Suddenly very glad he's gone

[djm4_lj]

Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader, suggested that Mr Blair may not have been so politically successful had the relationship between his beliefs and his actions in office been better known.

"The public might have been less willing to give him the triumph of three consecutive general election victories if they'd known the extent to which ethical values would overshadow pragmatism," Sir Menzies said.

Yes, Ming, do please spare us from politicians with ethical values.

There are many things one could say about Tony Blair's religious beliefs, (such as 'hang on - this is news?' and 'the press made Cherie out to be far battier than this and they survived' for starters) but suggesting he should have been more of a pragmatist and implying that religious people are more guided by ethics than atheists... what is he thinking?

Comments

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

*flabbergasted*

Really not something I'd expect Ming, or any LD, to say. At least not phrased *quite* so badly.

[djm4]

I hold onto a slim hope that this is part of a more general point, and makes sense in context. But I can't honestly see what.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Wow. Yes, what on earth is he thinking?

At the moment, I'm finding myself wanting to write Vince Cable's name on my ballot paper. But I won't.

[blahflowers.livejournal.com]

Maybe Sir Ming was doing airquotes around 'ethical values' which, in the context of Blair, I certainly would.

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

From the article you link to Ming could just be agreeing with Tony's assessment of the public...

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

Well my anarchist's ethics are fundamentally built on pragmatics (I don't, for example, believe it possible in practice to separate ends and means), so for my money I'd way rather a pragmatic politician than an ethical one - since ipso facto an elected politician does not share my ethical framework.

The very worst people in history - who do the most atrocious things - are generally convinced that they are doing something good. They can have such a larger effect and are so much harder to stop than the occasional lone sociopath.

... but I don't think that was the point Sir Menzies was attempting to make :-)

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Yeah... not happy about this.

I think I can see what Ming was trying to say (that Blair allowed his religious beliefs to impact on for example foreign policy, and to be steered by the Christian Right in the person of George W Bush), but he's put it incredibly badly. I get them impression he was trying to hard not to sound anti-religious that he's ended up making an essentially meaningless statement.

The quote is quite short - as I think we've both said on previous topics (the great Beth Ditto Debate last week springs to mind), I'd like to see the whole of the statement, not a couple of isolated sentences without context.