The term 'Blairite' is meaningless. So why do people continue to use it? | Zoe Williams
Given that not even Tony Blair would be a Blairite now, it’s probably time to retire it
Late last year, before Nigel Farage fell out of Elon Musk’s favour, the technology writer William Cullerne Bown asked a question that has since been rendered at least temporarily irrelevant: if it’s a problem for Musk to give Farage $100m, why is it fine for Larry Ellison to give Tony Blair $100m? Tech titan Ellison is reportedly donating huge sums to the Tony Blair Institute.
Before we even get to that question – and it’s a good one – there’s just a tiny adjustment we need to make on political vocabulary. We’ve been saying “Blairite” ever since there were two tribes, the other being “Brownite” (as in Gordon Brown). It may not have entered the dictionary until 2000, but insiders have been using Blairite for about 30 years.
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