Influences on Blair

Before I start this post let's get one thing straight; I'm not always a fan of Cherie Blair. Her tendency to milk every situation for the last penny and inclination towards trusting questionable characters (wanna buy a flat in Bristol) do not make me sleep easy given her husband runs my country (with a little help from 'the Scottish politician' (actually most of the cabinet is Scottish but you know who I mean).

However, today she had it right : her powerfully argued exposition of the importance of an independent judiciary and effective human rights protection (read it here) was timely given the widely publicised wish of the security services to use the London bombings to get from Parliament something that would be unthinkable on 6th July 2005; to intern (for that is the right word) terrorist suspects without trial for 3 months.

Yet there was an alternative view, proposed by the lovely Rebekah in Wapping - read it here (if you must). In summary the key points are :

• Cherie Booth is a "big cheese" in a law firm that makes money from the "human rights industry" and therefore biased in favour of illegal asylum seekers and terrorists (the same thing).
• Human rights have become a goldmine for lawyers who - by representing terrorists - aid and abet terrorists.
• Tony Blair has done "all the right things" since 7/7 and should now tell his wife to "keep her opinions to herself" (right wing papers in the UK generally don't like women who have opinions, let alone voice them).

This leaves Tony Blair in an inenviable dilemma, forced to chose between the opinions of on the one hand his wife who, we must assume has been instrumental in his journey to No. 10 (it is, after all, rumoured that Tone increased his involvement with the Labour party to impress a certain idealistic and passionate young barrister whom he later married) and the opinion of a newspaper which, more than any other, helped New Labour into power in 1997 and has ensured the Tories remain in the doldrums ever since.

It will be interesting to see which he choses to adopt...

By the way if anyone knows a way into this human rights "goldmine", do let me know...