Tony Blair: Delusions of Honesty

By the end of this masterpiece from Theodore Dalrymple, it’s hard to get the image of Tony Blair lying bruised and bloodied in a ditch somewhere out of your head.

Soon after Blair took office, however, a billionaire named Bernie Ecclestone offered the Labour Party a $2 million donation if the government exempted Formula 1 motor racing, which he controlled, from the ban on cigarette ads at sporting events. The government granted the exemption. After public exposure, Blair declared himself to be such a “straight kind of guy” that it was inconceivable that he had involved himself in such an unsavory arrangement—though clearly he had. It was his capacity to believe his own untruths that proved so persuasive to others; it was among his greatest political assets.