Anthony Charles Lynton Blair
(born 6 May 1953) is a British
Labour politician, who served as Prime Minister of the
United
Kingdom
from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007.
He was the
Member of Parliament
for Sedgefield from 1983
to 2007 and Leader of the Labour
Party from 1994 to 2007. On the day he resigned as Prime
Minister, he was appointed the official
Envoy of the
Quartet on the Middle East on
behalf of the
United Nations, the
European Union, the United States,
and Russia.
Tony Blair was elected Leader of the
Labour Party in the
leadership election
of July 1994, following the sudden death of his predecessor,
John Smith. Under
his leadership, the party adopted the term "
New Labour", abandoned policies
it had held for decades, and moved towards the centre ground. Blair
led Labour to a
landslide victory
in the
1997
general election.
In the first years of the New Labour
government, Blair handed over control of interest rates to the
Bank of
England
; introduced the minimum
wage; signed the Belfast
Agreement; introduced tuition fees; and established the
Scottish
Parliament
, the National Assembly for Wales, and
the Northern Ireland
Assembly. In his first six years, Blair had British
troops ordered into battle five times—more than any other prime
minister in history.
Blair is the Labour Party's longest-serving Prime Minister; the
only person to have led the Labour Party to three consecutive
general election
victories; and the only Labour Prime Minister to serve consecutive
terms, more than one of which was at least four years long. He was
succeeded as Leader of the Labour Party on 24 June 2007 and as
Prime Minister on 27 June 2007 by
Gordon
Brown,
Chancellor of the
Exchequer.
In May 2008 Blair launched his
Tony Blair Faith Foundation.
This was
followed in July 2009 by the launching of the Faith and Globalisation
Initiative with Yale University
in the USA, Durham University
in the UK and National
University of Singapore
in Asia to deliver a postgraduate programme in
partnership with the Foundation.
Background and family life
Blair was
born in Edinburgh
, Scotland on 6 May 1953, the second son of Leo and Hazel Blair (née
Corscadden). Leo Blair, the illegitimate son of two English
actors, had been adopted as a baby by Glasgow shipyard worker James
Blair and his wife, Mary.
Hazel Corscadden was the daughter of George
Corscadden, a butcher and Orangeman who
moved to Glasgow in 1916 but returned to (and later died in)
Ballyshannon
in 1923, where his wife, Sarah Margaret (née
Lipsett), gave birth to Blair's mother, Hazel, above her family's
grocery shop. The Lipsett family in
Donegal supposedly originated with a German
Jewish immigrant to Ireland prior to the 18th century.
George
Corscadden was from a family of Protestant farmers in County Donegal
, Ireland, who descended from Scottish settlers who took their family name
from Garscadden, now part of Glasgow
.
Life as a child
Tony Blair has one elder brother,
Sir William Blair, a
High Court judge, and a younger sister,
Sarah. Tony Blair spent the first 19 months of his life at the
family home in Paisley Terrace in the Willowbrae area of Edinburgh.
During this period, his father worked as a junior tax inspector
whilst also studying for a law degree from the
University of Edinburgh.
In the
1950s, his family spent three and a half years living in Adelaide
, Australia, where his father was a lecturer in law
at the University of
Adelaide
. The Blairs lived close to the university, in
the suburb of Dulwich
. The family returned to Britain in the late
1950s, living for a time with Hazel Blair's stepfather, William
McClay, and her mother at their home in Stepps
, near
Glasgow. He spent the remainder of his childhood in
Durham
, England,
where his father lectured at Durham University
.
Education
After
attending Durham's Chorister School
from 1961 to 1966, Blair boarded at Fettes
College
, an independent
school in Edinburgh, where he met Charlie
Falconer (a pupil at the rival Edinburgh Academy), whom he later
appointed Lord Chancellor. He
reportedly modelled himself on
Mick
Jagger. His teachers were unimpressed with him; his biographer,
John Rentoul, reported that "All the teachers I spoke to when
researching the book said he was a complete pain in the backside,
and they were very glad to see the back of him." Blair was arrested
at Fettes, having being mistaken for a burglar as he climbed into
his dormitory using a ladder after having been out late.
After
Fettes, Blair spent a year in London, where he attempted to find
fame as a rock music promoter before
reading jurisprudence at St John's
College
, University of Oxford
. As a student, he played
guitar and sang for a
rock
band called
Ugly Rumours.
During this time, he dated future
American Psycho director
Mary Harron. He was influenced by fellow student
and Anglican priest
Peter
Thomson, who awakened within Blair a deep concern for religious
faith and left-wing politics. Whilst he was at Oxford, Hazel Blair
died of cancer, which greatly affected him.
