Reply #5: Excellent analysis [View All]

[keymaker]

... he is driven not, as many suppose, by the desire to realise any specific political vision, but by his own peculiar calculus of power. By this I don't mean the power of office so much as the power of those he fears might deny it to him.

Given his lack of a specific political vision some explanation is necessary as to why, in his estimation, the need to secure political office and then to retain it is important at all. His behaviour over the years seems to have been consistent with the need for purely personal aggrandisement so that his membership of the Labour party itself can be seen merely as the most likely vehicle for achieving it. This in turn suggests that he is controlled by undiagnosed mental abnormalities such as attention deficit disorder and megalomania.

... he was not emboldened to defy public opinion by the courage of his convictions, but by the calculation that, whatever the risks, it would ultimately prove to be the line of least resistance.

This would probably have been a mistake had the Tory opposition done what might reasonably have been expected of them - to uphold the importance of adherence to international law. This can't be passed off as political judgment on Blair's part - he has been exceptionally lucky to have met only the supine acceptance by Parliament of an immoral and illegal adventure abroad.

km