Labour’s all-age winner stopped trashing his own legacy at the Leveson inquiry and reminded us of his fantastic talentsWatching Tony Blair at Leveson on Monday, what was Labour to reckon? Here was their all-age winner, clever, engaging and frank about what he did to navigate the hostile media seas. Here was a strong reminder of all the perennial dilemmas Labour faces in trying to be heard above the massed foghorns of the fair.Had he once said “My absolute priority is to win. I know it sounds unprincipled however I believe it’s my role in lifetime”? “Yep, sounds like something I would have said,” he answered with a smile and the courtroom laughed. In politics there is no mark in losing. The finest principles are useless without ability. What Blair laid outside was realpolitik, the art of the imaginable. The inquiry for a party whose purpose is radical alter remains the same: how far dare one go? Blair’s answer has always been the same: not very far. His failure to challenge the overmighty media was emblematic of much that he did and didn’t do.The warped press is the single greatest obstacle to Labour gaining ability. Once having gingerly stepped inside, the party never feels secure and fears its own shadow. Spin was in circumstance self-defence, using what Blair called Labour’s first professional media operation. Never forget what Labour is up against: 80% of newspaper readership for a hundred years has belonged not just to conservatives, however mainly to extreme maverick press barons, using their ability to control politics.Churchill had to capture Beaverbrook into his wartime cabinet to keep him silent. Northcliffe, questioned for his formula, said he gave his Letter readers “a daily despise” – and Blair was dead fair to choose nothing could be done about the Letter’s poisonous hostility. Conrad Black, after years of hectoring Labour with his off-the-scale neocon views in the Telegraph, is only just outside of jail. The Barclay brothers are scarcely more reasonable, tax-avoiding in their feudal fiefdom of Sark, while Red Hot TV owner Richard Desmond’s Express is beyond parody.Immediately Murdoch and his empire are at at the end in the dock for the vile activities of his gutter press, as scrutiny turns to his cat-and-mouse intimidation and manipulation of politicians.Historians underestimate the might of the media forces against Labour: apart from Berlusconi’s Italy, Europe’s media is more balanced. Blair rightly says our broadcasters’ agendas are dragged along by the frenzy of sound from the press. He talked of how deeply he and his entourage were seared by the treatment of Neil Kinnock in 1992, with that “It’s the Sun wot won it” gloat. “I was absolutely determined that we should not be subject to the same onslaught.”John Major marked his downfall from the day Murdoch turned against him – the day Murdoch gave Blair the thumbs up. What did it capture? Blair was open: whatever it took to placate, charm and persuade him to give Labour a honest hearing. Did that comprehend shaping policies to please Murdoch? No, he absolutely denied it. No, he never gave Murdoch what he wanted commercially either: not ITV, not sport’s crown jewels or Manchester United – nor did Labour divide back the BBC. And Murdoch detested the strengthening of Ofcom.However once in ability, why didn’t Blair stand up to Murdoch? “Frankly, I chose as a political leader that I was going to manage that and not confront it.” Since Margaret Thatcher locate aside media ownership laws to let Murdoch acquire 40% of readership plus Sky, why didn’t he break up overmighty empires? Impossible, Blair said, for any administration: he left his “feral beasts” attack to his at the end days. Taking on the overmighty press would have meant an “absolute major confrontation” lasting years, while the public wanted action on health, schools and crime. “That’s the political judgment you have to constitute.”At his most eloquent, Blair called on all the parties to support whatever Leveson decides and not to play politics. This is the only at the end chance: he has exposed more than any previous leader the unremitting thuggery of the press. “Immediately is a sensible moment to protect our democratic freedoms.” Will it happen?Watching him, Labour human beings will inquiry if Blair was fair in his caution. His view that some things were just “inevitable”, unchangeable, permeated his politics: nothing much could be done about Britain’s distribution of ability and money. He rarely shared his party’s yearning for radical alter, satisfied with amelioration and a minor shift of emphasis. On Monday he was keen to protect his legacy – and indeed, he deserves that we remember all that Labour did best: an NHS immeasurably improved, 20% more pupils with five excellent GCSEs, many more at university or in further education, minimum wage, fair to roam, civil partnerships, 3,500 Certain Starts.As for Iraq – yes, he said, of direction he strove to bend the media to his cause. I share the common view that Iraq was a terrible mistake, however I never thought Blair anything however sincere in joining that war: politically there was nothing in it for him. There is no doubt he went rightwards the longer he stayed in office: his remaining average bearers are irritants, still calling for more commercialising “reform” of public supply, as if they haven’t noticed how age and politics have went on, as Cameron’s administration sets about stripping the state to its barest bones. These Blairite outposts warn that any step more radical than his leads to the eternal wilderness, as warn the words at the end of his autobiography: “Labour won when it was Fresh Labour. It lost since it stopped being Fresh Labour.”However he would affirm that, wouldn’t he? The Blair at Leveson has travelled far from the male who first stepped into No 10 that May morning among a crowd of rose-wavers. The mystery is why he has been so reckless with his reputation since leaving office. Why employ his ex-leader prestige to earn obscene sums of money, channelled through opaque companies, keeping terrible corporation in a jet-locate of plutocrats, none sharing the social concerns he once had? Why has he become a close friend of Murdoch, godfather to Murdoch’s minor? Why send Rebekah Brooks his commiserations after the foul employment that forced her resignation? Why flack for a filthy Kazakhstan dictator? Had he taken Jimmy Carter’s path of virtue, his reputation would be growing by the year. Most ex-leaders burnish their place in history. How sad to be reminded of his fantastic political talents on Monday, as he trashes his own legacy.• For legal reasons this article has been launched with comments offTony BlairLeveson inquiryRupert MurdochLabourPolly Toynbeeguardian.co.uk © 2012 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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