Peter Jackson Column

May 17 2007 By Peter Jackson, The Journal

So farewell then Tony Blair. Actually, not quite, in fact the old ham will be around for another seven weeks, treating us to his - onion in hand - rendition of "I did it my way".

I, for one, shall remain unmoved. My impression of Tony Blair and the whole New Labour project was irrevocably fixed in October 1997 with the Bernie Ecclestone affair.

Such political scandals are often convoluted and the truth difficult to discern, but, in this case, the facts surely speak for themselves.

Blair's government had decided to ban tobacco advertising, presumably on the grounds that advertising tobacco encourages smoking, which in turn leads to life threatening diseases such as lung cancer.

But, it emerged that the Labour Government changed its policy to exempt Formula One motor racing from this ban and, co-incidentally, Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone had given Labour £1m.

One can draw one owns conclusions from these facts and the conclusion I drew was that Tony Blair and his government were happy to change policy - in the belief that such a policy change would lead to more human beings dying miserable and painful deaths - in return for money.

This has given me a pretty jaundiced view of his claim to be "a pretty straight sort of guy", or any other attempt on his part at the moral high ground.

Similarly, whenever Gordon Brown proses on about his Presbyterian minister father having provided him with his "moral compass", I reach for the sick bag. This is not just because he seems to be implying that his moral compass is better calibrated than those of the rest of us mere mortals and he has, therefore, a right to lead us, but it also runs contrary to the facts outlined above.

Because I would have thought that anybody with any kind of moral compass whatsoever, however wonky, would have felt a deep disquiet at any association with a government, party and prime minister implicated in the Ecclestone affair.

In fact, I would have thought that anyone with even a barely functioning conscience, let alone "a moral compass", would have resigned.

But, there you go, different moral rule apply to politicians, and we just have to grin and bear it when they preach at us.