Seems like a bad time to be a politician.
As the least dead of this triumvirate, he would seem to have little to complain about. His political assassination, though, leaves an unpleasant taste. I have no quibble with his being forced to call an election, but I didn’t like the way that he was forced to withdraw from that election. Major Lib Dem figures seemed to have been unwilling to declare against him, and so worked to have him withdraw from the field altogether. It looks like a knife in the back, and makes elements of the parliamentary party seem duplicitous.
It’s wrong to laugh at the misfortunes of others. One shouldn’t take pleasure from other people’s pain. I’m pleased to say that I don’t, at least normally. I can’t find it in myself, though, to feel much sympathy for this man. That said, a power vacuum in the Middle East is also a bad thing. I don’t expect rioting in the Knesset, but negotiations with the Palestinians will probably take a step backwards.
Well, everyone agrees that it’s a shame, and it’s a shock, and I almost agree. It is a shame, but I’m no longer shocked by the deaths of Blair’s former ministers. I don’t recall him publicly disagreeing with Tony the way that Mo Mowlam and Robin Cook did before their untimely deaths, but perhaps he knew something he shouldn’t have?
