Tony Blair’s warning in The Sunday Times — that progressive politicians are enabling antisemitism through an “unholy alliance” with hardline Islamists — is characteristically eloquent. It is also a masterclass in moral hazard, the financial concept Blair himself would do well to study.

[https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/tony-blair-end-lefts-unholy-alliance-with-islamists-vffq3sr2t]

In financial economics, moral hazard describes a situation in which an actor takes risks because someone else bears the consequences. The insured driver who parks carelessly. The bailed-out bank that resumes reckless lending. The politician who reshapes a nation’s demographic and ideological landscape, walks away to consultancy millions, and then writes op-eds about the resulting mess from a safe distance. The commenter beneath the LBC post who attracted 3,400 likes with seven words — “Said the man who opened the doors” — understood the concept intuitively, even without the textbook.

Blair’s substantive argument deserves engagement on its merits. He is correct that over 3,700 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the UK last year. He is correct that only 24 per cent of British Muslims polled during the Gaza war accepted the established account of October 7. He is correct that ritualistic condemnation by political leaders has failed to stem the tide. And he is correct that a strand of progressive politics has developed a remarkable capacity to suspend its own........

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