I’ve been undecided on Tony Blair for a while. After all, he did some rather smashing things for Britain. Incomes went up, the economies just kept going and Britain is a much more prosperous place than ten years ago. On the downside, we went to war in Iraq for the wrong reasons, he’s played Bush’s lap-dog and gotten nothing in return and he’s obsessed with power, almost costing Labour the last election.
But the last few days have tipped the matter. First his statement about God judging him on Iraq. If that’s the best he can offer then the man is going quickly senile. If he’s not even prepared to stand up and say why he believes it was right and instead just promises a mythological judgement post-mortem then what possible claim does he have to be able to lead a country?
Secondly, his whole Academy concept. Great idea – let keen rich business people invest in education. After all, everyone wins in the end. But instead we’ve fundamentalists running schools in Middlesbrough and Doncaster which teach that creationism is an equal theory with evolution. Fair enough if these academies were optional: everyone’s entitled to their opinion, no matter how daft. But all children in the catchment area have no choice but to go to these schools and get these harmful views forced upon them. So now: targetted religious education at state schools – smashing. Fundamentalists target scientific advancement and blow themselves up on trains and we react by letting them run schools.
And no – I don’t believe there’s a difference between violent Islamic and political Christain fundamentalism (or evangelicals if you prefer) – both seek to replace the rationalism of the secular state with authoritarian dogma. And as history shows, the only people to benefit from such are those in power. Not the people, certainly not minorities and generally not women. So why do we let them anywhere near our youth?
I, for one, will welcome our new lizard masters…
