Rebellion is part of human progress, says Lord Blair

Lord Blair, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, will say rebelling against the status quo is "triumphantly admirable", in a speech for Lent to be broadcast on Radio 4 this week.

The practising Anglican emphasises conflict as an "essential part of natural and human progress". Lord Blair, who led the Met at the time of the 7 July bombings in 2005, will say: "Conflict is an essential part of natural and human progress. Without human decisions fiercely to debate ideas, to risk all, to resist injustice and oppression – as we all have seen so powerfully in other parts of the Middle East recently – to take on and overturn received and complacent wisdom, mankind stagnates and loses sight of its highest purposes."