Do Try And Keep Up

Arising out of an exchange with some simpleton elsewhere: Tony Blair said that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq capable of deployment against British targets within 45 minutes. That, the sole reason for British participation in the Iraq War, was a barefaced lie.

That lie led to Blair's removal from office by his own party, the party that now boos the mention of his name at its Conference, whereas the Leader of the Conservative Party is applauded by his delegates for castigating that booing. That lie also causes a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to be unable to enter numerous countries due to a perfectly well-founded fear of arrest. But that lie has made Blair by far the richest former Prime Minister in British history, including those who enjoyed fabulous inherited wealth.

And Blair himself has since admitted that lie to Fern Britton, blustering that it didn't matter, because Saddam Hussein was A Very Bad Man. If he had said that to one of the great and the good of journalism, such as on Newsnight or the Today programme, then he would have been ruined, and would probably now be in prison. But you only get to be one of the great and the good of journalism by knowing never to ask that sort of question. Or really any sort of question at all when it comes to the political figures whose courtier you are, or the commercial figures whose courtiers they are.

Do try and keep up.