Athens is reputed to be the fons et origo of Western democracy. Two Greek words – demos and kratos –  mean “people” and “power” respectively, so democracy means “people power.”

Several centuries before Christ, there was an Athenian called Demosthenes, who was intelligent, argumentative and a teacher. Over a period of time he became unpopular with a considerable number of his fellow-citizens. Using the “power of the people”, the Athenians accused him of  “corrupting the younger generation”, and he was convicted by a majority vote in the general assembly. His punishment was to drink a hemlock drink designed to kill – which it did.

We don’t know the full facts of the case, but this may have been a miscarriage of justice, but the events related confirm the fact that, once upon a time, people power was a very real  element in the democratic process.

Today, Britain is a democracy supposedly based on the Ancient Greek model. At a certain point,  the chicken run of British public life laid an egg called Tony Blair.

By methods  based on a fundamental disregard for integrity and truth, he talked his way to the top of the Labour party, and subsequently emerged as Prime Minister. He wasted the riches of the nation on schemes that did not work, and on the creation of hundreds of thousands  of jobs probably designed, not to improve  the  lot  of the community, but to provide a hard core of extra supporters for his party.

His most disgraceful deed was to send  young British men and women to fight and die in wars which only involved Britain because he had misled his fellow citizens. In the case of Iraq, he was told on good authority that Saddam Hussein had no Weapons of Mass Destruction, and calmly informed the nation that he could not guarantee the safety of any part of  the United Kingdom from the missiles which this latter-day Genghiz Khan was loading even as he spoke.

The runner-up in the catalogue of his misdeeds was perhaps the one which  did most harm to the nation as a whole. At the start of his political campaign he had recruited a team of acolytes who shared  his contempt for all sources of motivation other than self-interest. When he became Prime Minister, these adventurers became his ministers, and every department of the hitherto honourable public service was introduced to the corruption of Mr Blair’s philosophy.

As a result, and bearing in mind the all-embracing nature of modern  Government,  there is no community in Britain that has no been exposed to eleven years of lieing, cheating, corner-cutting, abnegation of responsibility, and all the other vices which characterise a decadent society. 

The burning question is this: how has the people (demos) exercised its power (kratos) in order to  punish the monster responsible for this disaster?  

Apparently we have decided to allow Mr Blair to leave the political stage gracefully and at a time of his own choosing, clutching in both hands an enormous pension (our money), which, as things stand, he will continue to draw for the rest of his life. 

 Have we gone completely mad?

At one point a rich Conservative asked the High Court to pass judgement on the government’s refusal to hold a referendum on “the European constitution”, in spite of a manifesto pledge to do just that. Had Mr Blair acted illegally in refusing to hold a referendum? No, said the judge, he had not acted illegally. The EU proposal which featured the word “Constitution” got into trouble, so the Machiavellis of Brussels produced a new proposal which talked of “a Treaty” and never used the word “Constitution”. The plot remained the same, but  the title of the book, so to speak, had been altered.

So the judge, predictably, said Blair was in the clear.  He had promised a referendum on “Constitution”, but he had made no such promise on “Treaty”.

Why, I ask myself, did the rich man  waste time and money on a technical matter which  was obviously going to end up  as a question of interpretation, and which, even if the judgement went against Blair, was not going to expose the malefactor to any serious retribution?

 Is there not a crime called “abuse of public office”? Or is it perhaps “misuse of public office”? What about impeachment? Where are our lawyers when we need them? Where are our men of wealth, power, influence, experience and integrity?  Surely they are not  going to let the Lying Toad get away with his violation of the country’s public life. Surely there must be statutes designed to discourage those who volunteer for public service, and then use the privileges and powers it brings to lie and cheat and mislead,  and who proceed to deplete the public purse by their stupidity, incompetence and criminal negligence.

Where are our spiritual leaders when we  need them? Let us not forget that “gentle Jesus meek  and mild” blew his top like a volcano at the behaviour of the Pharisees, because they used their power to mislead those who trusted them. It is arguable that those old villains were comparatively innocuous compared with Blair and his cohorts.

Surely there must be a mechanism for punishing someone who uses bogus evidence to justify sending young men and women to fight and die.  If it exists, will somebody please tell us what it is, and explain why it has not been used against Blair? Therein, surely, lies salvation  – when we stop behaving like the downtrodden masses of a very corrupt banana republic.

If there isn’t such a mechanism, perhaps we should invent one – and the sooner the better. If we don’t shift, not only WILL BLAIR GET OFF SCOT FREE, but so will his gloomy sidekick Brown. Any suggestions out there?