The Sunday Telegraph

We really did know what we were doing, Mr Blair

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As we reflect on Tony Blair’s bizarre speech last Friday, it is important to ask yet again: why don’t these people get it? Can’t this intelligen­t and experience­d politician grasp that what he did – hinting that Leavers were ignorant, arguing that the political class knows best, and above all showing a seething contempt for democracy – confirms everything many who voted Leave thought about those who were lecturing them on the importance of staying in a failing, out-of-touch and corrupt EU?

A similar phenomenon is operating in America: the more so-called liberals vilify and undermine President Trump, the firmer his support in his country is likely to become, and the more likely he is to win a second term in the White House. Politician­s and pundits, most of whom live together in the same closeted world and only ever talk to each other, need to understand what living in a democracy really means.

Mr Blair says Leavers don’t realise the implicatio­ns of Brexit. He says little about the allegation­s made by his own side, notably George Osborne’s emergency Budget and Mark Carney’s warnings of financial collapse, that proved entirely wrong.

It’s not the voters who are completely stupid, Tony.

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