After graduating from
Oxford in 1976 with a Second Class
Honours BA in Jurisprudence,
Blair became a member of Lincoln's Inn
, enrolled as a pupil barrister, and met his future
wife, Cherie Booth (daughter of the
actor Tony Booth) at the Chambers founded by Derry Irvine (who was to
be Blair's first Lord Chancellor), 11 King's Bench Walk
Chambers. He appears in a number of reported cases, for
example as in
Nethermere Ltd v
Gardiner where he unsuccessfully represented employers in
a dispute over holiday pay for employees at a trouser
factory.
Marriage and children
Blair married Booth, a practising
Roman
Catholic and future
Queen's
Counsel, on 29 March 1980. They have four children: Euan
Anthony, Nicholas John, Kathryn Hazel, and Leo George. Leo was the
first legitimate child born to a serving Prime Minister in over 150
years—since Francis Russell was born to
Lord John Russell on 11 July
1849. Although the Blairs stated that they wished to shield their
children from the media, their children's education was a cause of
political controversy.
All three attended the Roman Catholic
London
Oratory School
—criticised by left-wingers for its selection
procedures—instead of a poorly performing Roman Catholic school in
Labour-controlled Islington
, where they then lived, in Richmond Avenue.
There was
further criticism when it was discovered that Euan received private
coaching from staff from Westminster School
.All four children have Irish passports, by
virtue of Blair's mother Hazel, and his daughter Kathryn uses hers
while travelling.
Personal health
Blair
suffered from chest pains on Sunday 19 October 2003 and underwent a
cardioversion at Hammersmith
Hospital
.
Early political career
Blair joined the
Labour Party
shortly after graduating from Oxford in 1975.
During the early
1980s, he was involved in Labour politics in Hackney South and Shoreditch
, where he aligned himself with the "soft left" of the party. He unsuccessfully
attempted to secure selection as a candidate for Hackney
Borough Council
. Through his
father-in-law,
Tony
Booth, he contacted Labour MP
Tom
Pendry to ask for help in pursuing a Parliamentary career.
Pendry
gave him a tour of the House of Commons and advised him to stand
for selection as a candidate in a forthcoming by-election in the safe Conservative seat of Beaconsfield
, where Pendry knew a senior member of the local
party. Blair was chosen as the candidate; at the
Beaconsfield by-election, he
won only 10% of the vote and lost his
deposit, but he impressed Labour Party
leader
Michael Foot and acquired a
profile within the party. In contrast to his later centrism, Blair
described himself in this period as a
Socialist. A letter he wrote to Foot in July 1982,
eventually published in June 2006, gives an indication of his
outlook at this time.
In 1983,
Blair found the newly created constituency of
Sedgefield, a notionally safe Labour seat near where he had
grown up in Durham
. The
branch had not made a nomination, and Blair visited them. Several
sitting MPs displaced by boundary changes were interested in
securing selection to fight the seat. With the crucial support of
John Burton, Blair won
their endorsement; at the last minute, he was added to the short
list and won the selection over
Les
Huckfield. Burton later became Blair's agent and one of his
most trusted and longest-standing allies.
Blair's election literature in the
1983 UK general
election endorsed left-wing policies that Labour advocated in
the early 1980s. He called for Britain to leave the
EEC, though he had told his
selection conference that he personally favoured continuing
membership. He also supported
unilateral nuclear disarmament as a
member of the
Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament. Blair was helped on the campaign trail
by
soap actress
Pat Phoenix, his father-in-law's girlfriend.
Blair was elected as MP for Sedgefield despite the party's
landslide defeat in the general election.
In his
maiden speech in the House of
Commons on 6 July 1983, Blair stated, "I am a socialist not through
reading a textbook that has caught my intellectual fancy, nor
through unthinking tradition, but because I believe that, at its
best, socialism corresponds most closely to an existence that is
both rational and moral. It stands for cooperation, not
confrontation; for fellowship, not fear. It stands for equality."
The Labour Party is declared in its constitution to be a
democratic socialist party rather than
a
social democratic party; Blair
himself organised this declaration of Labour to be a
socialist party when he dealt with the
change to the party's
Clause IV in their
constitution.
In opposition
Once elected, Blair's ascent was rapid, and he received his first
front-bench appointment in 1984 as assistant Treasury spokesman. In
May 1985, he appeared on BBC's
Question
Time, arguing that the Conservative Government's Public Order
White Paper was a threat to civil liberties.
Blair demanded an
inquiry into the Bank of
England
's decision to rescue the collapsed Johnson Matthey Bank in October 1985 and
embarrassed the government by finding a European Economic Community
report critical of British economic policy that had been
countersigned by a member of the Conservative government.
