Anyone who’s thought about humiliation knows that people can be brought to commit the most degrading acts if they’re taken to them stage by stage, little by little, chipping away at their self-esteem until there’s no trace of it left to protect them. Until what they still consider to be their self esteem has been utterly transformed into self delusion and abasement.
So maybe, after years of fawning around the rich and famous and powerful, not all at once of course but, as Liza Minnelli put it, man by man, from Ecclestone to Branson to Bush, ex-PM and ongoing lapdog Tony Blair will be ready to accept the new job he’s being offered: Dean at Berlusconi’s brand spanking new international university in Rome. Free bandanas supplied with every mortarboard.
Of course the place doesn’t exist yet, but hey! it’ll be handy for the Vatican. Something to keep him busy, in other words, until the next big job comes up.
Bye bye Eggs. Hi there Tony!
CHARLES LAMBERT 