Mayday (2)

He's back: sincere face, 'trust me' hand gesture

Two more exchanges from this morning's Andrew Marr, starring everyone's favourite living former UK prime minister, accompanied by a couple of heckles:

Tony Blair: The curious thing is people say, well, look, if you have another referendum you are going to divide the country. It's the opposite, and I'll tell you why...
Andrew Marr: I want to come directly onto that, because the first referendum was an incredibly divisive moment for the country. Everyone got very,very angry. One MP was killed as a result. People got incredibly inflamed. And if you go back and you run it all again for month after month after month, don't you look at the prospect of that with some horror, what it would do, dividing families, dividing communities, dividing the country?

Andrew Marr: You are one, I think, of four living people who have done Theresa May's job. I just wonder, putting the politics to one side, what you make of her at the moment? Every day she gets up and is assailed again by criticisms from every single side, it may feel slightly familiar, goes into the House of Commons for a crucial vote, there's cabinet revolts back behind her. What do you make of her performance, as a practising politician looking at another?
Tony Blair: As a person I have a lot of respect for it. I think she has shown resilience, I think she's shown a degree of courage in standing up and getting on, and she's a decent person frankly surrounded by a lot of pretty unreasonable ones. The trouble is, the problem is, having said all of that, the deal's dodo. So this is the difficulty that she has. But in personal terms, you know, I've done the job, I know how difficult it is, I really respect the fact that she manages to stand up and get on with it. I think that's a great capability, a great characteristic...
Andrew Marr: A stand-up woman, yeah.
Tony Blair: Yes, I think she is. This is not a personal thing. Personally, actually, I can see a lot to admire in the way she handles herself. It is that literally this is the destiny of our country, and it is the wrong decision for our country. This is why we have to resolve it finally through the people.