Britain voted to leave the EU in an In-Out referendum on June 23, by 52 percent to 48 percent. Blair has long been a Europhile and once wanted to follow other EU ex-prime ministers down the path of seeking high office in one of its institutions — Council or Commission president.
He has now said the British were not given the chance to look at the whole picture and — although he says he accepts the will of the people — alternatives should be put to them which may lead to a rethink.
"You've got to accept the verdict of the people. When we held the referendum on June 23, we knew what we didn't like about the European Union and the country voted a particular way. We haven't yet seen the alternative. We don't know the details of it. We don't yet know the reality," he told the BBC Today program.
"We've had claim and counterclaim, but over these coming months and years we will be able to see what it is we are being offered and will be able to make an assessment of whether we're going to be better off, economically, socially, politically outside Europe, rather than inside it."
He said, "we should keep our options open" adding that the result of the referendum cannot be changed, unless it becomes clear that the British people have had a change of mind because "they've seen the reality of the alternative."
Pious Platitudes
His remarks are in sweeping contrast to his stubborn refusal to listen to anti-war protesters who staged some of the biggest protests in a generation against Britain joining the US in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.
Blair was heavily criticized by the chair of the Iraq Inquiry into the run-up to the war, Sir John Chilcot, for failing to look at the alternatives ahead of the decision and rushing into the invasion without considering all the options and circumstances.
"The judgements about the severity of the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction — WMD — were presented with a certainty that was not justified. Despite explicit warnings, the consequences of the invasion were underestimated. The planning and preparations for Iraq after Saddam Hussein were wholly inadequate," Sir John said.
The fact that Blair is now suggesting the British public were precipitous in rushing into a no vote, calling for a rethink to look at all the alternatives and consider the evidence will be taken by his critics as a sign of his complete cant and hypocrisy in the face of history, which he famously said would be his judge.
