Revolutionary Moderation

Politics as entertainment



Who cares if Tony Blair got involved with the US in Iraq? After all, he was mildly amusing on The Simpsons. All is forgiven!



Admittedly, Blair is one of a long line of politicians who figure that being entertaining is a good way of increasing one's profile and popularity. What politicians forget is that when it comes to being entertaining, they can't compete with professionals. If they continue to expand the role of "entertainingness" as a prerequisite to govern, there will be more Arnolds in our future.



Blair claims this was not the point at all, of course - he simply wanted to encourage tourism. I wonder if he vetted the script? It didn't really scream "Visit sunny Leeds".



Beyond the desire to be entertaining and therefore electable (a big motivation for the people who advise him, I'm sure), I suspect Blair's voice-acting debut might have been not entirely tourism-driven: "Hey, I was on the Simpsons!" Can't blame him for that, I suppose.