I have worked day and often night working on this, writing this, writing the book, I thought let's get on with it, let's get on with writing the book.That's funny. I thought the book was ghost written by The Observer's Ned Temko. Note how during the entire interview Lord Levy never manages to maintain eye contact with Simon. Essentially, Levy hints at some sort of deeper relationship between Carole Caplin and Tony Blair, calls Gordon Brown a "liar" who knew all about the Labour Party loans, and how he ended up being "disappointed" with Tony Blair who was "just another politician in it for himself".
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Levy Throws Grenade at "Liar" Brown
I had to laugh when I watched Simon Walters' video interview with Lord Levy, whose memoirs are being serialised in the Mail on Sunday. Levy started the interview by saying...
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Oddly enough, although all other NuLab apparachik books will be failures - although some people might buy John Prescott's for the laughs - they may laugh themselves sick - but I think Levy's will sell. Blunkett's bio failed. The book accounting his life in Downing St by Alastair Campbell failed. Tony Blair's book will fail, which I supsect is why he hasn't bothered to start it. Cherie Blair's book failed.
But somehow, I think Levy's book will sell. Of course, the rest were student/socialists/activists and Levy is a real person who rode into battle in the arena of commerce - and created a fortune. So he is bound to be more interesting.
And to compound Brown's problems, Devil's Kitchen has the following pledge on his site:
"I will buy 1 pint of Guiness and a £5 bet for a member of the Irish Republic, IF they save Europe by voting NO to the Lisbon Treaty but only if 1,000 other freedom and democracy lovers will do the same."
Its on pledgebank now.
http://www.pledgebank.com/Irishheros
I think the best comment was that Blair told him that Brown will never be able to beat Cameron in a General election!
Way to go, DK! (Thanks, Auntie Flo'!)
Amusingly enough, my partner and I spotted Lord levy in a hotel restaurant in Vegas over the Christmas-new year holiday. My partner remarked on this rather loudly and he turned round, looking startled!
How we would have loved to get a picture of him by the roulette table ( and we are Labour supporters - well, usually. Proper Labour, that is.....!)
Gordon Brown...
"Not Porridge. Just Toast"
There is nothing like loyalty is there. Levy will do himself great harm by this book. On a first read there is nothing new in the book but the timing could not be worse for Brown. But remember Iain, Labour starts from a very low base in this weeks elections so they may appear to be not that bad.
Perhaps "interesting" as Verity suggests. But what a shit. If that is Iain's spin on the Mail's redaction is a reliable picture of the piece.
And if so what a risk. If Brown does actually know what went on and kept his own counsel (as not interviewed or involved) then Levy is taking a huge risk. Hubris. Fall.
Is Gordon Brown either a good enough politician or a good enough man to be attacked by Michael Levy? Such an attack is high praise indeed.
Levy would now be in prison if either the Police or the Crown Prosecution Service could have been bothered to do their jobs properly.
His re-emergence is a most timely reminder of just how ghastly the Blair years were, and the Blair restoration under Cameron would be: an age of eye-wateringly undistinguished figures such as Peter Mandelson, Alastair Campbell, Jonathan Powell and Carole Caplin.
Plus, of course, this big-haired, stacked-shod, dispenser of funny money, a lost occasional character from Footballers’ Wives.
I think that the reasons why Blunkett, Campbell and Prescott's books failed (or will fail) is that:
(a) we knew that they would not dare tell us everything we really wanted to know - not until they and their friends were long out of office.
&
(b) whilst they wanted to put their side of the story - for posterity, sympathy or just filthy lucre, none of them were angry enough.
Michael Levy is ANGRY. He sees himself as the person who saved Labour from its Trade Union paymasters and ended up as the fall guy for an increasingly divided and corrupt party.
Although he was never charged, the whole affair obviously took it out of him and he knows that his name is forever tainted.
It couldn't have happened to a nicer chap but I now look forward to watching Michael Levy getting his revenge.
I`m sure Gordon will throw ed balls onto the grenade to save himself.
I thought 'lying' was 'common practice' for ZaNuLabour types. Should levy's hint be a surprise? Nope.
What ever else you think of Levy - he's a loyal general being used as the 'cat's paw' for Blair to tell Labour voters to handle the mantle of power to Cameron.
