Populism for the Chattering Classes

It seems that recently there has been a bit of a renewed love-in for Tony Blair in certain quarters. Particularly with the pro-EU crowd. It's a little bit amusing, as many of these people also hated him over the Iraq War, etc. It's like many of the more fervent remainers are lost on an ocean with no anchor to the ground. Watching them suddenly begin retweeting messages from Blair, or Alastair Campbell, or even George Osborne, with a "hmm, well actually they do speak a lot of sense on this issue". Once (if) the Brexit issue is put to bed these people will find themselves truly rudderless.

The Blair rehabilitation, along with, to a lesser extent, the Rory furore, is almost like a populism for the chattering classes. Quite aptly as both men are very good at chattering. I watched Rory Stewart speak live for half an hour with David Baddiel yesterday, and though he spoke a lot, he said nothing. Everyone was saying how "nice" he was, and he was nice. Very nice ..and charming. But he said very little. It was very reminiscent of the master himself in the run-up to 1997. Like the head tennis with Kevin Keegan, but now on social media.

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It's perhaps unfair to compare someone to Blair. Though then again, saying that, perhaps I'm being a little bit harsh on Blair himself. He is just flesh and blood after all (I think). The love-in is a bit crazy though. Aside from the endless wars, there was also the endless spin. Plus he attempted to take us into the Euro. Likewise he opened the doors to mass immigration, but had a policy to not build anymore housing. In order to keep house prices up.