Tony Blair

Last night on the Daily Show Jon Stewart quipped with Tony Blair, the man who ran Britain for 10 years. With a veil of comedy, Jon could ask the ex-prime minister provocative questions such as "How did (Bush) bring (Iraq) up?. . . Did he say: 'Hey man, you know who we should invade?'" The answers provided insight as to why Blair got on board for Iraq and how he assesses his legacy. Blair said that although he stands by Bush and the Iraq invasion, he never "took the view that people who disagree with it were stupid or misguided or had bad intentions."

Jon and Tony also chatted about the role of religion in politics, international relations, and their personal lives. The former leader discussed his recent conversion to Catholicism along with how UK politicians consider their religious lives distinct from their public persona, a privacy British voters are happy to oblige. To see the clip on religion and globalization, read more

The British are coming! . . . to Yale. Starting next year, Tony Blair will lead a seminar on faith and globalization and participate in other events at the prestigious university. Blair, who served for 10 years as Britain's prime minister, has been appointed Yale's Howland Distinguished Fellow.

Blair will keep his 10-day-per-month commitment, apparently, as the special envoy for the Middle East Quartet, which is comprised of the United Nations, United States, Russia, and the European Union.

A few months ago I saw Tony Blair speak on women's issues. He seemed like a regular guy with a lot of creative ideas. Do you think Tony Blair's leadership experience makes him a qualified teacher of faith and globalization? Would you take his course, even if you didn't agree with his politics?

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Clinton played the saxophone, and here his bud former British Prime Minister Tony Blair covers the Clash classic "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" It manages to sound kinda punk. Hey, Tone, how about a God Save the Queen encore?

Technically, this is the third in a "Blair trilogy," but according to Variety, "Screenwriter Peter Morgan has started work on a sequel to The Queen, which will dig into former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair's relationships with U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush." The article continues:

The movie will focus on Blair's reaction to the handover of power between Clinton, a natural liberal ally, and Bush, who came from the other end of the political spectrum.

Morgan initially considered tackling the more obvious drama surrounding the run-up to the Iraq war, when Blair fatally compromised his own premiership by his whole-hearted support for Bush's invasion plans. But in the end Morgan decided that the roots of those events lay in Blair's difficult adjustment to the transition from Clinton to Bush a few years earlier.

Morgan's trilogy started with the telepic The Deal and continued with The Queen, which won Helen Mirren an Oscar for her depiction of Queen Elizabeth II in the aftermath of Princess Diana's death. No word on whether she'll appear in this third film, though Michael Sheen is expected to reprise his role as Blair.