Still spinning after all these years

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In his response to the Chilcot report, Blair said “I say to right-minded people: ‘Go and read the reports and tell me you wouldn’t have made the decisions I made’”.  It’s a clear statement going right to the heart of the problem.  Its whole meaning turns on an understanding of who or what are ‘right-minded people’.

The phrase is clearly intended to convey the idea of ‘most people’ or ‘a majority’, but in this case, it seems to mean little more than people who share Blair’s world view.  In essence the statement reduces to “those who agree with me agree with me, and those who don’t are simply wrong”.  Apologetic it is not.  It underlines the way in which he seemed incapable at the time, and still seems incapable today, of conceiving of the possibility that anybody wouldn’t share his world view.  It was that unshakeable conviction that he was right and anyone who disagreed was wrong that led the UK into war; and it doesn’t matter how many enquiries or reviews are held, people with that mindset will never learn from them.