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  1. Politics
14 December 2009

Blair and the “narcissist’s defence“

Ken Macdonald on why "I did what I thought was right" is not a defence

By George Eaton

There’s something worth quoting in almost every section of Ken Macdonald’s remarkable polemic against Tony Blair and the Iraq war in today’s Times. But here’s my favourite passage:

Since those sorry days we have frequently heard him repeating the self-regarding mantra that “hand on heart, I only did what I thought was right”. But this is a narcissist’s defence and self-belief is no answer to misjudgement: it is certainly no answer to death.

In what conceivable circumstances, I have always wanted to ask Blair, would you have done what you thought was wrong?

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