Events just keep getting stranger over in Great Britain.
Tony Blair knows it is one of the most delicate of subjects. When asked about it he squirms and tries to change to a more comfortable line of inquiry. But quietly the Prime Minister is putting religion at the centre of the New Labour project, reflecting his own deeply felt beliefs that answers to most questions can be found in the Bible.
The Observer can reveal that Blair is to allow Christian organisations and other 'faith groups' a central role in policy-making in a decisive break with British traditions that religion and government should not mix.
Let me state this pretty clearly. Answers to most of the problems we face in the modern world cannot be answered by the Bible. There is no definitive answer to a lot of questions in the Bible anyway. Do you examine the Old Testament, the New Testament, and how do you deal with conflicting answers, of which there are many?
Further, it is exactly individuals like Tony Blair, immersed in politics, who are the worst to advocate biblical rules. How about the golden rule? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you? Since when has the West, America, or Great Britain followed such a policy? We don't. We act in our interests, irrespective of the interests of the oppressed peoples of the world. For instance, we prop up elites in the Middle East, so we can get our oil, and care little of the fate, or the conditions, of the vast majority of the people in these regions who see little of the benefits or wealth.
Blair is turning into the village idiot. He should be the first to go. Just resign. This madness is going too far. About Iraq. And war.
And this false claim of righteousness is even worse. Start obeying the golden rule, and at the very least the 1st commandment, and perhaps such aims may begin to be legitimate. Otherwise, they're just foolishness. And cynical realism clothed in idealistic righteousness.