By this
time, Blair was aligned with the reforming tendencies in the party
(headed by leader Neil Kinnock) and was
promoted after the 1987 election to the
shadow Trade and Industry team as spokesman on the City of
London
. In 1987, he stood for election to the
Shadow Cabinet, receiving 77
votes.
After the
stock market crash of
October 1987, Blair raised his profile further when he
castigated City traders as "incompetent" and "morally dubious" and
criticised poor service for small investors at the
London Stock Exchange. In 1988, Blair
entered the
Shadow Cabinet as
Shadow Secretary of
State for Energy, and the following year, he became Shadow
Employment Secretary. In this post, he realised that the Labour
Party's support for the emerging European "Social Charter" policies
on
employment law meant
dropping the party's traditional support for the "
closed shop" (i.e., compulsory membership of
trade unions). He announced this change
in December 1989, outraging the left wing of the Labour Party. The
young and telegenic Blair was given prominence by the party's
Director of
Communications,
Peter Mandelson;
he gave his first major platform speech at the 1990
Labour Party conference. Later,
Blair would also work to modernise Labour's image and was
responsible for developing the controversial
minimum wage policy.Blair became
Shadow Home Secretary under
John Smith.John Smith died
suddenly in 1994 of a
heart
attack. Blair beat
John Prescott
and
Margaret Beckett in the
subsequent
leadership election and became
Leader of the Opposition. As
is customary for the holder of that office, Blair was appointed a
Privy
Councillor.
Leader of the Labour Party
Blair announced at the end of his speech at the 1994 Labour Party
conference that he intended to replace
Clause
IV of the party's constitution with a new statement of aims and
values. This involved the deletion of the party's stated commitment
to "the
common ownership of the
means of production and
exchange", which was widely interpreted as referring to wholesale
nationalisation. At a special
conference in April 1995, the clause was replaced by a statement
that the party is one of
democratic
socialism.
Blair also revised party policy in a manner that enhanced the image
of Labour as competent and modern, using the term "New Labour" to
distinguish the party from its past. Although the transformation
aroused much criticism (its alleged superficiality drawing fire
both from political opponents and traditionalists within the rank
and file of his own party), it was nevertheless successful in
changing public perception. At the 1996 Labour Party conference,
Blair stated that his three top priorities on coming to office were
"education, education, and education".Aided by the unpopularity of
John Major's Conservative government
(itself deeply divided over the
European
Union), "New Labour" won a landslide victory in the
1997 general election,
ending 18 years of
Conservative
Party government, with the heaviest Conservative defeat since
1832.
Prime Minister
Blair became the
Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom on
2 May 1997, serving
concurrently as
First Lord of
the Treasury,
Minister for the Civil
Service and
Leader of the Labour
Party. The 43-year old Blair became the youngest person to
become Prime Minister since
Lord Liverpool in
1812, at the age of 42. With victories in 1997,
2001, and
2005, Blair was the
Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister, the only person to
lead the party to three consecutive general election
victories.
Domestic policy
Blair is both credited with and criticised for moving the Labour
Party towards the
centre of British
politics, using the term "
New Labour" to distinguish his
pro-
market policies from the more
collectivist policies that the party
had espoused in the past.
In domestic government policy, Blair significantly increased
public spending on health and
education while also introducing controversial market-based reforms
in these areas. Blair's tenure also saw the introduction of a
National Minimum Wage; tuition
fees for higher education; and
constitutional reform, such as
devolution in Scotland and Wales. The
British economy performed well, and Blair kept to Conservative
commitments not to increase income tax—although he did introduce a
large number of subtle tax increases, referred to as "stealth
taxes" by his opponents.
Northern Ireland
His contribution towards assisting the
Northern Ireland Peace
Process by helping to negotiate the
Good Friday Agreement (after 30 years
of conflict) was widely recognised.
Following the Omagh Bombing on 15 August 1998 by dissidents
opposed to the peace process (which killed 29 people and wounded
hundreds), Blair visited the County
Tyrone town and met with victims at Belfast
's Royal
Victoria Hospital.
War on Terror
From the start of the "
War on Terror"
in 2001, Blair strongly supported
United States foreign
policy, notably by participating in the invasions of
Afghanistan in
2001 and
Iraq in 2003. As a
result, he faced criticism over the policy itself and the
circumstances in which it was decided upon—especially his claims
that Iraq was developing
weapons of mass destruction,
which have not been discovered in Iraq. Some people, including
Nobel prizewinning playwright
Harold
Pinter and former Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohammad, have accused Blair of
war crimes.For his unwavering support of
the United States government's
foreign
policy, Blair was honoured with the
Congressional Gold Medal on 18 July
2003.
