The transformation of Sir Max Hastings

From time to time one wonders if you are missing out by failing to read the musings one of a not-so-great commentators of the day.  Sir Max Hastings falls into this category.

Steven Glover, no Blair supporter, charts the course of Sir Max’s thoughts down the years:

As editor of the London Evening Standard in 1997, Sir Max urged readers to support Blair. In those days the two men saw each other regularly. When he stood down in 2002 Tony Blair gave his old cheerleader a knighthood.

As we motor on, he slowly modifies his views depending on the audience:

As a regular contributor to the Daily Mail he became increasingly strident in his criticisms of Blair, though as a Guardian columnist he was more understanding.

Presumably, Hastings timed his articles so they didn't appear in both papers on the same day.  We move on.

Then last Friday, with his knighthood safely in the bank, his conversion is complete:

A swingeing piece in last Friday’s Mail marked the culmination of Sir Max’s reappraisal, with the judgement that Mr Blair was a terrible Prime Minister who had taken Britain into a “reckless” war.

It’s good to know that some of us have not missed much in his journey through life.