“SAVE US!” … Former Prime Minister!

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14th April, 2008

If you switched on the PM News tonight halfway through a certain interview (BBC Radio 4, from 5:00pm - 6:00pm) you might have thought the political analyst was talking about Tony Blair. In fact, although I heard ALL of it, I STILL wonder!

Listen to the programme skip forward to 00:24:48 and run until 00:28:54. It’s preceded by a piece on Brown’s troubles, interestingly.

With all the present disappointment over Brown within his party and the fact that his party don’t know how to deal with the rumblings in the jungle THIS time (they can’t kill off two big beasts in one year and get away with it!) the “come back PM calls” could easily have been about “our former”.

But it was all about this man - Silvio Berlusconi, former two times prime minister of Italy, and leader of the recently formed People of Freedom party. He seems to have won again, now that his main opponent has conceded.

But what was said about him could almost - almost - have been said about Blair. Whether Mr Blair will think that is flattering or not, I couldn’t possibly guess. But it goes to prove that there is more to politics than dour Scottish bank management. It isn’t always about the economy - though here at home, and in much of Europe, it is NOW.

So why did it sound like a description of Blair?

“HE GIVES THEM HOPE”

Asked “why do millions vote for him?” the political analyst said,

“First of all because he gives them a ray of hope. That’s a matter of fact. When you hear people screaming ’save us Silvio, thank God there is Silvio’, they are desperate for some hope. They want to get out of undecision [sic], poverty in many cases, difficulties, cumbersome bureaucracy, and they think he is the man from heaven. And he is perfect in that role. He is dynamic, he can switch from formal to informal without problems, he can be very similar to the average Italian man. He loves football, beautiful women, he can make quips, he makes slips and this makes people comfortable with him. And then he is rich. So he must be right.

Asked if people don’t care about the legal swirl around him, the reply was:

“First of all they believe that judges are not impartial, The second is, well if he sometimes cheated, who wouldn’t have done this? And so they care, but not too much.”

The vote counting is not all over yet, but it seems that this interesting, flawed and charismatic man who mixes with world leaders, ’such as Tony Blair’, could soon be back in the hot seat in Italian politics. The politics of personality is back in Italy. And so it should be. Like being poor or rich, dour or fun, serious or affable, it’s human nature to prefer the latter in all these cases.  And even, most of the time, in a country’s leader. Except for being “rich”, in the contra-thinking way of the British liberal intelligentsia. In their little world of envy and distrust, being rich is still more or less a sign of malignancy!

But, whatever, it’s the media age. And if you don’t DO Meeja - you can’t do politics. It’s THAT simple.

Moved to thinking of OUR lot, with leadership whispers behind many a Labour hand, I had a hunt around the present crop of British MPs on all sides of the House. The results: personality - some have; charisma - one or two have; character quite a few have, the can-do approach - a few more have; political nous - they all SHOULD have, but sadly haven’t; an ability to inspire, excite and lead - few, er … very few, er … NONE have, imho.

NOT A YOUNG MAN’S GAME

Now aged 71, Mr Berlusconi’s victory gives the lie, as does the American Republican presidential candidate John McCain, also 71, to the idea that politics is a young man’s game. This ageist and sexist nonsensical phrase needs to be relegated to the past where it belongs. And in its evident frustration at Cameron’s leadership credentials, The Telegraph is reminding us all of that Tory giant - Margaret Thatcher. (The Tory writer is wrong about Blair … but that is to be expected).

If 71 is the new 50! that makes Blair about 38 by my calculations. My goodness! He’s only just begun.

PLENTY of time. I recall Mr Blair saying at his last speech to conference - “you make your own luck”. Like many things he has said, the full inferences were not drawn, perhaps not even meant by him at the time. Today we look at his position in the world, compared to that of Brown, and we wonder about luck and other things. Or, if you don’t, I do.

A lesson for politicians:

Voters will ALWAYS prefer a character to a bore. And you never know, the buffoonish, yet likeable Boris Johnson - (if only because we now no longer think of the former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, when we mention Boris) - might just push Ken Livingstone aside in the May London mayoral elections.

Once upon a time, in comparison to the rightish Blair & Brown, Old Labour’s Livingstone was flavour of the month.

Now? Ah well - to everything there is a season. But if Ken’s season is over in less than three weeks time, await the fallout within the Parliamentary Labour party as they go for Brown. And if he survives until the next election, await the fallout for the Labour party nationally as it tears itself apart trying to work out if it’s Left, Right, or Centre.

Only with Blair could they be here, there and everywhere.

I still think they’ve blown it.

But, what is that I hear?

Come back, former Prime Minister! All is forgiven.

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Tags: Tony Blair, leadership, Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister, Berlusconi, Silvio, Italy, elections, May local elections, general elections, Brown despair, disappointed, John McCain, mayor London, Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone