The current Blair episode has lessons for the Caribbean

Jeremy Taylor makes a valid connection between Blair and Caribbean (Trinidad) politics.

"But Blair absolutely cannot see the damage he is doing. He is obsessed with the "legacy" of Blairism that he is going to leave. He wants to equal and surpass the twelve years that Margaret Thatcher had before she had to be dragged screaming from office and brandishing her handbag at all her enemies. He even wants to tie his "successor" to a commitment to follow the great principles of Blairism even after Blair himself has gone.

This is how politicians destroy themselves and the aspirations of their supporters. They become obsessed with themselves and their messianic status, they lose touch with everyone except their acolytes, they see and hear nothing except what they want to see and hear. In Blair's case, the price is a terrible deepening of public cynicism, and the prospect of another long period of Conservative rule.

It's a lesson that some parts of the Caribbean have yet to learn. Everyone has their sell-by date, after which the product begins to stink."

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