P.S.Tony Blair, politicially, is self-wrecker, this country could have done so much better after being handed such a great economy. In peoples lives their weaknesses show in their strategic decisions and it's also true of Tony's choice of wife - ugly. If you look at Tony and Carole together they seem much better suited than Tony and Cherie. Tony know's he could have done SO much better that that ugly scouse trollop. Tony must wake up thinking of Carole and look at Cherie and think - big mistake - I know I would. He must then think of the Frech President and think why not. But ahe has been outplayed by Cherie who had their fourth child to stop him from leaving her for Carole.
verity said...
"The book accounting his life in Downing St by Alastair Campbell failed."
What is your definition of failure? Campbell's book is a bestseller.
You have claimed that is because it was bought mainly by party hacks and schools. So were the Thatcher and Major books which sold well. Were they also failures?
What's happened at the BBC? They're spreading the Lord Levy 'Brown could never defeat Cameron at a GE' line on every news bulletin and they just finished the Andrew Marr show with a gift of a clip from Cameron's terrific, authoritative interview with AM - about Brown's great pension theft. It seems they are also trying to promote David Miliband juding by his very very soft interview with AM (Miliband came across as usual as an eager adolescent with a lot to learn). Is the beeb ditching Brown? Something certainly seems to have changed. What was John Prescott's phrase? - the tectonic plates are shifting.
javelin said...
"In peoples lives their weaknesses show in their strategic decisions and it's also true of Tony's choice of wife - ugly."
David Cameron's wife is no oil painting. What does that say about him?
I used to bump into Carole Caplin at the Holmes Place in Euston occasionally. She is tiny and absolutely nut-brown in colour, like a conker.
What amazes me is that it took Levy so long to notice that Bliar was a self-serving, greedy liar. Many of us noticed this in about 1994, i.e. at the same time as we noticed Bliar to begin with.
Oscar Miller said...
"What was John Prescott's phrase? - the tectonic plates are shifting."
Being Prescott he probably said "Teutonic plates".
Hilariously, Blair issued a massive rebuttal of Levy's alleged comments on Brown last night and insisted he'd never said it. Bit of a crushing blow for Levy's already damaged credibility and must make the Mail question why they paid a fortune for a self-justificatory pile of rubbish.
But equally hilariously, Blair's firm rebuttal of the salacious, irrelevant but funny Caplin "massage" allegations are not rebutted.
Anyway, shouldn't the Observer's Ned Temko got the byline in the Mail as he wrote the book anyway?
Javelin - this is amusing fiction. Nothing to do with reality at all. It was Cherie that wanted Carole to stay on - Alistair Campbell loathed her and wanted rid of her. Tony did too - but also didn't want to upset Cherie, so Carole survived. And Cherie probably got pregnant because of the health regime Carole had put her on - upped her self esteem, her libido and her nutrition levels. If there was a woman Cherie was jealous of it was Angi Hunter.
Broon's Talking Bawgie said...
"I used to bump into Carole Caplin at the Holmes Place in Euston occasionally. She is tiny ..."
Nonsense. I have seen her. She is about average height.
I echo Verity's comments - You can pick up a variety of books/memoirs by NuLab Ministers/Officials at quite reasonable prices usually no more than £3.99 and usually reduced to less that £2 in "Bookends". However, I suspect Levy's book will still end up there too - remaindered.
Whatever credence you put on Levy's "recollections" - including a allegedly 'red-faced Blair when Levy raised the matter of Caplin's one to one massages and that this might "not just be a problem for Cherie but for YOU too !"- it's overall contents won't do Brown's already "busted reputation" much good although of course THAT might be the intention as well as "trousering" a wad of dosh from the Mail
If David Miliband is the heir presumptive, shall we all call him The Infante David?
Campbell's book only failed to do really well because we know that it isn't complete.The master of spin has left out all the good bits until after the fall of Bean.
A shame really because it would be worth reading. He changed politics pretty much on his own and the Tories took years to catch on to the changed world.
Sadly, his 'current' version is a bit like an edited Joseph Goebbels book.
Chapter1.
The great leader has achieved his dreams, power at last..Even Heinrich Brown and Herman Prescott are delighted.. I will knock up a speech for the Reichstag tomorrow..something about.. we stand at the gates of destiny..today Europe, tomorrow the world..
Chapter 2.
Poland has refused every opportunity to make peace. The fools. They can't win.
Chapter 3.
The word from the suburbs of Moscow is everything is fine, but are the winter uniforms coming soon?
The End.
"Amusingly enough, my partner and I spotted Lord levy in a hotel restaurant in Vegas..." Gosh, that is so amusing, Mersey Mike. I chuckled all through breakfast!
[7:39] Good points. I think you're right.
