The Blair 'which job?' project

Wow… that lit the blue touch paper! Or was it red? What on earth has Tony Blair done to ignite such bile? The party he led was handsomely re-elected in a campaign he led, he did not shy away from the issues, the country reportedly expressed confidence in him. How can the worm turn so fast?

Snowblog reveals the simple truth that the European presidency is slipping away from Mr Blair, and invective cascades – indeed I think I’m right in saying that the reaction to the blog is proving more numerous, and angrier, than any that I have posted. I notice Martin entering a small plea for the former prime minister, but for the rest there is an intriguing unison.

What has Tony Blair done? And given the treatment to which Gordon Brown has been subjected – some of which he has encouraged, some of which has been inflicted – why has there been no call for Blair to come back?

Is it the reported £15m (a figure that beggars my belief) that others have claimed he has made since stepping down? Is it something those close to him have done? Is it his performance as “Middle East envoy“?

And how is it that this reaction charted here is at such odds with the regard Mr Blair is held in the United States and elsewhere (until recently in France, Spain and other European countries)?

Somehow, despite being re-elected whilst British troops were still holed up in an airbase in Basra, is it simply that the enormity of Iraq has come back to haunt Tony Blair?

I regret that this Snowblog represents a cascade of questions, but how is it that one of the most popular and most elected prime ministers of our age is, within just four years, reduced to this?

And what will history say of him?