The Rise and Fall of Tony Blair

[speedymama]

I found this rivetting viewing and Andrew Rawnsley keenly observed adjectives to accurately described key situations or emotions helped to make this intriguing viewing. for example, he described the relationship between Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson as combustible.

The part that really stood out for me was how astutely prescient Jacque Chirac was in his blunt summation of the Iraqi situation when TB was trying to persuade him to agree to the UN resolution. He said that a Sunni majority is not the same as democracy and that Irqa would descend into civil war. TB said to one of his advisors "Poor Jacque does not get it". Chirac got it in a nutshell actually. My opinion of Chirac went up massively after watching this.

I actually feel sorry for TB. He tried to do the right thing by following his convictions and contrary to popular belief, he certainly was not Dubya's puppet. I was struck by his conviction that decisions should be based on rational persuasion rather than emotive ones and if you consider that objectively, is not that what we desire from our leaders? His trouble was that he exploited threadbare evidence to justify his rationale. For that, he will have to live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life and I believe that he is a tortured soul because of that.

[speedymama]

So, am I the only person who watched this? Part two is on tonight.