Relationship with Parliament
Blair changed Parliamentary procedures significantly. One of his
first acts as Prime Minister was to replace the then twice-weekly
15-minute sessions of
Prime
Minister's Questions held on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a
single 30-minute session on Wednesdays. This reform was said to
have led to greater efficiency, but critics have noted that it is
easier to prepare for one long set of questions than for two
shorter sessions. In addition to PMQs, Blair held monthly press
conferences at which he fielded questions from journalists.
Other procedural reforms included changing the official times for
Parliamentary sessions in order to have Parliament operate in a
more businesslike manner.
Presidentialism
Blair was
sometimes perceived as paying insufficient attention both to the
views of his own Cabinet colleagues and to those of the House of
Commons
. His style was sometimes criticised as not
that of a prime minister and
head of
government, which he was, but of a president and
head of state—which he was not.
Events prior to resignation
As the
casualties of the Iraq
War continued to increase and criticism of the Iraq war and its
handling mounted, Blair was accused of misleading Parliament, and
his popularity dropped dramatically. The Labour party's overall
majority in the
2005 general election
was reduced to 66.
As a combined result of the so-called
Blair-Brown pact, the Iraq war, and low
approval ratings, pressure built up within the Labour party for
Blair to resign.
On 7 September 2006, following pressure from the Labour Party,
Blair publicly stated he would step down as party leader by the
time of the
Trades Union
Congress (TUC) conference held 10–13 September 2007, having
promised to serve a full term during the previous general election
campaign.
On 10 May 2007, during a speech at the Trimdon Labour Club in his
Sedgefield
constituency, Blair announced his intention to resign as both
Labour Party leader and Prime Minister the following June.
At a
special party conference in Manchester
on 24 June 2007, he formally handed over the
leadership of the Labour Party to Gordon
Brown, who had been Chancellor of the Exchequer
during all of Blair's ten years in office.
Blair tendered his resignation as Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom to the Queen on 27 June 2007, his successor Gordon Brown
assuming office the same afternoon. He also resigned his seat in
the House of Commons in the traditional form of accepting the
Stewardship of the
Chiltern
Hundreds to which he was appointed by Gordon Brown in one of
the latter's last acts as Chancellor of the Exchequer. As it is
impossible to resign from the UK Parliament, this device is used
for MPs wishing to step down.
The resulting
Sedgefield
by-election was won by Labour's candidate,
Phil Wilson. Blair decided
not to issue a list of
Resignation
Honours, making him the first Prime Minister of the modern era
not to do so.
Post-Prime Ministerial career
Diplomacy
On 27 June 2007, Blair officially resigned as
Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom after ten years in office, and he was officially
confirmed as Middle East
envoy for the
United Nations,
European Union, United States, and Russia.
Blair originally indicated that he would retain his parliamentary
seat after his resignation as Prime Minister came into effect;
however, he resigned from the Commons on being confirmed for the
Middle East role by taking up an
office for profit.
President George W. Bush had preliminary talks with Blair to ask
him to take up the envoy role. White House sources stated that
"both Israel and the Palestinians had signed up to the proposal".
In May 2008, Tony Blair announced a new plan for peace and for
Palestinian rights, based heavily on the ideas of the
Peace Valley plan.
During
the first nine days of the 2008–2009 Israel-Gaza
conflict, Tony Blair spent Christmas and New Year's with his
family and according to the Daily Mail he
was spotted at the opening of the Armani
store at Knightsbridge
. Aides insisted that reports of him being on
holiday were 'totally untrue'. He has, they said, been 'working
tirelessly' behind the scenes 'since day one'. Since taking on the
position of Middle East envoy, he is reported to be spending one
week out every month in the Middle East. His spokesman was quoted
as stating that, Blair had been 'working the phones' constantly
since Israel's ferocious bombardment of the Palastinian coastal
enclave began.
Private sector
In January 2008, it was confirmed that Blair would be joining
investment bank
JPMorgan Chase in a
"senior advisory capacity" and that he would advise
Zurich Financial Services on
climate change. Some sources have
claimed that his role at JP Morgan will pay more than $1m
(£500,000) a year. This additional salary will contribute to annual
earnings of over £7m.
Blair also gives lectures and earns up to US$250,000 for a
90-minute speech.
Yale University
announced on 7 March 2008 that Blair will teach a
course on issues of faith and globalisation at the Yale Schools of
Management
and Divinity as
a Howland distinguished
fellow during the 2008–09 academic year.
Politics
The media had speculated that Blair was open to the idea of
becoming the first
President of the European
Council, a post created in the
Treaty of Lisbon that would come into force
in 2009 if successfully ratified.
