Egypt revolt could help spread democracy says Blair

The former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair has given an interview to the syndication agency the British Press Association (PA) in which he claims that the revolt in Egypt may spread democracy throughout the Middle-East.

Using the BBC he said the Egyptian revolt was a "moment of excitement but uncertainty" and the West should engage with supporters of democracy across the Middle East.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr show, regularly used by Mr Blair since he took the universally unpopular decision to commit British armed forces to the highly illegal and costly invasion of Iraq, he said "We should have a strategy of engagement with the democratic, modernising forces across the region. We should be helping countries evolve and move in the direction of change."

Mr Blair in his position as British Prime Minister has regularly opposed being called to account for his part in the deaths of almost 900,000 Iraqi's during the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq and has routinely chosen deception to avoid criminal proceedings over his conduct. A fact widely considered to be anti-democratic and an affront to the rule of law by the majority in the UK.

Mr Blair has also highlighted the scope of change taking place in Egypt and hinted at the consequences that may follow for those deemed anti-democratic by those engaged in the change that now appears to be on the horizon. Mr Blair said "This is a region in transition. The question is where is it transiting? It can either go towards an open-minded, modern type of democracy, let's hope that it does, or it could be swung into something narrow and extreme and closed-minded."

The comments will anger many, for whom Mr Blair is no respecter of the principle of Democracy. For Mr Blairs critics, he is an arch schemer with little or no respect for the people who rides roughshod over Democracy with lies and deception disseminated through the media which has in the past led to serial human rights abuses, large scale refugee movements of entirely innocent people and loss of life measured in the hundreds of thousands, many of whom have been children.

Mr Blair went onto say "I think there's every possibility that we get the first and not the second and our purpose as the West should be to engage insofar as possible to bring about that more benign scenario."

Analysts around the world consider the Egyptian uprising symptomatic of the worsening scale of Western influence in the region pointing to the widespread belief that the outgoing Hosni Mubarak is a western client that has just been toppled by the Egyptian people themselves. Indicating that the revolt is far from "benign" as Mr Blair is attempting to suggest.

Mr Blair continues to employ public relations consultants to manage public opinion over his conduct in the past but despite engaging with several publicity stunts including his taking voluntary employment as a largely benign "peace envoy" and earlier releasing the heavily edited book of his selective memoirs, public opinion remains entrenched against him. Mr Blair continues to give lectures on the subject of faith and religion which are ordinarily dismissed as meaningless by scholars from all fields and genuine followers of the faiths.

Mr Blair also defended Mr Mubarak, saying: "You can't invite him to the White House five months ago, and I was there with President (Barack) Obama, as a partner in peace and them simply forget all that. "He was a force for stability in the region and in the peace process, there were economic changes in Egypt that were beneficial over the past years but, having said that, the reason why this is a moment of huge exhilaration and excitement and opportunity is that there were a whole lot of forces for democracy, for change for economic and social reform in Egypt that were held back and those are now unleashed."

With the departing of the Western client Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian people have now released themselves from the shackles of organised political paralysis signalling that the will of the Egyptian people can now more readily be felt across the region. For Mr Blair, who has long claimed to be in favour of a Palestinian state, but who has acted persistently to prevent it from forming, the revolt in Egypt can only be filled with foreboding. It represents an end to Mr Blairs political "technique" of associating himself with a political cause...in order to handicap and disable it by "incompetent association".

For Mr Blair, the Egyptian revolt is the harbinger of the end