Tony Blair

A funny thing happened in Melbourne yesterday morning. A very senior politician answered a whole lot of questions in complete sentences, with barely an acronym, and without the repetition of a handful of sound bites.

This politician - to the surprise of some of the people in the room - even expressed an opinion on some issues. An actual opinion.

This aberration on the political scene didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow among the people who had seen her up close before. For the rest of us, however, it was quite shocking.

Continue reading "We should set our politicians free to be themselves" »

It is fair to say that there is a growing sense of unease in Australia about our commitment in Afghanistan. Twenty-one Australian soldiers have now died.

The latest casualty, Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney, was laid to rest just nine days ago. Five hours after his burial his widow Beckie gave birth to their second child.

Beckie’s friend, Courier Mail journalist Jane Fynes-Clinton, wrote a heartfelt but forthright column about the broader meaning of this family’s private tragedy. She argued on behalf of her friend that Australia should honour Jared’s memory by staying the course in Afghanistan.

Continue reading "Whatever the wrongs, Blair is still right on Afghanistan" »

One of the many elements of Tony Blair’s memoir to have created headlines was his admission that he “stretched the truth past breaking point in order to get agreement” during negotiations in the Northern Ireland peace process.

Send out an SMS alert, create an explanatory graphic - a politician has admitted lying. Blair was pressed about this by a newspaper and, in the customary manner of a former national leader freed from the shackles of office, here’s what he said:

I actually think that with normal people, when you go to them and ask: do you think a politician should ever be obliged to, you know, stretch the truth in order to achieve a greater national objective, they would look at you as if you were bonkers for asking the question. There’s no walk of professional life that you can exist in where you literally open up everything to everybody.

Continue reading "Politicians have a licence to tell some lies" »

Welcome to Wednesday at The Punch.

Tony Blair was confirmed as the new leader of the British Labour party today in 1994. He was the youngest leader of the party since World War II.

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In The Wizard of Oz, the Great and Mighty Wizard is exposed as a fraud when Dorothy and Toto discover him hiding behind a curtain frantically manipulating levers and pulleys.  That moment reminds me of making television.  What viewers see on the screen is only a fraction of what’s really happening behind the scenes.

A few times, I’ve considered using this blog as a way of being more transparent about my own TV reporting.  A recent Lateline interview with the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has given me a good place to start: the compromises involved with celebrity interviewing.

Major stars usually only grant interviews when they have something to spruik, such as a new book or project.  But often what they want to sell has little to do with what the interviewer would really like to ask about.  Both sides have to make compromises, although on air, it’s meant to look like a spontaneous conversation that’s engaging both parties.

Continue reading "Well read-head: Getting stars off message in interviews" »

Retirement never comes easy to politicians. There’s a long line of prime ministers and presidents who, upon leaving office, struggle either to settle back into ordinary life or to fade into the shadows with quiet dignity.

Some verge on the comical. The patrician figure of Harold Macmillan was known in his political afterlife to deliver impromptu lectures to train conductors about the history of the British railway system.

Others mope in operatic self-pity, with periodic and spectacular volcanic eruptions: Paul Keating the Retirement. Some meanwhile never quite manage to surrender their indomitable will to power.

Continue reading "Tony Blair for President (of the European Union)" »