Celebrities trivialise politics – so why must politicians court them? Blair embodies corruption and war. He must be sacked. / The Guardian.

Celebrities trivialise politics – so why must politicians court them?

David Cameron felt the need to reanimate Cool Britannia and 'honour' some light entertainers. As if they need exalting further

Tanya Gold

The Guardian, Thursday 3 July 2014 / http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/03/celebrities-trivialise-politics-politicians-david-cameron-cool-britannia

It is obvious why billionaires dine with Tories at the kind of balls that even the sillier fairy princesses would avoid: it's the access, reader. The Tories were keen to hide the specific details of their "secret" fundraising ball, but the truth finally came out this week. Guests ate guinea fowl and salmon; someone stupid enough to pay £90,000 for a bust of David Cameron's head (like his own, but eternal) was found and applauded, and Peter Stringfellow, the jangly people's pimp, was there. Need we know more?

Less secret was the party thrown in the great court at the Foreign Office this week to honour the "entertainment industry", although it was hardly less embarrassing. A gaggle of decrepit celebrities, including the fearsome light entertainment triumvirate of Cilla Black, Ronnie Corbett and Bruce Forsyth, appeared to hear the prime minister tell them, "You make your country so proud." (Why the entertainment industry? Why not the fishing industry? Or cows?)

I could suggest that Cameron was lying – by his small lies shall you know him – but perhaps he meant it. Perhaps Cameron's political antennae are so cracked he really believes he can reanimate Cool Britannia and get some friendly headlines with this lot? (Maybe they could call it Gruel Britannia this time around?) He had no such luck. The media speculated that he had invited "hotter" and "more interesting" (that is, "better") celebrities – such as Helen Mirren and Benedict Cumberbatch – but they freaked out, and firebombed their cars and ate their shoes rather than attend a coalition government event, and so forth. Cameron was left with his personal friend the actress Helena Bonham Carter, who sometimes pops up with testimony relating to the prime minister's "real compassion".

None of this will do. Celebrity involvement in politics is a wretched thing. It should be consigned to dust, especially post-Jimmy Savile – who spent many holidays at Chequers with Margaret Thatcher, during which he used to write "In case of national emergency, phone Jimmy Savile" on every notepad in the house, should you need a nightmarish image to chew on. Have our leaders not learned to hide from these terrible narcissists? Celebrity is trivial, and when it moves close to power, it trivialises that too. The gongs for light entertainment heroes, meanwhile, insult everybody: a gong for a laugh. Is leering on Strictly Come Dancing and clutching female contestants' arms really a public service meriting a knighthood?

Often, when embracing politics, the celebrity looks foolish and starstruck, removed from his calling – Noel Gallagher, for instance, when he shook hands with Blair and smiled and Blair smiled back, in a perfect pottage of smug smiling. And Jim Davidson always. (Now, I hear, Davidson is an embarrassment to the Tory party that used to fete him. What took them so long?) How did the guys of Cool Britannia (1997 incarnation) feel when Blair finally basted that trend in blood? From the perspective of history, Cool Britannia was only a subeditor's slick pun. It played well in magazines. It meant nothing.

Sometimes the celebrity becomes genuinely politicised, which only compounds the danger. I speak, of course, of Russell Brand. He believes, among other things, that abolishing democracy will make Britain a fairer place and promises to enlighten us further on his revolutionary plans in due course. His narcissism is not strange: he is a comic by trade, and is used to drooling rooms of strangers. Politicians should know better than to touch it; or perhaps they recognise it? What did Thatcher see in Savile, and vice versa? We will never know.

Now Cameron, too, has his national treasures – Black, Forsyth and Corbett – for his photograph album. Again, there is danger here for people who like their politics sincere; I am not entirely certain that every single "national treasure" I have interviewed was not a sex offender or, at the very least, a compulsive litterer or a tax dodger.

The national treasure brand is broken. Don't come for Tony Hart – or Mr Blobby or Dusty Bin – is the cry in the night. But the death of naivety and TV niceness is not a terrible thing. Why should we exalt such creatures, who speak only to children, and in children's words? Clear them all away – from politics, from everywhere. We must do better.

Twitter: @TanyaGold1

Blair embodies corruption and war. He must be sacked

Now he's advising the Egyptian dictatorship, his removal as Middle East peace envoy is a moral and democratic necessity

Seumas Milnehttp

The Guardian, Wednesday 2 July 2014 / http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/02/blair-corruption-war-egypt-middle-east-envoy

Since Egypt's first democratically elected president was overthrown in a military coup a year ago, the country has been gripped by brutal and sustained repression. Well over 2,500 protesters – the true figure is likely to be much higher – have been killed on the streets in cold blood by the security forces. At least 20,000 have been jailed.