Gordon Brown, Blair's successor, added
his support, but noted that it was premature to discuss candidates
before the treaty was approved. A spokesman for Tony Blair did not
rule out Blair's accepting the post, saying he was concentrating on
his current role in the Middle East. Some believe he is unlikely to
take the position, as it comes with few powers. Blair was later
invited to speak on European issues at a rally of Sarkozy's party,
the
Union for a Popular
Movement, on 12 January 2008—which fuelled speculation
further.
Initially, Blair has been the most common name connected with the
post. Touted as far back as 2002, rumours have re-emerged since his
resignation. In June 2007, French president
Nicolas Sarkozy was the first leader to
propose that Blair be the first president, support that was
reiterated in October 2007 following an agreement on the
Treaty of Lisbon. However, on 29 October
2009 even the French President who was the first European leader to
endorse Tony Blair for the job indicated that now he regards other
candidates as more viable.
Opposition to Tony Blair's candidature for the job of the President
is building very rapidly. In the UK, both Tories and Liberal
Democrats have said they would oppose Blair. In Germany, the leader
of the Free Democrats,
Guido
Westerwelle, who is also Germany's new foreign minister, has
said that he prefers a candidate from a smaller European country.
The chief whip of Germany's Free Democrats which is a part of the
ruling coalition in Germany,
Joerg van
Essen, has cast doubt on the suitability of British former
Prime Minister to be the President of the European Council. The
Prime Minister of Luxembourg,
Jean-Claude Juncker, has emerged as a
serious rival to Tony Blair's candidature and has the backing for
many of the smaller European member states. Following the EU summit
at Brussels on 29 October 2009 where EU leaders also held
discussions on who will fill the post of full-time President that
the
Lisbon Treaty would create, even
Downing Street was less upbeat. The BBC reported that Downing
Street has signalled that a defeat for Mr Blair's candidacy was now
"a clear possibility". Spain's Prime Minister
Jose Luis Zapatero failed to endorse Mr
Blair. Austrian Chancellor
Werner
Fayman, who will be one of the three on the panel to decide on
a short-list for prospective candidates dealt a serious blow to
Blair's candidature by announcing that candidates should have a
good relationship with US President Barack Obama and not be equated
to a good working relationship with former US President George
Bush. Tony Blair's lack of progress in his current job as
Middle-East envoy in the Israel-Palestine issue and his past
involvement on a wide variety of subjects relating primarily to
Iraq and Afghanistan made him deeply unpopular not only in the UK
but also in some of the largest EU countries namely Germany, France
and Spain.
Charity
On 14 November 2007, Blair launched the Tony Blair Sports
Foundation, which aims to "increase childhood participation in
sports activities, especially in the North East of England, where a
larger proportion of children are socially excluded, and to promote
overall health and prevent childhood obesity." On 30 May 2008,
Blair launched the
Tony
Blair Faith Foundation as a vehicle for encouraging different
faiths to join together in promoting respect and understanding, as
well as working to tackle poverty. Reflecting Blair's own faith but
not dedicated to any particular religion, the Foundation aims to
"show how faith is a powerful force for good in the modern world".
In February 2009, he applied to set up a charity called the Tony
Blair Africa Governance Initiative, the application was approved in
November 2009.
Honours
In May 2007, before his resignation, it was reported that Blair
would be offered a Knighthood in the
Order of the Thistle, rather than the
Order of the Garter, owing to
his Scottish connections. No such move has been reported since, and
on
St. Andrew's Day, the Queen
appointed two men to the only openings in the limited Order.
On 22 May
2008, Blair received an honorary law doctorate from Queen's
University Belfast
, alongside former taoiseach Bertie
Ahern, for distinction in public service and roles in the
Northern Ireland peace
process.
On 13 January 2009, Blair was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
by President
George W. Bush.
Bush stated that Blair was given the award
"in recognition of exemplary achievement and to convey the utmost
esteem of the American people" and cited Blair's support for the
"War on Terror" and his role in
achieving peace in Northern Ireland
as two reasons for justifying his being presented
with the award.
On 16 February 2009, Blair was awarded the
Dan David Prize by Tel Aviv University for
"exceptional leadership and steadfast determination in helping to
engineer agreements and forge lasting solutions to areas in
conflict". He was awarded the prize in May 2009.
Relationship with media
Rupert Murdoch
Tony Blair's close relationship with
Rupert Murdoch, and the reciprocated
unprecedented support which he received from Murdoch's globally
influential
News Corporation media
empire, has been the subject of much criticism. In 1995, while
leader of the Opposition, Blair disclosed in the Commons register
of interests that he was a guest of Murdoch when he flew to meet
him in
Hayman Island.
