Tony Blair was involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric hospital in London this morning following what doctors describe as an extended period of delusional behaviour.
According to local reports, a team of NHS psychiatrists suspected the former Labour Prime Minister may be suffering from a severe mental condition after he repeatedly denied any connection between the current chaos in Iraq and the invasion he spearheaded in 2003.
After a home visit revealed even more delusions, the team decided to keep Blair in hospital against his will - a process known in England as “sectioning” - in order to properly diagnose and treat his illness.
Blair is currently being held at Maudsley Hospital in South London and will remain there for up to 28 days or until his responsible clinician considers him well enough to leave.
“Mr. Blair is in a very fragile state and requires round-the-clock care,” explains Dr. Benjamin Allen, a psychiatrist treating the former U.K. leader. “He continues to insist that invading Iraq was the right decision and says that Saddam Hussein’s WMDs will be found any day now.
“When we visited his residence he declared himself to be the Archduke of Buckinghamshire and introduced us to two teddy bears he claimed were George W. Bush and Winston Churchill. The three of them were apparently planning to invade Yemen."
Troubled Tony
Tony Blair served as the U.K.’s prime minister from 1997-2007 and presided over a period of economic growth and overall prosperity. However today he is mostly remembered for his decision to join George W. Bush’s 2003 disastrous invasion of Iraq.
In recent weeks the Sunni militant group ISIS has taken control over vast areas of that country , which was occupied by coalition forces for nearly a decade. The nation appears to dividing once again along ethnic lines and may face another long civil war.
Many analysts have pointed out that the disintegration of Iraq is a direct consequence of the security vacuum created by the Bush/Blair invasion and the failure of the invaders to plan for the war’s aftermath.
In a series of newspaper editorials, however, Blair has defended his decision to go to war and essentially claimed that Iraq’s current chaos would have happened regardless.
His blithe inability to admit a clear mistake has angered much of the British public, and has even led London mayor Boris Johnson to claim Blair is “unhinged” and needs “professional psychiatric help.”
The mayor appears to have gotten his wish.
A patient released this morning from Maudsley says she saw Blair prescribed a dose of heavy dose of anti-psychotic medicine last night and he appears to be doing better.
“When he’s on the meds he thinks much more clearly,” she says. “I just wish he had gotten them sooner.”
