'Sometimes the Right, when outraged, can be as ridiculously narrow-minded as the Left. Indeed, on the subject of Tony Blair’s knighthood, they seem to be united. Of course Mr Blair should be made a Knight of the Garter. Unlike most honours, the Garter is the personal gift of the Sovereign, not part of the patronage-controlled Honours “system”. Each prime minister is so called because he or she is the Sovereign’s first minister. If the Queen decides Mr Blair deserves it, that should be good enough for the rest of us.
Besides, he does deserve it. This is not because he was necessarily right: I personally have written tens of thousands of words about the numerous times he was wrong. It is because he was successful. He was one of only three of his party’s leaders ever to win overall Labour majorities in Parliament, and the only one to win enormous majorities all three times he fought. He brought Labour out of an 18-year wilderness. He fulfilled a key condition for our democracy’s functioning, which is that more than one political party should be capable of government.'
Charles Moore