Guardian on 'Blair comeback' - keep this handy

Here's a Guardian editorial on the theoretical possibility of Tony Blair returning as prime minister.

Please look at it in its short but shameful entirety.

And whenever you might feel the generous urge to think of the Guardian as a radical organ for morality, justice and change, just check back on this text as a template reminder of how Rusbridger and his circle have consistently oozed a language of apologetics over Blair, providing, in the process, that vital protective cover for his warmongering past:

"Like him or loathe him, you can always catch Tony Blair's drift – he instinctively hits upon the words to communicate no more and no less than he intends. So when the Evening Standard asked him whether he would like to be prime minister again, he did not answer "sure" by accident; even the rider that this was "not likely" respected the reflex to never say never. Gladstone, Disraeli, Churchill and Wilson all pulled off prime ministerial comebacks, so why not another now? Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the US, while Vladimir Putin has only recently bounced back into pole position, although many would say he never really went away. Mr Blair took the Chiltern Hundreds without compunction the moment he quit No 10; he could equally swiftly, and breezily, fix up a byelection to parachute him back into SW1. He says he has learnt a lot that will help him govern better next time. The five-point pledge card implied by his 2010 memoirs – bomb Iran, cut top tax, free financiers, kill foxes and restore Whitehall secrecy – suggests that is a matter of taste . But he seems to have mellowed a touch since his book; maybe he's even learnt a little respect for international law. Besides, this is no time to fret about the policy details – there is the showbiz to consider. In 2007 John Major likened Mr Blair's long goodbye to Nellie Melba; the coming comeback must demonstrate he is more like Sinatra and Elvis. There can only be one true heir to Tony Blair, and that is Tony Blair II."

"But he seems to have mellowed a touch since his book; maybe he's even learnt a little respect for international law."

How very touching. How very rehabilitating. How very Guardianesque.

Instead of stating simply and without equivocation that this man should be in the dock at the Hague, charged with the highest of war crimes, we're treated to fawning speculations on the comparative prospects of Tony's "showbiz" comeback.

Try relating that shallow, offensive gush to the widows and orphans in Iraq and Afghanistan. A million and more souls lost to Blair and his co-villains, a money-grabbing shyster parading as a 'peacemaker' and what purports to be a 'crusading newspaper' pondering his 'new, moderated regard' for international law.

Too late for all the tragic victims. Too late for Blair's sham "mellowing". And much too late to hope or believe that the Guardian will ever see or confess its own complicity.

John