As Chilcot showed, Tony Blair was a 20th-century leader in a 21st-century world | Martin Kettle

The former prime minister’s autocratic style cannot work in an age of social media and fading respect for politics

King Philip II of Spain, the dominant ruler of 16th-century Europe, sent the armada to its defeat, lost the Spanish Netherlands to the Dutch and spent large parts of his reign persecuting heretics. Yet it was said of him that “no experience of the failure of his policy could shake his belief in its essential excellence”.

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