Tony Blair and Victor Ponta were dining upstairs at Casa Doina last night while we celebrated Emilian Dima's wedding. The newly weds had their picture taken with Mr Blair but Emilian, who is more English than the English, wishes it had been Margaret Thatcher Norman Tebbit.
According to the press:
This was a very astute judgment on the part of Mr. Blair. Giving countries self-confidence is hard to do but can be done. Margaret Thatcher, whatever one thinks of her legacy, did this and so, with the same caveat, did Ronald Reagan and Charles de Gaulle. I cannot see any political leader doing something in similar in Romania. it will be up to Romanians themselves then.
According to the press:
Victor Ponta said that discussing with somebody who was prime minister for ten years was an extraordinary opportunity. “On the labour market and in the investment area, Romania has to be taken increasingly more serious and I believe that, although I am not overly optimistic, just realistic, I believe Romania can become a Poland in its geographical area,” said Ponta after meeting Blair. Also he said that when he asked him for a piece of advice for Romania, Blair said Romania should increase its self-confidence. “Self-confidence was his advice, because if we do not have confidence in Romania nobody else will have more confidence than we have,” says Ponta.
This was a very astute judgment on the part of Mr. Blair. Giving countries self-confidence is hard to do but can be done. Margaret Thatcher, whatever one thinks of her legacy, did this and so, with the same caveat, did Ronald Reagan and Charles de Gaulle. I cannot see any political leader doing something in similar in Romania. it will be up to Romanians themselves then.
The fact that Ponta openly states that Blair - a liar, war criminal and profiteer - is his 'model' tells us all we need to know.
ReplyDeleteI do not like to defend Mr Blair and he did lie about seeing a footballer play for - was it Newcastle? - who died before he was born - but I do not think he lied about Iraq. The idea that Saddam would use his WMD against Cyprus would make a cat laugh but was not a lie. More fool the people who were taken in by this. Nor is war criminal accurate though the Iraq War was unjust and I was against it. Let us save liar and war criminal for people who really are those things. Profiteer is the wrong word too. His greatest mistake was allowing vast numbers of immigrants to enter the UK, followed by devolution and the Iraq War. Huge extension of state powers, giving away much power to the EU, debt, wasting money.... etc etc. People have their differing opinions about hunting and civil partnerships, though the latter now looks like a Whiggish way to avoid homosexual marriage.
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