Tony Blair’s unpopularity is one of the unappreciated wonders of the modern political world. Fourteen years after he stepped down as Britain’s prime minister, you might expect his ratings to have gradually improved, with people forgetting their original reasons for disliking Blair and coming to associate his premiership with a period of economic and political stability. But no amount of nostalgia can lift him out of his polling rut.

A decade after Blair’s departure from 10 Downing Street, 64 percent of people still had an unfavorable opinion of the man, with just 21 percent declaring their view to be positive. At a time of intense polarization in British politics, Blair has become a perversely unifying figure, eliciting negative attitudes from across the ideological spectrum. Whether people support Labour or the Conservatives, Leave or Remain, they have little time for the architect of New Labour.

If the pollsters dug deeper into the sources of this animosity, no doubt they would find many different reasons being offered for disliking Blair. However, there’s one straightforward explanation for his enduring and ecumenical image problem: the man simply will not go away.