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About this episode

Cherie Blair—Interviewed by Adrian Wooldridge“I’m always teetering on the brink of chaos,” laughed Cherie Blair before a standing-room-only crowd in Washington. The wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, human rights lawyer, champion of women’s rights, and mother of four described her life as no more hectic than that of “all working mothers.” And, in her new book, Speaking for Myself: My Life from Liverpool to Downing Street, Blair sheds light on everything from her working-class roots to maintaining a marriage with England’s most powerful man (it’s hard to be mad at him for being late to dinner when he’s been making life-and-death decisions all day: “There isn’t an equality of argument against that!”)Reminding the audience that public servants are “not infallible gods; not totally good or totally evil,” Blair noted that “it is easy to see the things we haven’t got right in Iraq without looking at where we came from.” She noted that under Saddam Hussein neither women nor members of many religions were truly free and invoked the compelling images of Iraqis voting democratically for the first time in memory. “I don’t believe there is any country in the world that would choose to live under a dictator,” Blair stated unequivocally.But perhaps where Blair was most passionate was in her plea for more diversity in all aspects of a nation’s life—from politics to business to education. “We are not God,” Blair said. “We can’t see the whole picture. But each of us might have different insights into the picture.” With more diversity and kindness, she asserted, the better we can be as human beings. “The word we don’t use enough is ‘kindness,’” lamented Blair. “There’s not much kindness in the public space.”

• Release Date

  Oct 24, 2008

• Runtime

  56:11