Tony Blair, Emotion & Politics

Charles Crawford, who was our ambassador in Sarajevo in the 1990s has written an absolutely fascinating account of a visit by Tony Blair to the Balkans in 1998. He catalogues how his spinmeisters took control of the visit and how Blair himself was curiously detached from the whole thing. He also reveals that Robin Cook had scuppered Blairs plans to make Michael Portillo the High Representative in Bosnia after the departure of Carl Bildt. As I say, fascinating stuff.

Read the blogpost HERE.

A Tale of Two Ex-Prime Ministers

Compare and contrast.

A couple of weeks ago I happened to see Tony Blair. Well, when I say I saw him, he was actually in the biggest BMW I have ever seen, driving at breakneck speed down Edgware Road accompanied by a vast retinue of ancilliary cars all with lights flashing and containing stern looking police bodyguards.

Last week, a friend of mine was driving down Great Peter Street in Westminster when the small people carrier in front of him stopped outside the block of flats by the junction with Marsham Street. Out stepped Gordon Brown and one police bodyguard.

Good on Gordon Brown for apparently eschewing the police outriders and back up car that is his by right as an ex Prime Minister.

Tony Blair: For the Journey

My first thought when seeing the cover and title of Tony Blair's forthcoming memoirs was to wonder if the book is being sponsored by Lloyds Bank.

It's a truly dreadful cover. Why is the right shoulder more visible than the left? There's a joke there somewhere. The book promises to be "human and accessible". Maybe, and I suppose the cover is supposed to reflect that. But if I had been Prime Minister for ten years I think I might want a cover for my memoirs which exuded just a tad more gravitas. The open necked 'I'm a normal kinda guy' look doesn't work on political memoirs in my opinion. This cover looks like it is advertising the memoirs of a has been soap star...

But will I buy it? Of course I will.

Missing Tony

Could anyone disagree with me if I say that the Chilcott Committee hasn't laid a glove on Tony Blair so far? I'm not sure that I ever expected them to, but I certainly didn't expect it to be this easy for Mr Blair.

Whatever one's view of the Iraq war, I don't think many people could allege that Blair didn't believe what he was doing was right. His evidence so far demonstrates an absolute certainty of aim and objective. There is clearly little self doubt in his persona. Sometimes in life that can be a dangerous thing. In government and politics it is an asset. Compare Blair - a man willing and able to make decisions - to Gordon Brown, a man permanently struck by dithering and indecision.

A Prime Minister needs to take a broad, big picture view and not be burdened by intricate detail. Brown is a bad Prime Minister in part because he is pathologically incapable of making decisions when they need to be made. By the time he makes a decision the moment has often passed.

I would far rather have a Prime Minister who had the courage to make decisions, even if, on occasion, he gets them wrong.

Yes, I admit it. I miss Tony.

The BAe SFO Inquiry: Brown's Invidious Decision

On 14 December 2006, the day when the government announced the SFO were abandoning their inquiry into the Saudi arms deal, I came under a lot of criticism in the comments section for writing THIS...

... and now the most shaming thing I think I have heard in years - the Attorney General announces the abandonment of the probe into BAe's fighter planes deal with Saudi Arabia. Let me put this bluntly. The government has backed down in the face of Saudi threats - it has acceded to blackmail. It argues that the decision has been made "in the wider public interest" yet it has basically prostrated the British nation at the feet of Saudi bribery and corruption. Shameful. Truly shameful. See how Blair, Goldsmith and Browne try to defend the indefensible HERE on the BBC News site. Today is the day the British people must now realise that this government isn't fit to govern us. They've brought shame on themselves, their government and their country.

I thought long and hard afterwards about whether I had called that one right. Today's High Court ruling convinces me that I did. No one denies that jobs are important. Few would deny that the national interest is also important, but surely the government must have known that that they were on shaky legal ground when making this decision? And the revelation aired by the BBC this afternoon that the Saudis blackmailed the government by threatening a 9/11 equivalent is beyond disgusting. For a British government to accede to that level of blackmail is shocking in its own right. Lord Justice Moses was absolutely right when he said this in his judgement...

"No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice. It is the failure of government and the defendant to bear that essential principle in mind that justifies the intervention of this court."

I'd happily second that. Gordon Brown now faces an invidious decision. Either he stands by what Tony Blair did or he repudiates it and faces the consequences. I don't envy him.

Blair: China Most Powerful Nation in Africa

Click on the image to enlarge

Tony Blair's nine months out of office seem to have done something to his geographical antennae. Giving a speech tonight on Faith & Globalisation at Westminster Cathedral tonight, Mr Blair's official transcript contained this corker...

