I'm leaving anyway, so why kick me out of the door?

Blair has taken an interesting tactical turn (with just a hint of desperation) it seems in the Scottish Election campaign. In an exclusive interview in today's Times he's effectively personalised the campaign around him along the lines of "you might hate me and want to vote SNP to show that, but what's the point? I'm walking out of the door anyway?" Admittedly I paraphrase, his actual words were,

"People can give me a kicking one last time on my way out of the door. Except I will be out of the door but the consequences of an SNP government will be there for the next four years and, if they have their way, for ever . . . Of course Scotland can be independent, but at what cost? And to what purpose?"

Reading the rest of the interview he also says he "despises" the SNP for using Iraq and the "cash for honours" inquiry in its campaign as they have nothing to do with the devolved powers being decided upon. That is a rather weak charge, because, whilst he is right technically, this is politics right. He himself wouldn't hesitate to use side issues as a means to exploiting an electoral campaign, nor would anyone frankly. In fact, in a way he's doing just that by bringing himself into it and talking about his departure which has no bearing on devolved powers either, so it's a deeply contradictory argument really.

The problem of course with the interview is that it is just the classic Blair "look... people think I'm a pretty straight sort of guy" chat style. The thing he fails to realise I think is that those sort of things just don't wash with many people anymore. When they see him talk they Paxmanise him and think "why is this lying bastard lying to us?"

This tactical switch by Blair may actually cause more trouble than it's worth. Saying to people "what's the point of kicking as I walk out of the door" could actually encourage them to kick him even more. We shall have to wait and see.