Tony Blair & God - An Angry Rant

(Originally published Saturday 4th March)

Why doesn't anybody listen?

I'm going to use the row about Tony Blair as an example. In an interview on Parkinson, he said that, ultimately, it was for God to judge him on whether he was right to send the army to Iraq. Immediately, everyone leaps for the throat, moaning about how there's no place for God in politics, and how a Prime Minister shouldn't make decisions based on his personal faith.

Now all of this is probably true, but it's entirely beside the point. If these people actually bothered listening to what Blair said, he was very careful to avoid saying that God told him to go to war. He said that the decision had to be made based on personal conscience (and, presumably, dodgy intelligence dossiers - whoops), and that the decision would be judged by God. That's something completely different - all he's really saying is that he believes judgement after death, not that he makes his decisions based on his perceptions of God's will during life.

Now I'm usually the last person to defend the current government, but it seems that every time they open their mouths, everyone queues up to misinterpret what they're saying. Just look at all the idiots queuing up to spout rubbish about how Muslims are now going to think that the Iraq war was the Crusades all over again. That's just stupidity, pure and simple.

And then everyone moans about "spin", and how politicians never tell the truth. When people grossly misinterpret everything they say, is it any wonder?