Tony Blair: Does anyone really care?

Larry, where is the champagne?

Let me start with the current Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. Keir’s visionless win in 2024 was a consequence not of his great political foresight, a credible road map or a public policy agenda, but the electorate having had enough of the Tories. I agree that Corbyn tried to sell a utopia, but the problem is that Keir was trying to sell nothing. Not to dwell on this, Keir must go, or he will create a worse “intellectual wasteland.” Labour needs a radical policy agenda based on  Kate Raworth’s book “Doughnut Economics which puts the planetary ecosystem and species, not just ours, at the centre of the political economy. Why, because we or other countries cannot grow our way out of this stage of human development. What we do need is regenerative growth, with redistribution as an important element of new economic thinking. Blair continues with his 3^rd way rhetoric, which is about, as he sees it, neoliberalism with a human face, an oxymoron in itself. No longer is the debate left or right; it is about ensuring that social cohesion is at the core of our collective futures.

Blair says that the challenge of democracy is not about transparency, honesty, and the hidden powers of the elite, really. Does he not understand that trickle-down economics was a con? Can he not see the plutocracy in the US, and has he not heard of Citizens United v Federal Election Commission and how that decision corrupted and monetised politics? Does he not understand that unfettered globalisation has contributed to the rise of the far-right? Does he not see the link between wealth concentration and inequality? Finally, if transparency is not one of the key elements of democracy, could he tell me what is?

He talks about efficacy and getting things done, and leaders need to be problem solvers, not problem managers. Being a manager is about taking people with you, and this calls for a radical change in how we do politics, a more participative and engaging politics.

Let us talk about what Blair calls the two epochal changes. The first is geopolitical, where China is pushing its way to the top step, and India is in the silver-medal position. The second is the AI revolution. He talks about its revolutionary potential both in the public and private sectors. Still, he seems to ignore the future of work, regulatory capture, and the impact on society, positive and negative. He fails to mention how AI, which is built on millennia of human imagination, creativity and invention, will replace humans in many aspects at a scale yet to be determined. In addition, how this will impact our current economic model, which is based on GDP, which in turn is based on consumption. He fails to talk about who controls this technology and the type of surveillance capitalism that is already here. I suppose the control issue is not really important to him, as Larry Ellison, the owner of Oracle, is a major donor to Blair’s think tank, the Tony Blair Institute, to the tune of $375 million.TBI has received money from the Saudi’s and was closely involved with Jared Kushner on the discredited Gaza Riveria Ethnic Cleansing Redevelopment

Now let us get stuck into Blair’s New World Order. He starts by stating the obvious that power resides only in two aspects. The strength of your economy and your military capacity. Blair does not believe that under Trump, we are witnessing a “rupture”, despite Trump’s protestations about NATO, his imperialist version of the Monroe Doctrine, no longer supporting Ukraine, and the shutting down of USAID, making his Asian allies nervous about America’s commitment to Taiwan, to mention a few. Is Tony also unaware of who could come after Trump, such as J.D. Vance, Vought, and Thiel? Has he not heard of Project 25, which, in effect, is the Stalinisation of the State?

Where I agree is that Europe and the UK need to be more economically competitive and independent in the areas of AI, chip manufacturing, cloud computing, and the manufacturing of military hardware, all of which they lag a long way behind the US. We agree that leaving Europe was a form of political and economic self-flagellation. He is asking for economic miracles by suggesting that negotiations with Europe must be conducted from a position of strength. Tony seems to be showing a bit of naivety; the current score on population is UK 69  million, EU 451 million, and on GDP UK  $3.6 trillion, EU $23 trillion. However, building stronger security, technological and economic bonds is a no-brainer, though the Tories and Reform do not see it this way. Finally, these new bonds are important because of the rapid rise of China; America is no longer a trusted partner, a world where everyone wants growth, disruptive Russia and AI. However, he fails to mention the climate crisis as a serious global risk, though I  do agree that in a multi-polar world, what shape the new world order will take is yet to be determined.

So, what about us? Yes, Brexit has positioned us at the fringes of Europe, though the bloc remains our largest trading partner, and we are hanging on to the membership of the G7. We see America in terms of a special relationship which, let us be honest, is not reciprocated. We also see the US as key to our long-term security, but America First has put that in doubt.

