The Presidential Chocolate Gold Coin Of Freedom

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is one of the highest awards that the US can offer anyone. According to Wikipedia, that curious mix of concrete fact and spurious hearsay, it is awarded to those who have made

"…an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

And who is the latest recipient of this mighty honour? Why, Cunto di Tutti Cunti*, of course. And why? According to the BBC:

“The president is honouring these leaders for their work to improve the lives of their citizens and for their efforts to promote democracy, human rights and peace abroad.”

I don’t know what Bush saw on his last trip to the UK, but Blair really hasn’t done any work to improve the lives of the citizens of this country. In fact, after 10 years of Blair’s leadership, Britain is poorer, less free, more in debt and utterly dysfunctional. It is difficult to know how Blair could have done less to improve the lives of the citizens of the UK, short of going out with a hammer and bashing in the heads of all the first born children in the country.

But one suspects that the latter part of that sentence – the deep fried guff about promoting “democracy, human rights and peace abroad” is the real reason for the award. As this statement shows:

"Their efforts to bring hope and freedom to people around the globe have made their nations, America and the world community a safer and more secure world."

These must be new definitions of hope, of freedom, of peace and of safety and security that I haven’t been made aware of. Because the invasion of Iraq certainly hasn’t brought peace to that particular country. And it certainly hasn’t helped safety and security here in the UK. In fact, if there is one thing that the Iraq has achieved, it is managing to put the Lib Dems on the right side of an issue for once. Which, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t such a great achievement.

Of course, Bush can’t reveal the real reason for giving Blair and others this medal. The reason is simple, though – they stood shoulder to shoulder with him as he went and kicked Iraqi butt. They supported him in a probably illegal war. It is a retiring President helping out his retired crony. And as such it devalues the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the level of one of those chocolate gold coins that you may have got for Christmas.

If Blair had an ounce of dignity or morality, he wouldn’t accept this medal. This being Tony Blair, though, he is accepting the medal with relish:

The office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives told the Sunday Telegraph this week that Mr Blair was taking a keen interest in the medal's design, before it was specially made by the US Federal Mint.

Imagine that – Blair taking a keen interest in the design of the medal. It is almost as if our former Prime Minister is entirely motivated by a mix of arrogance and vanity…

*This frankly wonderful description of Tony Blair comes from Mr Eugenides.