Contacts with UK media proprietors
A
Cabinet
Office
freedom of
information response, released the day after Blair handed over
power to Gordon Brown, documents Blair
having various official phone calls and meetings with Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation and Richard Desmond of Northern and Shell
Media.
The response includes contacts "clearly of an official nature" in
the specified period, but excludes contacts "not clearly of an
official nature." No details were given of the subjects
discussed.In the period between September 2002 and April 2005,
Blair and Murdoch are documented speaking 6 times; three times in
the 9 days before the
Iraq war, including
the eve of the 20 March US and UK invasion, and on 29 January, 25
April and 3 October 2004. Between January 2003 and February 2004,
Blair had three meetings with Richard Desmond; on 29 January and 3
September 2003 and 23 February 2004.
The information was disclosed after a three and a half year battle
by the
Lib Dem Lord Avebury. Lord Avebury's initial October
2003 information request was dismissed by then leader of the Lords,
Baroness Amos.
A following complaint
was rejected, with Downing
Street
claiming the information compromised free and frank
discussions, while Cabinet
Office
claimed releasing the timing of the PM's contacts
with individuals is undesirable, as it might lead to the content of
the discussions being disclosed. While awaiting a following
appeal from Lord Avebury, the cabinet office announced that it
would release the information.Lord Avebury said: "The public can
now scrutinise the timing of his (Murdoch's) contacts with the
former Prime Minister, to see whether they can be linked to events
in the outside world."
Media portrayal
Tony Blair is acknowledged by most to be a highly skilful media
performer who comes over as charismatic, informal, and articulate.
A few months after becoming Prime Minister he gave a tribute to
Diana, Princess of Wales on
the morning of her death in August 1997, in which he famously
described her as "the People's Princess".
After taking office in 1997, Blair gave particular prominence to
his press secretary, who became known as the
Prime Minister's Official
Spokesman (the two roles have since been separated). Blair's
first PMOS was
Alastair Campbell,
who served in that role from May 1997 to 8 June 2001, after which
he served as the Prime Minister's Director of Communications and
Strategy until his resignation on 29 August 2003 in the aftermath
of the
Hutton Inquiry. Campbell
acquired a reputation as a sinister and
Machiavellian figure, and both Blair and
Campbell have frequently been criticised or
satirised for their allegedly excessive use of "spin"
and
news management techniques
(see below under
Criticism).
Criticism
Blair was criticised, including by former members of his own
cabinet, for his solid stance alongside U.S. President
George W. Bush
on Middle East policy, in particular over the
Iraq War, the
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict,
and the
Israel/Palestine
issue.
Journalists and veteran's relatives are pressing for Blair's arrest
and prosecution for
warcrimes and launching
a
war of aggression against
Iraq.
He is accused of having eroded
civil
liberties with
authoriarian
legislation: increasing police powers by needlessly adding to the
number of
arrestable offences,
compulsory
DNA
recording and the use of dispersal orders.
Blair was accused of excessive reliance on
spin, labelled by his predecessor
John Major "the porn of politics". He is the
first British Prime Minister to have been formally questioned by
police, though not
under caution,
while still in office.
Relationship with Gordon Brown
After the
death of John Smith in
1994, Blair and his close colleague Gordon
Brown (they shared an office at the House of
Commons
) were both seen as possible candidates for the
party leadership. They agreed not to stand against each
other, it is said, as part of a supposed Blair-Brown pact. The
latter, who considered himself senior of the two, understood Blair
would give way to him: opinion polls soon indicated, however, that
Blair appeared to enjoy greater support among voters. Their
relationship in power became so turbulent that the
deputy prime minister John Prescott often, it was reported, had to
act as "marriage guidance counsellor".
Religious faith
On 22 December 2007, it was disclosed that Blair had converted to
the
Roman Catholic faith, and that
it was "a private matter". He had informed
Pope Benedict XVI on 23 June 2007 that he
wanted to become Roman Catholic. The Pope and his advisors
criticised some of Blair's political actions, but followed up with
a reportedly unprecedented red-carpet welcome that included
Archbishop of Westminster
Cormac Cardinal
Murphy-O'Connor, who would be responsible for Blair's
Catholic
instruction.
Blair had previously rarely discussed his
religious faith in public, but had often been
identified as an
Anglo-Catholic—that is, a member of the
high church branch of the
Church of England, sympathetic to the
beliefs and practices of the
Roman
Catholic Church.
His wife Cherie
Booth is a practising Roman Catholic, and Blair had attended
Catholic Masses at Westminster Cathedral
, with his family at Number 10
Downing Street
, and also while on holiday in Italy. During
one such visit to that country, on 22 February 2003, when he met
with
Pope John Paul II, Blair and
his wife stayed at the
Irish
College in Rome. In 1996, he was reprimanded by
Basil Cardinal Hume for receiving
Holy Communion at Mass despite not being a
Roman Catholic, a contravention of Catholic Canon Law.