China has gone from a standing start to arguably the most powerful nation on the continent of Africa.

I hope when he actually spoke the words he substituted 'nation' with 'influence'!

Blair Adds to His Job Portfolio

Tony Blair has got yet another new job - as a lecturer at Yale University.

Mr. Blair will lead a seminar at Yale and participate in a number of events around the campus. The course in which he will participate with Yale faculty will examine issues of faith and globalization. His efforts at Yale relate to the work of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation that he will be launching later this year.

Praise be.

Your Contribution to Blair's Legacy

Today's papers are full of ten years of Blair, the Blair legacy and much more along that theme. One of the blog's regular contributors, Auntie Flo, has had a good idea. She has suggested that I should offer my blog readers the opportunity to say goodbye to Tony Blair by writing about what they think of his legacy. So if you would like to take part, write your contribution in 100 words or fewer. There will be a prize of a box set of Margaret Thatcher Speeches CDs for the one I judge the best. No need to over-use swear words...

Will Tony Blair Experience the Same Fate as Jimmy Carter?

I suppose it is somewhat ironic that on the 25th anniversary of British territory being invaded by a fascist dictatorship, 15 British service personnel have been taken hostage by the Iranians. But there, the similarity ends. Whereas 25 years ago Britain responded with vigour and determination, our response to the Iranians has been muted and weak. The Iranians sense that Tony Blair is at the weakest point in his premiership and is a lame duck. They have exploited this weakness for all it is worth, and will probably continue to do so. In yesterday's Sunday Times, Michael Portillo made a chilling prediction...

"There may yet be an important item to add to Blair’s tombstone. President Jimmy Carter spent the night of January 19, 1981, sleeping fitfully on a sofa in the Oval Office, longing for news that 52 US hostages seized by Iran 444 days earlier would be released during this his last day in the White House. But the ayatollahs had one more humiliation in store for him. They released the kidnapped Americans only in the afternoon, minutes after the presidency had passed to Ronald Reagan. As Tony Blair enters his last 100 days he must wonder whether Tehran plans to belittle him in the same way. Will he bluster for the next three months, and then watch from the side-lines when the 15 hostages return, to be greeted on the tarmac by a beaming Gordon Brown, newly installed at No 10? "

Wouldn't that be the ultimate sign of Britain's weakness? Picture credit Conservative Home

Blair IS a Suspect in Cash for Honours

I know I am a bit late with this, but the Sunday Telegraph's main front page article this morning was astonishing. HONOURS POLICE TOLD BLAIR WOULD RESIGN IF CAUTIONED screamed the headline. The Sunday Telegraph has a record of exclusives on the Cash for Honours inquiry and the story certainly has the ring of truth about it.

If it is indeed true that the Prime Minister effectively threatened to blackmail the Police - for that's what it amounts to - he has scarred his office. The Police, of course, should have called his bluff.

But beyond the political theatrics here, we mustn't miss the point - and the point is that the Police are clearly treating Tony Blair as a suspect in the inquiry. Downing Street keep briefing that he is being interviewed as a witness rather than a suspectm but this blows that statement apart.

What does it all mean? I suspect it means that no charges will be laid until the PM has departed ths scene. Perhaps he might now try to elongate his departure! A couple of days ago I watched Alastair Beaton's THE TRIAL OF TONY BLAIR. It no longer seems so fanciful, all of a sudden.

That Blair Roadpricing Email in Full...

Fewer People Give to Charity Under Labour

The Economist follows up Tony Blair's philanthropy speech yesterday with a big feature on the issue headlined BRING BACK THE VICTORIANS. It tells us that the most generous towns in England are Sunderland, Motherwell and Blackpool, and the meanest are Croydon, Ilford and Kingston-upon-Thames. Is it a coindence that the former are all in the North and the latter are all in the South?!

The graph also shows that Britain is far more generous than other major European countries when it comes to philanthropy, but way behind the United States. But the right hand graph is possibly even more illuminating. It shows that since Labour came to power the number of people giving to charity has fallen by 12% from 70% to 58%. This could be for a number of reasons I suppose, but according to The Economist "a study, by the Institute for Philanthropy, a lobbying group, shows that the bulk of all giving is done by a discrete group who go to church, identify with one of the main political parties and read a broadsheet (quality) newspaper, all of which have become minority pursuits. Those who do give have to donate more to make up for the decline in their numbers."