Focus and Purpose

Quote from Matthew Parris, Times 28th November:

….there’s a different question about Tony Blair’s role [in Iraq] that still remains open. Did he act heroically — in the sense of the moral courage that makes a man grip fate by the lapels and, rather than let the flow carry him, swim against compelling circumstances, knowing that he takes a serious risk for himself or his career? A case, at least, can be made for Mr Blair as a hero in this sense.

I like people who are clear in their actions, clear in their beliefs. I may not always agree with them, but I prefer the straightforwardness of their approach. You know where they stand. That was said of Margaret Thatcher too… someone who I feel totally opposed to, even today. But you knew where you stood. Decisions, in that sense, were bold, clear, almost heroic.

I have struggled to like Gordon Brown. Having been a fan of Blair, I have not been able to make the jump to Brown. What is it that I don’t like? His politics are not that different…. But when you begin to look at his politics, there are different. Very different.

Gone is the clarity. Gone the principled approach. No longer the ‘moral courage that makes a man grip fate by the lapels’. In its place, politics with a small ‘p’. Everything is calculated to win a vote, wound the other party, keep the dissident MP’s in place. Fear of failure has replaced focus and purpose.