Javelin - Not at all. Cherie, as grotesque as she looks, is smart and I don't think he could have risen to the top - he's a ridiculous, self-regarding, wimpy little fop - without her guidance and determination.
Besides, as someone notes above, it was Cherie who wanted Caplin to stay on. Remember, they bought matching pixie boots and often used to dress alike.
[10:29] - You say Campbell's book was a bestseller. Figures, please, and are you sure those figures have not been tampered with in the ineffable Campbell way?
Bill Quango MP said...
"Campbell's book only failed to do really well because we know that it isn't complete."
It is one of the best-selling political books of recent years.
Dearieme, Infante is a general Spanish term for a Royal Prince. Tsarevich (heir apparent to the Tsar) would be more appropriate. Brown behaves like a Tsar. A rather incompetent Tsar.
It is hardly surprising that Levy is so corscurating about Blair. Writers on this blog think that being targeted by the criminal justice system and the press is a joke. It is not. It is a deeply stressful situation and causes deep resentment. There is generally no compensation for such experience. Levy now hates Blair and it shows.
I have been silent for a while. That is because I decided to follow Norman Tebbit’s advice. I am having a rest from my profession and could have gone to the family estate and ‘worked’ two hours a day or less. Instead, I have taken up a traditional working class position with long hours (10 hours a day on a 6 day week) and very low pay (close to minimum wage). It is fascinating and enjoyable because I am doing something I have always loved. It would help if I knew Polish, because quite a number of my colleagues are highly educated Poles. I suppose reality will intervene in the next few months and it will be back to my profession but, in the meantime, I am getting a window into a different world.
And how well do political books sell, 2:25?
Verity:
from the Bookseller, November 2007 (4 months after The Blair Years was published).
"Random House set the bar high with Bill Clinton's My Life in 2004, which has sold 385,000 copies -worldwide, and this year reignited the market for political memoirs in the UK with Alastair Campbell's The Blair Years, which RH says has sold 130,000 copies in all markets."
Verity - "[10:29] - You say Campbell's book was a bestseller. Figures, please, and are you sure those figures have not been tampered with in the ineffable Campbell way?"
According to the Sunday Times "The Blair Years" was the bestselling current affairs book in the UK in 2007.
"Tony must wake up thinking of Carole and look at Cherie and think - big mistake - I know I would."
I always thought it was the other way round, Cherie would be the one thinking about Carole when she woke up next to Tony. Was I wrong?
Bill Clinton's My Life in 2004, which has sold 385,000 copies -worldwide, Alastair Campbell's The Blair Years, has sold 130,000 to 11/07
Yes I agree. It has sold well. I only meant if he had put in what we wanted to know about it would have done twice as well and been the political book of the decade . I for one, an avid reader of political books, merely read the reviews and decided to wait for the finished article in 2009 /2010. I await it with some anticipation now that Gorgon has been ridiculed.It will let some 'truth'or at least Campbell's version of truth,come out. Will be gripping stuff.
m.hristov - welcome back, I've missed you.
verity said...
"And how well do political books sell, 2:25?"
I don't really know. Iain, with his Policos' hat on should be able to tell us.
IAIN, CAN YOU ANSWER VERITY'S QUESTION?
And how well do current affairs books sell?
I still think Levy's book will sell more than any of the others because he's an entrepreneur and prevailed in the real world - in other words, he made a huge success in the pop music world because he understood what people wanted nd he understood how to wheel and deal. No one cares what a bunch of stale old Trot student activists who never grew up and never had real jobs have to say.
Iain, as they're making the word verification more and more difficult and irritating, is it within your power (given Blogger) to change to Turing code?
verity said...
"And how well do current affairs books sell?"
The Political book category is a sub-category of Current Affairs. Therefore, since "The Blair Years" was the Current Affairs best seller last year, it follows that it was the Political best seller.
Current Affairs books sell sufficiently well for the publishers to keep producing them.
Bill Quango MP said...
"Yes I agree. It has sold well. I only meant if he had put in what we wanted to know about it would have done twice as well and been the political book of the decade."
I agree with your main point. I don't know why Campbell is holding back on the full version. He doesn't have any particular loyalty to Brown. He is the one person who really knows what went on between Blair and Brown. The final book should be fascinating.
Chequers sometime in 2004
Carole Caplin (during another 2 hour "massage" : "turn over then Tone"
Tone: "Cherie never does it like that"
Carole: "That's because she was the first person in the country to work out that there was a difference between spin and delivery"
Verity is right - Levy's will sell. Where can I get a copy, ghost written or not?
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