Blair talks about our imaginary soft power, which has been diminished by successive governments, including the human rights Prime Minister, who took an additional £5 billion hatchet to the international aid budget. Yet, Blair thinks we can act as partners with developing countries on issues such as what he calls the globally respected rule of law and building governance.

He talks about the UK not becoming insular but building alliances with wealthy and autocratic regimes in the Middle East. What Blair is saying is what I would describe as a “CRAWLING AND IGNORING STRATEGY.” Crawling for inward investment and arms sales and ignoring human rights abuses, greenwashing and let us not forget the misogyny.

So, in summary, his advice is to sell our national souls to the highest bidder and bend over for Donald and his successors and let the tech bros run riot. Just to mention that Tony has joined the Board of Pricks appointed by Donald; however, as a good catholic, whatever that is, he has failed to call out the carnage in Gaza as genocide and the continuing ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank. He also has not publicly criticised his mate, Middle East partner and indicted war criminal Benjamin  Netanyahu for the war crimes committed by the IDF. Where is your empathy, Tony? Twenty thousand kids have been killed in Gaza and described by the Israeli government spokespersons as collateral damage. On this issue, he should read Peter Beinart’s great book called Being Jewish after the destruction of Gaza, and an exceptional book by Professor of Genocide and Holocaust Studies, Omer Barto, called Israel: What went wrong?

Let us talk about his Make Britain Great Again agenda

1. He wants the government to get out of the way and embrace laissez-faire AI. Ignoring regulatory capture, monopoly power, the future of work and its impact on social cohesion. He also suggests that Starmer should have ditched the reform of workers’ rights, dropped the increase in the minimum wage and changes to non-dom status, making poor old businesses feel supported and loved.
2. Radical planning reform, I agree.
3. Prioritise cheap energy over net zero and drill, baby drill. He ignores energy security and the transition to renewables, which in the medium term will provide the security we need. He also knows full well that any oil/gas that we extract from the North Sea will be traded on the international market and will have little or no impact on the cost of our petrol and diesel.
4. The government needs to work closely with the private and voluntary sectors on apprenticeship and training. I agree, but we also need to reimagine education in both schools and universities, but not based on the 50% rule.
5. He mentions reindustrialisation through first-class infrastructure; I agree, all paid for by welfare cuts and his imaginary AI-led growth agenda.
6. Oh yes, welfare reform. There is a need to look at this seriously, but if this is a euphemism for simple welfare cuts, then you will see a Reform government in 2029. Abandon the triple lock, we can agree on that.
7. Health service reform, turning what we have today, which is a sick service, into a health and preventative service. This should be a whole-of-life endeavour starting at home and carried on in school. We also must deal with the vested interests in the service and make it fit for the new millennium. I disagree with further privatisation, but we agree on most.
8. There must be a concerted effort to stop illegal migration, but it must e to the public that targeted migration, as he puts it, is unashamedly in our national interest. Agree again.
9. He is an AI evangelist and digital ID advocate but is blind to its threats. No way, Big Brother is not going to be watching me.
10. His solution to our economic challenges is to cut taxes, cut welfare, embrace shareholder tyranny, not a word about inequality and redistribution. He wants an enabling, not a directing government, which is a euphemism for a plutocracy.

A little global info for Tony:

1. If everyone in the world had a standard of living equal to the average in the UK, we would need another 2.6 Earths.
2.  As a globalist, he seems content with the fact that 4 billion live on 6 dollars a day and 800 million live on less than $3 a day.
3. 1% of the world’s population own 40% of the world’s wealth, and the next 50% own 2.
4. He bangs on about social media and how it has transformed the media landscape into bubbles and echo chambers but offers no solutions because all major tech companies are American.
5. He says nothing about food security or biosecurity, but screw energy security.
6. Does not recognise the urgent need to decarbonise.

I would give  Tony’s essay a grade of C, and it shows that it is hard to know when you are past your sell-by date. So, I think Victoria and Cherie should have a chat. I also think Tony’s essay was the last thing Keir needed before the Makerfield by-election.

 Tony has transitioned from a Labour leader and Prime Minister to a man who now hobnobs with Zuckerberg, Bezos, Gates, Ellison, Mohammed Bin Salman and Trump, and now sees the future from his ivory tower through a rather narrow prism called Blairism, whatever that is.

Finally, he talks about a radical reconfiguration of government but fails to recognise that what we really, really want is a radical reconfiguration of democracy into a much more participative and deliberative one.

Suneil Sharma

28^th May 2026