In an interview with
Michael
Parkinson broadcast on
ITV1 on 4 March
2006, Blair referred to the role of his
Christian faith in his decision to go to war in
Iraq, stating that he had
prayed about the
issue, and saying that God would judge him for his decision:
"I
think if you have faith about these things, you realise that
judgement is made by other people … and if you believe in God, it's
made by God as well."
A longer exploration of his faith can be found in an interview with
Third Way Magazine. He
says there that "I was brought up as [a Christian], but I was not
in any real sense a practising one until I went to Oxford. There
was an Australian priest at the same college as me who got me
interested again. In a sense, it was a rediscovery of religion as
something living, that was about the world around me rather than
some sort of special one-to-one relationship with a remote Being on
high. Suddenly I began to see its social relevance. I began to make
sense of the world". The death of Blair's mother Hazel in 1975 is
said to have greatly affected him and prompted his renewed
spiritual commitment whilst at Oxford.
These comments prompted a number of questions on Blair's faith. At
one point
Alastair Campbell,
Blair's director of strategy and communications, intervened in an
interview, preventing the Prime Minister from answering a question
about his Christianity, explaining, "We don't do God".
Cherie Blair's friend and "spiritual guru"
Carole Caplin is credited with introducing her
and her husband to various
New Age symbols
and beliefs, including "magic pendants" known as "BioElectric
Shields". The most controversial of the Blairs' New Age practices
occurred when on holiday in Mexico. The couple, wearing only
bathing costumes, took part in a rebirthing procedure that involved
smearing mud and fruit over each others' bodies while sitting in a
steam bath.
Later on, Blair questioned the Pope's attitude towards
homosexuality, arguing that religious leaders must start
"rethinking" the issue. He was later rebuked by
Vincent Nichols, the new archbishop of
Westminster, who said that Catholic thinking was 'rather different'
from the kind promoted by the former prime minister.
On 14
January 2009 Blair, upon a visit to the British Embassy in Washington,
D.C.
, described, in the guest book, his home as being
'Jerusalem'. This was followed shortly after, on the
occasion of his addressing of the National Prayer Breakfast, by his
discussion of the issue of religion in the world and the Middle
East peace process in his address and how he spends so much of his
time in the Holy Land and in the Holy City. He reported his
Palestianian guide as bemoaning the fate of his nation looking to
heaven and saying “Moses, Jesus, Mohammed: why did they all have to
come here?” For Blair the Holy City is "a good place to reflect on
religion: a source of so much inspiration; an excuse for so much
evil."
Policies
The Labour Party is historically a
socialist political party. In 2001, Tony Blair
said, "We are a
left of centre party,
pursuing economic prosperity and social justice as partners and not
as opposites".Blair has rarely applied such labels to himself, but
he promised before the 1997 election that New Labour would govern
"from the radical centre", and according to one lifelong Labour
Party member, has always described himself as a
social democrat. However, Labour Party
backbenchers and other left wing critics typically place Blair to
the
right of centre. A
YouGov opinion poll in 2005 also found that a small
majority of British voters, including many New Labour supporters,
place Blair on the right of the political spectrum. The
Financial Times on the
other hand has argued that Blair is not
conservative, but instead a
populist. Curiously though, and perhaps
contradictorily, in the new
Clause IV of
the Labour Party's constitution written by Blair personally, the
party is defined a "Democratic Socialist" party.
Critics and admirers tend to agree that Blair's electoral success
was based on his ability to occupy the centre ground and appeal to
voters across the political spectrum, to the extent that he has
been fundamentally at odds with traditional Labour Party values.
Some left wing critics have argued that Blair has overseen the
final stage of a long term shift of the Labour Party to the right,
and that very little now remains of a Labour Left. There is also
evidence that Blair's long term dominance of the centre has forced
his Conservative opponents to shift a long distance to the left, in
order to challenge his
hegemony
there.
Blair has raised taxes (but did not increase income tax for
high-earners); introduced a minimum wage and some new employment
rights (while keeping Margaret Thatcher's trade union legislation);
introduced significant constitutional reforms; promoted new rights
for gay people in the
Civil
Partnership Act 2004; and signed treaties integrating Britain
more closely with the EU. He introduced substantial
market-based reforms in the education and
health sectors; introduced student tuition fees; sought to reduce
certain categories of welfare payments, and introduced tough
anti-terrorism and
identity card legislation.
