Blair has made himself Sinn Fein’s useful idiot

You need to remember that Sinn Fein have always operated by the motto: “England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity.” England’s – or rather Britain’s – difficulty today is that the country is split over Brexit, and a significant minority of Remainers, under the self-appointed leadership of Tony Blair, are actively trying to reverse the result. Sinn Fein see a chance to make mischief on both sides of the water.

They pretend that Brexit means a “hard” border between North and South – though neither London nor Dublin wants this. They are using the leverage guaranteed them under the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) to collapse the power-sharing government of Northern Ireland. This has been going on for more than a year. As a result, the place is not being properly run. Schools, hospitals and other public services are increasingly in a mess. The Westminster Government understandably does not want to bring back direct rule, but may soon have to.

People who care about what actually happens to the people of Northern Ireland worry about the situation Sinn Fein have created. One such is Owen Paterson, who was Northern Ireland Secretary and still visits often. Ten days ago, he retweeted a piece in this paper by Ruth Dudley Edwards, which illustrated these difficulties. She said that Sinn Fein’s leaders, “while treating the Good Friday Agreement as holy writ”, were “prepared to destroy it so long as they can blame everyone else”. “Realists,” she added, think the GFA has “served its purpose… leaving behind the unintended consequence of enshrining sectarianism in the peace process.”

Mr Paterson retweeted the article from a prone position on his hospital bed – he recently broke his back. Judging by the reaction, you would think he had been chucking bombs about. The Provisional wing of the Remainer movement – Lord Adonis, Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair himself – denounced his “disgraceful” act. Columns by normally sane writers in The Guardian and The Sunday Times spoke of putting the GFA at risk and “jeopardising peace”. They were joined by Irish politicians who are feeling jumpy about possible Sinn Fein advances in the Republic and so wish to pander to their supporters.

Yet the only current act that puts the GFA at risk is the refusal of the second biggest party in Northern Ireland to operate its arrangements. That party is Sinn Fein.

One cannot blame Mr Blair for his proprietorial interest in the GFA. Both in its admirable vision of moderation and its insouciant disregard for dangerous side-effects, it bears all the hallmarks of the man himself. But for him to use it to cry wolf about peace in Northern Ireland in order to frustrate the decision of the British people on Brexit is preposterous. The fact that such an inverted pyramid of piffle should have been erected on the tiny basis of Mr Paterson’s retweet proves this. Actually, it’s worse than preposterous. It is shocking. Mr Blair, an ex-politician, has made himself the useful idiot of the heirs to the IRA.

Mr Blair’s audacity with facts continues to be one of his most amazing characteristics. In my column on Saturday, I noted that he had told the BBC the day before that Britain has “an enormous trade surplus” with the EU. In fact, we have an enormous trade deficit. It is perhaps superfluous to add that the BBC did not pick him up on his gross error of fact.

Most of us sometimes get in a muddle and say the opposite of what we mean. But I don’t think Mr Blair has that excuse, because his “fact” that Britain has a trade surplus with the EU was the centre-point in his argument that the single market is a wonderful thing for this country. So either he was deliberately upending the truth or he was so carried away by his righteousness in the Remainer cause that he lost touch with reality.

This column tries to retain a charitable attitude, so I shall opt for the latter explanation.

Supporters of gun control in the United States point out that there are as many guns as people there, as if that proved their case. Unfortunately, it almost proves the opposite. What would, in reality, happen if guns were banned or seriously restricted? Is it imaginable that scores of millions of Americans would hand over their weapons? It would be like the Prohibition era. Alcohol was banned, with the result that crooks took control of it. The same would happen with guns.

Matt’s 30 years as this paper’s cartoonist are rightly being celebrated. I just want to add one dry numerical point. Matt’s Telegraph cartoons appear roughly 300 times a year. So that means roughly 9,000 cartoons. Each cartoon published arises from, on average, five ideas sketched out. So that means he has had 45,000 definite ideas for cartoons (leaving aside all the mini-ideas that don’t make it to draft stage).

I must emphasise how prodigious this is. There’s nothing else like it in journalism. Reporters always have stories to pursue. Columnists always have news events to comment on. Sub-editors have our sow’s ears to turn into silk purses. Cartoonists, however, must make magic out of what is going on in the world – using only their native wit and imagination, and a pen. Each idea has to be unique. Matt has done this 45,000 times, and the readers have had 9,000 shots of pleasure.

READ MORE at telegraph.co.uk/opinion