Posts

Showing posts from September, 2011

Blair's Misson

John Gray's recent essay in the Independent offers an analysis of Tony Blair's premiership as Prime Minister. I've only recently been introduced to Gray's writing of which there is a substantial, recognised deal. The intro to the article welcomes Gray as 'Britain's leading philosopher', and within the essay itself, Gray defines Blair's career as "testimony to the power of neo-conservative ideas", referencing the Iraq War and Blair's unashamed belief in 'free markets' as evident of this. That Blair was and is a neo-con forms the bulk of Gray's analysis, within which Blair's key beliefs are identified; Gray cites the infamous 'Chicago speech" and Blair's theory of an ever-increasing interdependence between nations in an increasingly 'globalised' world. While this is all well and true - Blair was undoubtedly a neo-conservative - it is Gray's historical perspective that warrants examination. Gray a