During the pandemic, Tony Blair made a public appearance having clearly not been to the barber for some time. As many people noted, his lockdown hairstyle meant that he now bore an uncanny resemblance to Vigo the Carpathian, the supernatural villain in Ghostbusters II.

Born in 1505 but still terrorizing the citizens of New York in the late twentieth century, Vigo was fond of boasting that he sat upon a throne of blood during his time in office. He launched his political comeback with an emphatic declaration: “What was, will be. What is, will be no more! Now is the season of evil.”

If Blair issued a similar message to the world, it would differ in style from his usual communiqués, but hardly in substance. The comparison with Vigo resonated because it is genuinely difficult to speak about Blair in the language of secular politics. In his latter-day incarnation, he seems more like a creature of pure evil from the world of horror and fantasy than a man who once spent his time worrying about focus groups and swing voters in southern English constituencies.