2024-06-26
52 分钟Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Tony Blair,
who was of course, Prime Minister of the UK from 1997 to 2007,
and now leads the Tony Blair Institute,
which advises dozens of governments on improving governance, reform, adding technology.
My first question, I want to go back to your time in office.
And when you first got in, you had these large majorities.
What are the constraints on a prime minister,
despite the fact that they have these large majorities?
Is it the other members of your party are fighting against you?
Is it the deep state?
Like what part was constraining you at that point?
The biggest constraint is that politics, in a particular political leadership,
is probably the only walk of life in which someone is put into an immensely powerful and important position with absolutely zero qualifications or experience.
I mean, I've never had a ministerial appointment before.
My one and only was being prime minister, which is great if you want to start at the top.
But it's that that's most difficult.
So you come in and you often come in as when you're running for office,
you have to be the great persuader.
The moment you get into office, you really have to be the great chief executive.
And those two skill sets are completely different.