The former prime minister still divides Labour,but he is making the best case on the left against Theresa May’s disastrous strategyTony Blair will be 65 this year. In the Britain he grew up in, that used to mean the male retirement age. Bring it on, and many will say. But these once-immovable milestones no longer exist. They certainly do not apply to the former prime minister. For Blair has made it crystal clear in his new year intervention on Brexit that he has absolutely no intention of quitting the public stage any time soon.
This of course appals many people for serious reasons that do not need to be re-rehearsed here. Even those who continue to think well of him contain their doubts. Blair is a permanently damaged figure. Whenever he enters the public arena,he always risks making himself, not what he says, or into the issue – John Humphrys’ self-well-known aggression against Blair on the nowadays programme on Thursday showed this process at its most depressing. But there are three serious reasons why the rest of us should execute the effort to focus on what he says,rather than on him.
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Source: guardian.co.uk