Tony Blair on Keir Starmer, AI and globalisation

But I am told that the question “What would Tony do?” is often heard, explicitly or implicitly, within the new government, just as those who ran the coalition government referred to him, with tongue only loosely in cheek, as the Master.

Luckily for all concerned, he has written down some answers in a new book, called On Leadership.

It has two central arguments.

First, the quality of governance and leadership is the difference between success and failure for countries.

Effective leadership requires stability and decisions for the long term.

When Mr Blair stood down, Britain had been led by just three people over 28 years.

Now we’re on our sixth prime minister in eight years.

The second, which is not new coming from Sir Tony, is that we are living through a technology revolution greater in consequence than previous industrial revolutions.

Primarily, this concerns Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The former prime minister is of the school that AI will change everything everywhere.

He’s all in.

And his argument, which forms a key plank of his institute’s work, is “the big question for any political leader in modern politics is how do I understand, master and harness the technology revolution?”