“Keep it plausible, darling.” Those were the words Tony Blair uttered to his long-time advisor, Anji Hunter, after she had suggested his now infamous speech to the Women’s Institute – where he was slow-clapped by a bunch of seemingly kindly ladies – had, interruption aside, still gone rather well.
Plausibility is key to any political statement, especially in the form of a political attack. That is why Blair’s criticisms of a succession of Conservative opposition leaders were, as he noted in his autobiography, A Journey, fairly low energy.
