Silvio Berlusconi is a man who always enjoyed playing the pantomine villain, revelling in the loathing and hatred of his opponents, viscerally enjoying his thriumphs over them. He must have thought he was untouchable, with every attempt to bring him to account for his shady business dealings and politics having failed so far and the Italian electorate once again having made him prime minister. And then that happened. If you watch the video you can see the shock and horror creep in his face, not just from the physical shock of the assault, but also from the dawning realisation that he isn’t invulnerable, that people do hate him enough to want to hurt or kill him and might just succeed in doing so.
Tony Blair on the other hand has always been the kind of smarmy asshole who wants you to understand that what he’s doing to you is all for your own good, if unpleasant. So convinced of his own moral righteousness that even meeting the family of British soldiers killed in Iraq doesn’t shake his convictions:
Asked if the anger of parents like Mr Brierley was “the cross you will always have to bear”, Mr Blair said: “Let’s be clear, it’s worse for them. They have lost their child and it’s very sad. If you have lost your loved one but you think you have lost them in a cause that’s not worth it, that makes it worse.”
Being held responsible for soldiers’ deaths is “the responsibility you carry” as Prime Minister. “But you have got to carry it, I’m afraid, because there is no point in going into a situation of conflict and not understanding there is going to be a price paid.
“Now, it’s also important to understand that many of those who are in the Armed Forces, including those who have lost their loved ones in Afghanistan or in Iraq, also are very often proud of what their child has done and proud of the cause they fought in…. You know, there are parents who feel very, very deeply angry and resentful and believe that the war was not worth it, but there are also those others who don’t want to feel that their view is ignored.”
You do wonder what would puncture this smug certainty of his; whether even what happened to Berlusconi would be enough.