From Monday's Daily Telegraph When I read Leo Abse’s biography of Tony Blair, one detail struck me in particular: an aide claimed that Mr Blair, in his official car, was forever checking the vanity mirror. It came back to me yesterday when I read that the former prime minister has confessed in an interview to [...]
It's odd to think that Tony Blair, who stood down as prime minister nearly six years ago after a decade in office, has just turned 60. That was once the age when a British politician was just coming into his prime. Palmerston died in office a few days shy of his 81st birthday. Gladstone formed [...]
I've been reading up on the thoughts of Mehdi Hasan recently - in fact ever since I wrote the post about Winged Horses on 22 April 2013. What's jumped out at me is Mehdi's fondness for calling other people 'liars' - Tony Blair being a good example - so here is Mehdi in action as a journalist, searching for the truth, as it were. Show More Summary
Peter Wilby, my editor at the New Statesman, came up with the inspired idea: to sign up Lauren Booth to write a weekly column. This was 1998 and New Labour looked impregnable, Tony Blair invincible, and the one true Labourite, Gordon Brown (whom the magazine championed), was relegated to waiting and waiting in No 11. [...]
I was present at the Scottish Labour Party conference many years ago - when Tony Blair came to town, Inverness if I remember correctly, to tell his troops that Clause IV was a busted flush - and had to go into the dustbin of history....Show More Summary
I said the other day that I had written an article for the New Statesman magazine - just like Tony Blair - and here to prove my point is the piece I wrote back in June 2000. Now I'm sure I gave this a heading of 'Govan No More?' - which...Show More Summary
According to this morning’s Independent, at last night’s Parliamentary Labour Party meeting Ed Miliband “hit back at criticism of Labour's direction under him from Tony Blair and his allies, accusing them of being out of date and out of touch with the public”. Why he did that isn’t entirely clear, given that Ed’s supporters are [...]
Look out – the Blairite Zombies have risen. Tessa Jowell and John Reid were just two of the reanimated corpses that graced our screens over the weekend, endorsing Tony Blair’s critique of Ed Miliband’s leadership. There has been intense speculation that Blair’s attack in last week’s New Statesman, and the follow-up from his former colleagues, [...]
Honestly, I don’t mean to bang on about bloody Tony Blair. It’s just I saw this over coffee this morning and I thought it was interesting. Hey ho. Tony Blair’s view that he would have given David Cameron a closer … Continued
Ed Miliband may have politely told Tony Blair what to do with his advice about the direction of the Labour party, but the former Labour Prime Minister’s allies aren’t quite… Continue reading The post The Blairites bite back appeared first on Spectator Blogs.
Tony Blair - the former Labour leader and Prime Minister - has ruffled a few feathers with an article he has written for the centenary edition of the New Statesman - a left wing, political magazine that I've written for myself in the past. Show More Summary
Tony Blair asked Labour seven awkward questions this week, ranging from issues that everyone’s talking about to rather more quirky ones that the former Prime Minister would like everyone to… Continue reading The post Seven awkward questions for the Tories appeared first on Spectator Blogs.
Senior Labour figure apologises unreservedly over 'beyond tasteless' comments about party's former leader and late PM. A leading Labour Party member posted a Facebook entry yesterday in which he suggested Tony Blair should share Margaret Thatcher’s coffin. Show More Summary
I shall reflect upon Tony Blair’s contribution to the New Statesman later, but right now I just want to express my deep outrage that the bugger has stolen my argument. Lock stock and barrel. Look, a chap puts in a … Continued
The New Statesman today publishes a splendid centenary edition, to celebrate its 100 years — a collectors’ item. It also carries some vintage blame-dodging by Tony Blair who pretends 13… Continue reading The post Tony Blair can’t escape blame for the debt appeared first on Spectator Blogs.
For all the millions of words written about Margaret Thatcher Thatcher and her legacy this week the most interesting political intervention, I reckon, has just been made by one of her successors. Tony Blair (for it he) has used an article in the centenary issue of the New Statesman to warn Ed Miliband (although the [...]
This morning the New Statesman is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and it’s marking the big day by publishing a pretty bald critique by Tony Blair of Ed Miliband’s political strategy. Up till now, Blair has been circumspect about criticising his successor-but-one. Not today. Contrary to popular opinion – or opinion within the office of the [...]
Eulogies from Labour to Margaret Thatcher may be polite rather than heartfelt. Do not be deluded. It would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that, in her latter years, Lady Thatcher appeared to be a darling of the Left. Tony Blair secretly sought her advice over Bosnia and Nato enlargement. Gordon Brown made such a [...]
My friend and colleague Iain Martin knew I could not resist following up his blog in which he suggested Tony Blair could have beaten David Cameron in 2010 – at least well enough for Labour to be the largest party in a hung parliament and to have gone into coalition with the Lib Dems. His [...]
Philip Collins is shackled by the epithet ‘Tony Blair’s former speechwriter’; shackled because his columns prove him to be his own man. His latest (£) is a carefully argued critique… Continue reading The post Why don’t Labour talk about welfare reform? appeared first on Spectator Blogs.