HAS BLAIR LOST HIS MARBLES?

That, says STEPHEN GLOVER, can be the only explanation for his delusional (and treacherous) plea to Germany to stop Brexit

Over the years, Tony Blair has done many things that have made me doubt his integrity, and sometimes even his sanity. But he really has surpassed himself with his latest plea that Germany should do all it can to stop Brexit.

Of course, ever since the 2016 referendum, he has been doing his damnedest to reverse the democratic decision of the British people. He recently falsely claimed on the BBC that Brexit is driving EU nationals out of the NHS, whereas, in fact, their numbers have increased by 3,000 since June 2016.

Blair has also called for a second referendum, and in the course of a BBC interview in January even refused to rule out a third vote if the second one failed to produce the required result.

But his preposterous entreaty to Germany to do everything possible to ‘reverse a mistake of historic proportions’ is astonishing even coming from his mouth.

It may have escaped Blair’s notice that Germany is a foreign country, albeit a friendly one, with interests not identical to our own. To ask another power to do all it can to undo a British democratic vote – well, that comes uncomfortably close to treachery.

The truth is that there is surely nothing so likely to strengthen the resolve of the pro-Brexit majority in this country as this unpatriotic appeal.

Germany may be an ally, but the British people can see perfectly well how ruthlessly it has pursued its own interests within the EU. For example, Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted that Greece enact the harshest economic measures in return for German-led financial bail- outs. Much social misery has ensued in Greece.

Many in Italy rightly blame Germany for fixing the euro at a high rate that was bound to be injurious to the weaker Italian economy, and for then pursuing a policy of economic restraint after the Great recession which has held back Italy and other southern european economies.

Germany first and foremost looks after itself. It is committed to further european integration – so long as it remains firmly in the driving seat – in a way that could never be squared with the wishes of the majority in this country. Indeed, many were appalled by Merkel’s calamitous decision to let a million migrants into her country unchecked.

MOREOVER, Blair is being deliberately misleading when he holds out the prospect that ‘the new German and French governments will take a leading role in spearheading ambitious reforms in the EU’.

Whatever these reforms might be – and there is no sign they are in the offing – they would be incapable of satisfying the UK’s desire for a looser union of nations in which we could take back control of our borders.

One might add, with all appropriate delicacy, that Blair’s invoking the help of the government of a country, which twice in the past century came quite close to destroying this one, displays a remarkable tin ear for historical resonances.

The peculiar political essence of the man is to delude himself and deceive the British people at the same time. He did it repeatedly as he finagled us into the 2003 Iraq War, and now he is desperately trying to keep Britain inside the EU with all the shameless chicanery of a practitioner of the three-card trick who was exposed long ago.

How can he conceivably imagine we will buy a bogus prospectus once again? There was a time, back in 2002, when some of us wanted to trust his word, unaware that he had already secretly assured the bellicose President George W Bush: ‘ I’ll be with you whatever.’ Torrents of lies have flowed under the bridge since then.

We now know he committed this country to a war against Iraq with a series of half-truths and calculated omissions. And we have learnt from official reports that he did this without ensuring that our troops were properly equipped, or making any proper plans for the future of the country he was about to help lay waste.

even the ultra- cautious civil servant Sir John Chilcot has said he didn’t believe Tony Blair was ‘straight with the nation’ about his decisions in the run-up to the Iraq War.

Let us imagine that by some miracle all Blair’s evasions over Iraq could be blotted out from our collective memory. His record since leaving office would by itself still disqualify him from consideration as a credible and trustworthy politician.

Our avaricious former prime minister has mounted a stunningly successful attempt to aggrandise himself – at the last count the Blair family owned 38 homes worth an estimated £33million – by sometimes dubious methods.

On the basis of knowledge and contacts acquired serving his country, he has got millions from delivering massively lucrative speeches to easily- pleased foreign businessmen.

even less creditably, he has made larger sums from consultancy work for some of the world’s most unsavoury leaders. These include the president of Kazakhstan, whose regime has been guilty of appalling human rights abuses.

LAST year, it was revealed that Blair’s work as an official Middle east peace envoy from 2007 was partly funded in secrecy by the oil-rich United Arab emirates (UAE), which helped finance his London office.

At the same time, he received millions of pounds in consultancy fees from the UAE – an absolute monarchy, with a poor human rights record – while supposedly trying to sort out the Israeli-Palestinian imbroglio in a transparent and even-handed way.

The truth is that his often discreditable conduct since leaving office will only confirm in many minds that he is not to be trusted in his self-appointed role as a champion against Brexit.

I can’t imagine Angela Merkel will take his proposal seriously. With less than a year to go until we leave the EU, it must be clear to her and the German government that the chances of thwarting our exit are practically zero.

Germany’s best interests do not lie in trying to bully the UK into staying in the EU, which would certainly not work, but in securing a trade deal that allows its goods maximum access to our markets – and vice-versa.

No, almost no one is going to listen to Tony Blair’s crazy ideas. He long ago used up his political capital. In fact, every time he opens his mouth he is liable to bolster Brexit because of his presumptuousness and notorious unreliability with the truth.

I suppose Leavers should therefore pray for the re-doubling of his efforts. I’ve no doubt that all but the most extreme remainers will be appalled by his latest plea that Germany should use her might to attempt to make the British people change their minds.

But I wish this man devoid of self-knowledge would shut up all the same. There is something unseemly about a former prime minister of this country making a spectacle of himself with near treasonable arguments in such a hopeless cause.