Britain must keep Tony Blair out of Brexit discussion

Having roots in Pakistan, once upon a time a British Colony and a member of Common Wealth for a long time, I believed that Britain was the oldest democracy. However, this belief has been shattered after hearing that its ex-prime minister Tony Blair would steer the country out of the turmoil. In my opinion, he should have been punished for committing war crimes, the worst being his support for Iraq invasion on the premise of having weapons of mass destruction. Ideally, he should be hiding his face because tendering an apology could not save him from the ultimate fate.

In the recent past, I was engrossed with other topics that included Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, facing disqualification, US president not behaving in the desired manner and his visit to Saudi Arabia, elections in Iran and ongoing war in my country’s neighborhood, Afghanistan. I confess that I missed statements of Tony Blair saying that he plans to become more involved in the debate surrounding Britain’s departure from the European Union because of the harm it would cause the country.

The 63-year-old, who was speaking on the 20th anniversary of his landslide win over John Major in the general election of 1997, told the Daily Mirror, “I am going to be taking an active part in trying to shape the policy debate and that means getting out into the country and reconnecting. This Brexit thing has given me a direct motivation to get more involved in politics. You need to get your hands dirty, and I will.” I believe Britishers should not pay any heed to his uttering.

I regret that Britisher, who are the custodian of democracy and good behavior gave him a chance to resurface, whereas he should have been completely dumped for bringing the worst disgrace to them. I will even ask a question, are the politicians from treasury and opposition benches incapable of bringing the country out of the turmoil?

My question to Tony Blair, if he is such an ardent supporter of Britain remaining in the European Union (EU), why did he keep his country out of the common currency, euro? I understand that somewhere at the back of his mind was that if Britain joins euro; it would become subservient to Germany and France.

At this juncture, both Germany and France are adamant at punishing Britain out of the EU or be ready to pay a huge cost to stay its member. If Tony Blair committed a mistake of becoming the spokesman of war monger George Bush and now living in isolation, Britain also faces isolation for its decision to quit the community. Even if the new parliament wishes to reverse the process, it would only be at the stringent conditions of the EU.