More than 1,000 political activists have been sentenced to death. Torture is rampant, basic freedoms suppressed. Three al-Jazeera journalists were last month imprisoned for "spreading false news". The Egyptian coup-maker, General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, is now president courtesy of a 96% endorsement in a sham election after his predecessor Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood was banned.

But this is the regime that Tony Blair, Middle East peace envoy for the "Quartet" of the US, UN, EU and Russia, has now chosen to advise on "economic reform" as part of a programme funded by the United Arab Emirates. The former British prime minister had already hailed the coup that overthrew the elected government as the "absolutely necessary rescue of a nation".

Now the one-time New Labour star is giving "whatever help he can" to win international financial support for the Egyptian dictatorship. Naturally, the man whose views on everything from Europe to Islam are regularly sought by the western media is not in this for "personal gain" and plans to "make no money out of Egypt".

The clue, however, is in the "business opportunities" that his staff have privately referred to, in both the Gulf and Egypt, as available for those who get involved in bolstering the Sisi regime. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are keeping Egypt afloat because they regard the Muslim Brotherhood as a mortal threat to the survival of their autocracies.

Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund is already paying Blair more than £1m a year. As one former close personal associate of Blair's puts it, "a bargain has been struck" that "combines both an existential battle against Islamism and mouth-watering business opportunities in return for the kind of persuasive advocacy he provided George Bush over Iraq". No wonder Blair is preparing to open an office in the UAE.

Of course Blair has made money out of plenty of other repressive regimes since he left office, from Kazakhstan and Kuwait to Colombia – as well as from banks and corporations. His work for Nursultan Nazarbayev, dictator of oil-rich Kazakhstan, made him $13m as the regime cracked down on civil liberties.

But shilling for Sisi on behalf of Gulf rulers who are themselves harshly repressive breaks new ground. The Egyptian regime isn't just autocratic. Its president overthrew an elected government Pinochet-style, with a bloodletting of Chilean proportions.

Egypt is also central to the Middle East conflict, and its government is in effect an Israeli ally. The conflict of interest between Blair's work for regional dictators and his role as Middle East peace envoy – described by Palestinian leaders as either useless or simply parroting Israeli demands – is so extreme it verges on the surreal.

This is a politician who spearheaded the invasion of Iraq on the basis of entirely false claims at the cost of at least half a million dead, brought al-Qaida into the country and incubated the sectarian virus that is again ripping it apart, while colluding with torture and kidnapping – and who not only continues to champion setting the region on fire but calls for that fire to be spread in new wars and interventions.

To this day, Blair defends the Iraq invasion on the basis that at least the dictator Saddam Hussein was removed from power, while using his international position to hawk himself around to other dictators and swell an income now estimated at around £20m a year.

The west's support for Arab tyrannies was a crucial factor in the rise of al-Qaida-style terrorism in the first place, just as its collusion with the overthrow of a democratic Islamist government in Egypt is giving it a new lease of life across the region, including in Iraq.

Backed by the heart of reaction in the Gulf – whose malign, oil-lubricated influence is felt throughout the British establishment – Blair is now the leading international spokesman for western imperial swagger and the suppression of democracy in the Middle East, dressed up as a fight against Islamism.

He has also come to epitomise the corruption at the heart of British public life. That's not to say he's done anything illegal. And it's not just about the vast income, the seven houses, the £2m retainer with JP Morgan or the trading of influence and advocacy with corrupt authoritarian governments – all based on the contacts he built up as an elected British political leader.

Blair also played a crucial role in the corrosion of public institutions at home, as New Labour privatisation and City featherbedding accelerated the corporate colonisation of government and the revolving doors that deliver highly paid private-sector jobs to politicians and civil servants in the industries they previously regulated.

David Cameron's Conservatives, who have their own intimate relationships with the Gulf autocracies, have now taken that process still further, their dependence on financiers and City billionaires laid bare in the retinue who donated £5m to the party from a single fundraising dinner last summer.

But Tony Blair embodies the revolving door on a global scale. Once prime ministers know they can become rich if they play ball with the right companies and states in office, it will become a habit. The "economic reform" Blair will be pressing on Egypt will doubtless involve the kind of privatisation and deregulation that stands to enrich his sponsors but which proved so disastrous at home. The impact on New Labour's legacy his allies fret about couldn't be clearer.

For the rest of us, Blair's self-enrichment from corporations and dictatorships has degraded the office of prime minister. To undo the damage will require a profound change of political direction. Blair himself will never shake off demands that he be held to account for war crimes – even if the system is heavily stacked in his favour.

But his continuing role as Middle East peace envoy is a scandal and an insult to the people of the region. He must be stripped of any remaining public authority. His removal is now a moral and democratic necessity.