Partying while the Middle East burns
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As the death toll in Gaza topped 1,050, the international community’s official peace envoy to the Middle East had other things on his mind than ending the violence that threatens to engulf the whole region in war.
Though he is the chief mediator for the Quartet – the US, EU, Russia and the UN – Tony Blair was more than 2,000 miles away from the conflict, throwing a flashy 60th birthday party for his wife Cherie at their £6million Buckinghamshire mansion.
This paper makes no comment on his choice of guests and entertainers, from the multi-billionaire Lakshmi Mittal to the comedian Bobby Davro, except to observe that they confirm his distasteful obsessions with money and celebrity glitz.
Nor do we begrudge Mr Blair his right to celebrate his wife’s 60th. But since her birthday is not until September 23, was it too much to expect him to postpone the party and set his other interests aside in the week of this terrifying escalation?
Tony Blair and guests at the party for Cherie Blair's 60th birthday - two months early
Instead, he spent most of the week in the UK – apart, that is, from a one-day visit… to China!
As the prime minister who led us into a catastrophic war in Iraq, inflaming tensions throughout the region, Mr Blair was always a strange choice as a peace envoy.
South Pavilion in Wotton Underwood: Tony and Cherie Blair's country retreat where they held Cherie's 60th birthday party on Friday
To judge by his conduct since – as historian Dominic Sandbrook argued so powerfully in Saturday’s Mail – he appears to regard the job merely as a useful entrée to world leaders and rich businessmen who can put lucrative work his way.
At a time when only an internationally brokered settlement offers hope of peace, there is a crying need for a negotiator 100 per cent committed to the job.
If there is an ounce of decency in shallow Mr Blair, he must stand down – now.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-2707933/DAILY-MAIL-COMMENT-Partying-Middle-East-burns.html#ixzz38nt9Je7r
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