime.

Unsurprisingly Blair’s appeal fell on deaf ears…

Bush, Blair, Brown, barbarism and barbarity

Google the words “Bush barbarism” and you get 612,000 hits. For “Blair barbarism” you get 271,000; “Gordon Brown barbarism” gets you 117,000. Bertie Aherne gets a mere 805, behind Winnie the Pooh at a whopping 956! Reading a selection of entries it would seems that most writers are using the word barbarism incorrectly. As disinterested is different to uninterested, barbarism is different to barbarity.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines barbarism as:

1. Uncivilised nature or condition; uncultured ignorance or absence of culture...

2. The use of words and idioms not in accordance with the normal standard language; absence of cultivation of language...

This is of course unfortunate for the many writers who think the word describes a baby-eating tendency among our leaders of Bush, Blair and Brown. On the other hand Bush has been responsible for plenty of barbarisms – every time he says nucular for example (nucular barbarism??) I have no idea what Winnie the Pooh did to get linked to the word . Hunny is simply bad spelling. Perhaps people will stop misusing fascist and genocide too

It’s been remiss of me not to post about Tony Blair’s departure and Gordon Brown’s arrival and his new cabinet. In brief:

• I am grateful to Blair for three successive election victories

• I am grateful for ten years of economic stability - there has been none of the boom and bust that was a dubious highlight of 18 years of Tory rule.

• I am delighted that peace has come at long last to Northern Ireland

There are other things that pleased me but sadly quite a few that didn’t. Number one was getting tangled up in Iraq. It struck me right from the beginning that it would be a mess. I really wish I had been proved wrong.

Many of Brown’s cabinet appointments were very predictable: Alistair Darling at the Treasury, Jack Straw at Justice again (he had been Home Secretary in Blair’s first government) and promotions for Ed Balls and the brothers Miliband came as no surprise. He still managed a few appointments out of left field: I would never have predicted Jacqui Smith becoming Home Secretary or former Tory Shaun Woodward getting Northern Ireland.

A hell of a lot has been written about Blair’s departure and Brown’s arrival virtually all of it much better than I could ahve produced. I would highly recommend reading snowflake's take on recent events. And these posts by Gert at Mad Musings of Me here here and here. For those who think there should be an election have a read of what Tom Freeman has to say.

Today’s papers have moved on to the matter of other ministerial appointments. It is very pleasing to see that Brown has, as he said he would, made a number of appointments from outside the Labour Party. The appointees do bring a wealth of outside experience.

Former First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Alan West has been appointed as a security minister at the Home Office. Sir Alan is a former chief of defence intelligence and deputy chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee. Consultant surgeon Professor Sir Ara Darzi becomes a health minister in the House of Lords. Shriti Vadera becomes Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for International Development. She has worked for UBS Warburg for the last 14 years. Sir Digby Jones, former director general of the Confederation of British Industry, becomes minister of state for trade Sir Mark Malloch Brown, former UN deputy general secretary, who becomes a Foreign Office minister, with responsibility for Africa, Asia and the UN

The new ministers, who will be made life peers, will be expected to take the Labour whip in the Lords, but do not have to join the Labour Party. In addition, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, Lord Stevens has been appointed as Brown’s senior adviser on international security issues. He is also an adviser to the Tory Party on border controls. Liberal Democrat peers Rabbi Julia Neuberger, and Lord Lester will advise on volunteering and constitutional reform respectively.

I hope that these appointments pay dividends in the coming months.

A fitting Tribute

Tony Blair is far universally popular (Jams O'Donnell states the blidningly obvious once again), the positive aspects of his time as Prime Minister (and there IS a lot to be proud of) have been overshadowed in the public mind by Iraq, but there is one area where his stock remains very high and with justification - Ireland . Whatever else one may think of the last ten years, brokering peace in Northern Ireland is without doubt one of the finest achievements.

Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern paid one of the most glowing tributes to Blair yesterday: “Tony Blair has been a friend to Ireland. And I am proud also to count him as a friend of mine...From his first days as prime minister he devoted unprecedented time and attention to bringing the appalling conflict in Northern Ireland to an end. The Good Friday Agreement stands as a noble testament to his commitment to address the problem of Northern Ireland in a fair and balanced way. The ending of his term of office coincides with the success finally achieved at Stormont on May 8th,"

Irish Independent columnist Martina Devlin was quite correct when she wrote in February “Tony Blair was the first British prime minister not to treat us as poor relations or hapless incompetents."

It has taken time, there have been pitfalls but Northern Ireland has a government in which formerly intractable foes are now working together. They may not be friends but the appear to have common purpose. This may not last but there is every chance that that Northern Ireland politics will develop into the slugfest we see in Westminster rather than return to sectarian violence.

The Irish Examiner’s brief editorial sums up the Irish view on Blair succinctly:

Where Ireland is concerned, few would deny that his record marks him out as one of the leading British prime ministers for centuries. For more than 10 years, he has devoted unprecedented time and energy to resolving the North’s seemingly intractable problems. As Taoiseach Bertie Ahern succinctly put it, he will have an honoured place in the nation’s history.

The same cannot be said, however, of his role in the Iraqi debacle. The war was a pyrrhic victory and failure to win peace undermined his leadership of the Labour party. Typifying the Bush-Blair axis of denial, he insists he did what he thought was right. However, if Iraq was his failure, Northern Ireland was Tony Blair’s enduring triumph.

My 800^th post on the Poor Mouth. I clocked up 100 posts on Plant Porn and Pussycats today too.

Today's the day

College Green has been a lot busier over the last couple of days.. quite a few gazebo type things have been set up to keep the rain off the political commentators who regularly report from there. There's even a small stand. When I finally pass the Green on the way to work today, I would imagine it will be quite a busy place since today is the day we have all been expecting for over a year:

It looks like it will be today that Tony Blair finally announces that he is standing down as party leader. If the press is to be believed he will inform the cabinet this morning then travel to his Sedgefield constituency to announce his decision among the party workers who first selected him as their parliamentary candidate on 24 years ago.

Blair will remain in post pending the outcome of a leadership election which Gordon Brown looks set to win handsomely. His only declared opponents are Micheal Meacher and John McDonnell; the chance of either beating Brown is risible. Unless there is a late and highly credible entrant in the leadership race, Brown will be Prime Minister in early June. Blair will return to the back benches and probably stand down as an MP at the next election.

A lot of words will be spent mulling over Blair’s leadership and there will be a lot of speculation over the direction of a Brown government. As a party member since just after the 1984 European elections I will be compelled to add my own views but not right now

Will this be his legacy? - Tony Blair and Catherine Tate

The Tony Blair/Catherine Tate sketch from last night's Red Nose Day programming. I think he does the "am I bovvered" thing well. Political participation in entertainment has certainly come a long ways since Denis Healey gave the line "I can't seem to budge it" in a Nationwide panto.....

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