Bending the truth intensifies mistrust
IN his autobiography Tony Blair admits to bending the truth "past breaking point" in his efforts to keep the Northern Ireland peace process on track.
In plainer language he lied.
He also admits that politicians are "obliged" from time to time to "conceal the full truth, to bend it and even distort it" in the "interests" of "bigger strategic goals".
"Without operating with some subtlety at this level the job would be well-nigh impossible," he said.
This tells us much about the man, and everything about his political legacy.
When he and his camp followers talk about the Northern Ireland peace process they claim it has their own. Blair's greatest achievement, they say, was bringing peace to Ireland.
This claim in itself bends the truth to breaking point. We talk about peace process for good reasons – it is a process.
It began with the secret talks between the British government and the IRA in the late 1980s which culminated in Peter Brooke's declaration on November 9,1990, that Britain had no selfish strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland and would accept unification if that was the will of the Irish people.
The Brooke/Mayhew talks which started the dialogue began the following year.
John Major was prime minister then, and he was also prime minister when the IRA and loyalist ceasefires took place respectively in August and October 1994.
Of course Blair was a pivotal figure in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and he did devote a lot of time and effort to cementing the process, but he cannot claim credit for it.
He was just one of many individuals who were involved. Many of the bravest and most influential have not and never will seek publicity for their efforts – these were early intermediaries who ran messages between paramilitaries, politicians and governments, the people who took big personal risks for no personal gain to establish trust.
And there were many more politicians from all parties who stuck their necks out because they believed things could be achieved.
But nothing could have been achieved without the courage of local politicians of all parties, and the support of communities, local communities tired of violence who wanted a better way.
One of the most important aspects of the peace process is how long it has taken: 22 years from the first contacts in 1988 to the devolution of policing and justice, and still counting.
The reason for this is that it takes a long time to build the necessary trust. Leaders need to bring their communities with them and the legacy of violence needs to fade.
One of the parties least trusted in the talks was, of course, the British government. Nobody trusted them and all had good reason to be suspicious: unionists feared a sell-out and republicans a stitch-up, all were watching their backs.
In that context, "bending the truth past breaking point", cannot possibly have been helpful. It either creates ambiguities that take years to unravel (and there's plenty of evidence of that) or it intensifies mistrust slowing the process still further (and there's evidence of that as well).
So far from seeing Blair as some machievellian genius who brought warring parties to peace, it is also possible to see him as a manipulative and devious politician, whose half truths and ambiguities were actually part of the problem.
Which brings us neatly to his legacy. When he came into office he was a symbol of a new, inclusive popular politics.
By the time he left, the entire political class had been discredited.
We don't need to buy his book to know that he lied to us. The lasting problem is that nobody believes any politicians any more – and that undermines democracy itself.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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