Is a ‘psychotic’ running the country?
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown’s backers at the left-wing New Statesman magazine have branded Prime Minister Tony Blair a “psychopath” and “psychotic”, in an apparent bid to further damage the credibility of the increasingly beleaguered premier.
The New Statesman magazine in a series of articles made the case for a change of PM as Mr Blair had “lost so much public trust over the Iraq war.”
The magazine says: “Mr Brown, like Margaret Thatcher but unlike Mr Blair, has a focus.”
Compared to Mr Brown, the PM “lacks such clarity of purpose, with the result that all sorts of fancy ideas get an airing, without rhyme or reason and usually without result.”
The magazine went so far as to question Mr Blair’s sanity.
“One view emerged strongly: there appears to be something worryingly adrift in the mind of Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, a man who doesn’t really know who or what he is.”
“More technically, he is diagnosed as a psychopath capable of reinventing himself with remarkable dexterity, like an actor.
“What most people call ‘spin’, the routine lubricant of all political gearboxes, is, in Blair’s case, eloquent self-delusion on a heroic scale. He is one of the few politicians who has never told a lie because his belief in whatever he says – about public transport, hospitals, schools, weapons of mass destruction – is total,” it read.
The PM official spokesman (PMOS) made light of the publication, suggesting Mr Blair had not gone “potty,” but the act of labelling the PM potty was potty itself.
PMOS said: “You have got to look at what the Prime Minister has achieved in the past six months in terms of handling major international issues like Iraq, in pursuing the goal of progress in the Middle East settlement, in pursuing public service delivery at home.
“I think you will see a prime minister who has a very clear sense of direction, who understands fully the difficult issues and the difficult decisions this country is faced with, who understands the need to maintain progress and to work through the process of investment and reform.”
The magazine is owned by Geoffrey Robinson, former Treasury minister and close ally of Mr Brown.
Speaking on Channel Four Evening News last night, editor of the New Statesman, Peter Wilby said the Government had toiled unnecessarily from the power struggle between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.
“There’s been a coalition between him and Gordon Brown really like a coalition Government with the two centres of power these two rival ideologies almost coexisting together.
“I just think it is time to try having a real Labour Government.”
