It’s the anti net-zero, anti-woke Tony Blair – how was this man ever considered a progressive? | Zoe Williams

The former PM has form when it comes to pushing corporate interests and meeting populists halfwayWhen Tony Blair came out this week to say current net zero policies were “doomed to fail”, there was something familiar in his arguments: phasing out fossil fuels wouldn’t work because people perceived it as expensive, arduous and not their problem. Stop banging on about renewables; won’t someone think of the things we don’t know how to do, like carbon capture and such wizardry as is still locked in tech bros’ imaginations? Basically, net zero had lost the room, according to the former prime minister. And if anyone knows where the room is, and how to get it back, it must be him.He said something similar about “woke”, which sadly lost the room in 2022. “Plant Labour’s feet clearly near the centre of gravity of the British people,” Blair advised Starmer. “[They] want fair treatment for all and an end to prejudice, but distrust and dislike the ‘cancel culture’, ‘woke’ mentality.” What exactly does “woke” mean, if not an end to prejudice? Just how effective is cancel culture, if Blair himself could work as a lobbyist for a Saudi oil firm in 2016, advised the government of Kazakhstan after it brutally suppressed public protests in 2011, and yet still walks among us as the voice of the progressive left? Memo to my fellow cancellers: we are bad at this.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...