Shed no 涙／ほころびs please, she's tougher than a Scouse docker

by PETER HITCHENS, Mail on Sunday
December 15, 2002

Cherie Blair is not a 犠牲者. Her 涙／ほころびs last Tuesday were 涙／ほころびs of 激怒（する） and 失望／欲求不満, not of grief. For heaven's sake, her son has only gone to Bristol, not Baghdad, where her husband wants to send the sons of other mothers.

If she 行方不明になるs him so much now, why didn't she stay at home to bring him up for the past 19 years?

An MP's 支払う／賃金 and perks 追加する up to a lot more than the incomes of many couples where the mother has to work to 支払う／賃金 the 抱擁する mortgage.

She is a 裁判官 because she would rather sit in 法廷，裁判所 than sit at home. She is on the public 行う／開催する／段階 because she 捜し出すs to spread and 器具／実施する her 過激な ideas. She is part of a 交戦的な movement which despises 伝統的な motherhood as a waste of talent.

She is also much closer to the spirit of New 労働 than her husband, who has never 苦しむd from ideas or opinions.

I was the first 新聞記者／雑誌記者 to take an 利益／興味 in Mrs Blair as a political 人物／姿／数字. I couldn't care いっそう少なく about her 着せる／賦与するs. It's her mind I'm 利益／興味d in.

You'd have thought she'd be pleased. But no.

When I sought an interview it was 否定するd. When I spoke to her old friends about her 見解（をとる）s, they gave me a sanitised 公式の／役人 line.

When I 研究d her 1983 試みる／企てる to become a 労働 MP, party 公式の／役人s 行為／法令／行動するd as if she'd stood for 選挙 in 私的な and 辞退するd to show me her （選挙などの）運動をする ちらし.

When I advertised for it, I was 的d by the 労働 spin machine, which got a number of its (n)艦隊／(a)素早い Street toadies to print personal attacks on me.

I much enjoyed all of this, as it happened, but I wasn't meant to. The idea was to punish me and put others off. But the point that I sought to make --that she was 井戸／弁護士席 to the Left of her husband and the 公式の／役人 姿勢 of New 労働 - is now 一般に 受託するd.

The other thing I discovered for 確かな was that she is a wildcat, tougher than a Mersey docker, not a small, 脅すd creature peering from its burrow as the 残虐な 圧力（をかける） の近くにs in for the kill.

So please forget all this piffle about how the horrible マスコミ are trying to get her. Mrs Blair does not need your sympathy. She is just as much of a professional 政治家，政治屋 as her husband-Her mistakes are not 抱擁する. They are just silly, irresponsible and arrogant. But her behaviour 明らかにする／漏らすs three important things about this 政府.

ONE: 負かす／撃墜するing Street has far too much unaccountable 力／強力にする. The spouses of 大臣s should be 私的な 国民s - and in most 僕主主義s they are. It is only in 独裁政治s and thirdworld 専制政治s that the leader's wife gets to 影響（力） 政策 or poke her nose into 法廷，裁判所 事例／患者s. It is squalid and humiliating that it is happening here.

Two: The 労働 machine does not know what to do about Mrs Blair. The fascinating thing about her is that she is a public 人物／姿／数字 only when it 控訴s her. Unlike everyone else in this position, she never 服従させる／提出するs to 尋問.

Why not? If she did, she would let slip the truth - that this is a very Left-wing 政府 indeed and she has a major 役割 in many of its 政策s.

Three: A 教団 of personality 脅すs a 解放する／自由な 圧力（をかける）. One or the other has got to go. 労働 was elected by （人命などを）奪う，主張するing it had all the virtue and the Tories had all the sleaze. At the heart of this barmy fiction was the absurd idea that Anthony Blair is a sort of perfect 存在, the beloved leader who can do no wrong.

At all costs, he has to be 保護するd from any suggestion that he may have any faults.

Every political attack on the 政府 has failed because Mr Blair's image has remained undamaged - even while his 閣僚 is blistered by sleaze and 失敗.

As soon as St Anthony's immaculate 潔白 is 本気で 危うくするd by スキャンダル or 失敗, 負かす／撃墜するing Street does one of two things.

Either it wheels him out to give one of his sincere, almost 宗教上の pe rformances. Or it makes a human sacrifice, such as Stephen Byers.

This is why 労働's critics are 軍隊d to attack Mr Blair 直接／まっすぐに if they are to have any hope of （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing him, while his 支持者s are compelled to surround him with sickly flattery. There is nothing in between. His 教団 of personality has made normal 対立 fruitless.

Britain has become the sort of place where personal スキャンダル has 取って代わるd proper politics. The Blairs made it like this. Now they must take the consequences.

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