British Invasion Graduation

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who will start teaching at Yale this fall, addressed the school’s 2008 graduating class on May 25th, all of which apparently horrified his former Oxford tutor, who, according to Blair, said: “I only hope for their sake you are going there to learn rather than teach.”

Blair discussed the Middle East, climate change and the global economy, urging grads to become involved in causes greater than themselves. He also said that while the grads benefited from superior intellect and luck, it was very important to remember how much their parents loved them.

Blair recalled an incident that occurred when his dad met him at the train upon returning home from his first year at Oxford.

When he got off the train, Blair recalled, his father looked shocked at seeing his son barefoot, disheveled and unwashed, wearing nothing but ripped jeans, “before they had become a fashion item.” Next to other returning students, he looked like an “unwashed Rumplestiltskin.”

Seeing his father’s expression of shock, Blair said: “Dad, there is good news. I don’t do drugs.”

“He looked at me in the eye and said: ‘Son, the bad news is if you’re looking like this and you’re not doing drugs, we’ve got a real problem.’”

Deborah Lambert writes the Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia.

Deborah Lambert