It would be wrong to describe the court of King Tony as a cult of personality. That phrase should be restricted to the reign of Uncle Joe Stalin who committed many more serious sins and caused far more deaths than the Prime Minister.
But the upper reaches of the Blair regime do nevertheless exhibit some of the characteristics of a cult of personality: the ruler's detachment from reality, his insistence that his every decision was right even when it has proved demonstrably wrong, his assumption that he and only he can save the country - even the world - from disaster, his limpet-like obsession with clinging to office, his constant concern to manipulate the media, his confusion of anniversaries with achievements, his adulation by his courtiers, the elevation of his family to a life of unwarranted privilege, his ruthless elimination of rivals for power and his lack of concern for the proprieties (as the rules of course do not apply to him). And the media - the Nicks, the Andrews and the Pollies - play along, hailing his speeches, glorifying his rather transparent rhetorical tricks, constantly focussing on court gossip (who's up, who's down) while ignoring the hard political choices facing the country (or re-interpreting them as court intrigue).
But some day, the Party Congress of 25 February 1956 will be repeated and Blairism will be denounced for its hollow sham and for the damage it has done to the party and the country.
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