the great communicator

Before Blair’s appearance at the Chilcot enquiry:

TONY Blair should face war crimes charges over Iraq, one in four voters said in a poll revealed yesterday.

Actually, just under: 23%. But after Blair’s appearance:

Almost four in 10 people think Mr Blair should face a war crimes trial over the 2003 invasion, a poll for The Independent shows.

"Almost" meaning 37%. As I understand it, the questions were phrased differently. “War Criminal” was offered as one of five alternatives in the first poll. The second was a straight up or down question. Even so, following his self-justification last Friday, we can now confirm that the idea of Blair as a war criminal is more popular with the general public by some way than the Labour Party. Masterful stuff by the great communicator. If he appears again, his security people had better cut down the lampposts in the vicinity.

But then if his justification was directed at anybody it was probably at journalists, who tend to respect a man who can talk through his arse and lie through his teeth at the same time. They appreciate the performance. The public maybe less so..

Comments

[Richard J]

Speaking of matters polling and popularity, Call Me Dave is actually now net unpopular, even before he's [likely to get] elected, whereas Gordon, if not actually popular, is now significantly less disliked than he was 18 months back.

[jamie]

Could be another Blair effect. Brown's brief period of popularity lasted for as long as Blair in office was at the forefront of public memory so it follows that his reappearance might well remind people that there are advantages that come with being not Blair, just as there are disadvantages to being a Tory clone of him.