THE WILLING ACCOMPLICE

The revelation that Tony Blair was advising Rebecca Brooks just a week after
Rebecca Brookes Currently on
trail for phone hacking.
(Amongst other things)
the revelation that the News of The World, [NoW], had hacked into the telephone of murdered schoolgirl Minnie Dowler is surprising only in so far as it is unsurprising. He viewed his actions, I believe, as sticking by his friends. Though as they say with friends like these who needs enemies? At the height of the NoW scandal and in the midst of the stinking corruption being revealed at News International in general and NoW in particular, he advised Brookes to:-

‘Form an independent unit that has an outside junior counsel, Ken Macdonald, a great and good type, a serious forensic criminal barrister, internal counsel, proper fact-checkers, etc in it. Get them to investigate me and others and publish a Hutton-style report.
Publish part one of the report at same time as the police closes its inquiry and clear you and accept your shortcomings and new solutions and process and part two when any trials are over.

Going on to encourage her, to provide emotional support:-

‘It will pass. Tough up.’ [1]

Sycophancy to power
The cynicism at the core of this advice speaks volumes about the mindset of Tony Blair and the establishment of which he and Brookes were so much a part from 1997 – 2007. It also says something about the moral character of the man. To stick by your friends is honourable but should have moral limits. If my friend blackmails people, listens in to other people’s phone messages and intrudes upon the private grief of the recently bereaved there comes a point at which I need to say, ‘listen, I am not comfortable with the way your behaving, I think it is time to cut the cord and bring our friendship to a close.’ As it stands Tony Blair’s moral support of Rebecca Brookes is the most astonishing offer of solidarity since Eamon De Valera offered his condolences to the German people on the death of Adolf Hitler.[2]


However as the Blair years recede into the history books and the appeasement of the Murdoch Empire and the corruption of British political life that this involved is revealed, Blair begins to look less and less like the weak and frightened victim flawed by a pathological "sycophancy to power",[3] but on the contrary an eager and willing accomplice.

[2] I am not, as anyone who reads this bog can see a knee jerk Tony Blair hater, and all those carrying placards to the effect that he is a ‘War Criminal’ whilst at the same time offering moral support to the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah and Assad’s murderous Syrian regime turn my stomach. Without the removal of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq the world would now be an even more dangerous place and tat is saying a great deal. The real criminality lay in the post war occupation which led directly to the instability and murderous sectarian violence that now characterizes Iraq and has provided Islamism with a breeding ground that is now polluting the countries that surround it.



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