Matthew Norman: Do the bells toll for Tony Blair?
It was Hilary, let us remember, who took it upon herself a few weeks back to go to Bethnal Green, waving a petition and inciting George’s constituents to record their fury at their MP going AWOL. That she herself would then oversee the Prime Minister’s decisive absenteeism from the aye lobby on Wednesday … well, one hesitates to use the term “comic genius” too lightly, but you can hardly deny her a place alongside the most gifted ironists of the age. There may today be those calling on Hilary to be consistent, and turn up in Sedgefield with a petition railing against that other arch deserter Tony Blair. All George missed, they would say, was a meaningless vote about Crossrail. By nipping off early to catch The Simpsons on Sky One, on the other hand, the PM personally neutered the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill that formed such a central plank of his sustained assault on whatever civil liberties remain to us. The Sedgefield petition is an engaging idea, but I doubt Hilary will be ma
