I've never been in favour of Britain joining the euro and nor am I particularly interested in defending Mr Blair. I am however interested in establishing facts. Here's a transcript of what Blair actually said in that interview:That's not a defence that's just saying he was lucky. His intention wes to have us in the Euro and he actually said to Paxman that we would be crazy not to join.
People here expect me to stick up for British jobs, British investment and British industry. The basic... What's fascinating to me too is that, if you look round the world today, the whole of the rest of the world is moving closer together. Look at what is happening in America, north and south, where they're thinking of creating a huge free trade area. If you look out in Asia, where they're talking now about possibilities of single currencies and so on, if you look at the ten countries queuing up to get inside the European Union, the whole world is moving closer together. What should we do, as Britain, with all the strengths of our history? Should we stand apart from the alliance right on our doorstep as a country? It would be crazy to do that. So, whether we join the euro or not depends on the economics. You have to have that in the right place. It is an economic union. We shouldn't, for political reasons, stand aside. I don't believe that would be a fulfilment of our national interest. I believe it would be a betrayal of our national interest.
To repeat, I wasn't defending Blair's enthusiasm for the euro, I was putting it in context.
You bring up Blair - I could easily counter it with Brown, who opposed joining the Euro on political grounds. My point though - and I thought I'd made this clear - was that when I look at the larger picture of who is supporting each side, I see far more credibility on the remain side than on the leave side.
The fact that both positions involve unknowns and risks doesn't mean that both sides are equally unknown and risky.
If you just focus on one man - Blair - then I could equally focus on one man - Donald Trump. But that wasn't what I was seeking to do.