KEEPING UP APPEARANCES – Blair and The Butler

There are those who believe that we must make it our daily duty to yank the choke-chain on any Blair Behaviour we find objectionable. Blair must pay! He must grovel, apologize, prostrate himself and if you listen to some – castrate himself. Morag doesn’t go in for that sort of carryon being more about moving on than banging on. Every now and then the conversation needs to be about the principle not the person so in defence of Mr.Blair and today’s tempest in a teacup…………..

The United Kingdom is known for many things. We have a reputation around the world and are considered by many to be a most caring country. A well-educated country. A country with a deeply developed sense of right and wrong. You can’t beat it for pageantry. Geographically truly a jewelled isle. A populace both diverse and independent…etc.etc.etc. But let’s face it we are also known as being a wee bit frumpy, a wee bit frayed around the edges and more than a wee bit ‘we’ve always done it that way and that way has always worked for us’.

So Mr. Blair is looking for a butler? And about time I say. While the ‘less is more’ attitude towards keeping up appearances might be charming in the shires it is not appropriate for world rulers. Tony Blair doesn’t need a butler – but The Prime Minister of Great Britain most certainly might. I suspect until quite recently it was par for the course.

You go to any banana republic as a visiting dignitary and you will be greeted by a few hundred dancing locals – in full regalia. A couple of animals will have been slaughtered, someone’s written a song and there are fireworks. Sumptuous palaces, grand entertainment, why shouldn’t we keep up with the neighbours. Why do you think Diana was such a hit? Because we finally had someone who added a bit of, God forbid, ‘allure’ to our image.

The office of the Prime Minister – and all that goes with it – is the modern face of our country. It must reflect our status as a powerful, strong and successful nation. Don’t let our penchant for ‘keeping our heads below the parapet’ cause us to fall behind on the world stage. We are losing face in many areas. Some think we blindly only follow America, others feel we blindly only follow our past. Having a Prime Minister whose jumpers come from Matalan might have been all well and good on the ‘keeping it real’ level but if you are trying to cut a figure on the world stage then you need to up your game. It isn’t about “Tony Blair” it was/is about lifting our nation’s image and bringing it inline with the nations we keep company with.

I know this started out as ‘a bit about a butler’, but it really is about a lot more than that and we all know it. We widdle away money in so many ways that we should be concerned with – entertaining Oasis at Chequers and Number 10 having butler is the least of our worries. Tony Blair may or may not want to, but the Prime Minister now has to. In a country addicted to every kind of God-awful makeover programme imaginable why is it so hard to conceive that our political image needs a makeover as well – and fast.