Does Tony Blair have no self-awareness? He needs to stop talking now | Suzanne Moore
The former PM’s weekend pronouncement on integration was more subtle than it first appeared – but he was the worst person to make it
How does it feel to have been the leader of the country, to have made your party electable and then to saunter into public life every now and then to a chorus of people screaming “go away”? For this is the strange afterlife of Tony Blair: adviser to dictators; property magnate.
His latest pronouncements about compelling immigrants to integrate more have been met with contempt. This intervention, made in a report by the Institute for Global Change, is more subtle than it sounds because it talks about schools needing to reflect the diversity of the local population. White flight occurs in more ways than one, and it can certainly lead to serious segregation in schools. So Blair may have a point here, but he is undoubtedly the worst person to make it. Can he never see himself?