Environmental record
Tony Blair has criticised other governments for not doing enough to
solve global
climate change. In a
1997 visit to the United States, he made a comment on "great
industrialised nations" that fail to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. Again in 2003, Blair went before the
United States Congress and said that
climate change "cannot be ignored", insisting "we need to go beyond
even
Kyoto." His record at home tends
to say something different. Tony Blair and his party have promised
a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide but during his term the emissions
rose. The Labour Party also claimed that by 2010 10% of the energy
would come from renewable resources but in fact only 3% currently
does.
In 2000 Blair "flagged up" 100 million euros for green policies and
urged environmentalists and businesses to work together.
Foreign policy
Relationship with the United States
Along with enjoying a close relationship with
Bill Clinton during the latter's time in
office, Blair formed a strong political alliance with
George W. Bush,
particularly in the area of foreign policy. At one point,
Nelson Mandela described Blair as "the U.S.
foreign minister". Blair has also often openly been referred to as
"Bush's poodle".
Kendall Myers,
a senior analyst at the State
Department
, reportedly said that he felt "a little ashamed" of
Bush's treatment of the Prime Minister and that his attempts to
influence U.S.
government policy were typically ignored: "It was a done deal
from the beginning, it was a one-sided relationship that was
entered into with open eyes... There was nothing, no
payback, no sense of reciprocity".
For his part, Bush lauded Blair and the UK. In his post-
11 September speech, for example, he
stated that "America has no truer friend than Great Britain".
The alliance between Bush and Blair seriously damaged Blair's
standing in the eyes of many
UK
citizens. Blair argued it is in Britain's interest to "protect
and strengthen the bond" with the United States regardless of who
is in the White House. However, a perception of one-sided
compromising personal and political closeness led to serious
discussion of the term "Poodle-ism" in the UK media, to describe
the "
Special Relationship" of
the UK government and Prime Minister with the US White House and
President. A revealing conversation between Bush and Blair, with
the former addressing the latter as "Yo, Blair" was recorded when
they did not know a microphone was live at the G8 conference in
Russia in 2006.
Middle East policy and links with Israel
According to comments in the book,
Blair, written by
Anthony Seldon, Blair had a deep
feeling for Israel, born in part from his faith. Blair has been a
long time member of the Pro-Israel lobby group
Labour Friends of Israel
In 1994, Blair met
Michael
Levy, later Lord Levy, a
pop music
mogul and fundraiser. Blair and Levy soon became close friends and
tennis partners. Levy ran the Labour Leader's
Office Fund to finance Blair's campaign before the 1997 General
Election and raised £12m towards Labour’s landslide victory, Levy
was rewarded by Blair with a
peerage, and
in 2002, just prior to the Iraq War, Blair appointed Levy as his
personal envoy to the Middle East. Levy praised Blair for his
'solid and committed support of the State of Israel'. Tam Dalyell,
while
Father of the House of
Commons, suggested in 2003 that Blair's foreign policy decisions
were unduly influenced by a
cabal of Jewish
advisers, including Levy and Peter Mandelson. In response Mandelson
said: "Apart from the fact that I am
not actually Jewish, I wear my
father's parentage with pride."
Blair, on coming to office, had been 'cool towards the right-wing
Netanyahu government'. Yet with
the election in 1999 of an
Israeli
Labour prime minister
Ehud Barak,
with whom Blair 'forged a close relationship', he became 'much more
sympathetic to Israel, guided in part by
Manning's enthusiasm for generating momentum
in the
peace process'.
From 2001 Blair also 'worked hard at building a relationship, with
some success', with Barak's successor,
Ariel Sharon. He also 'responded positively to
Arafat, whom he had met thirteen times
since becoming prime minister', 'regarding him as essential to
future negotiations'. 'By April 2002, Blair believed he was making
progress.
Bush's statement of 4
April, in which he urged Sharon to withdraw from Palestinian cities
recently occupied and halt further incursions into
Palestinian-controlled areas, proved the highpoint of Bush's
toughness with the Israeli Prime Minister.' 'By the beginning of
2003, Blair redoubled his efforts to shift Bush on the Middle East
policy process', which 'finally paid off when, on 14 March, Bush
announced that the road map would be published as soon as
Abu Mazen, the new Palestinian Prime Minister, was
installed. Palestinian independence by 2005, to which Bush secured
Sharon's agreement, was the goal.' According to
Anthony Seldon: 'None of these proposals
would have been finalised, least of all so quickly, without Blair's
pressing.'
In 2004,
50 former diplomats, including ambassadors to Baghdad
and Tel
Aviv
, stated they had 'watched with deepening concern'
at Britain following the U.S. into war in Iraq in 2003 also
stating, 'We feel the time has come to make our anxieties public,
in the hope that they will be addressed in parliament and will lead
to a fundamental reassessment,' and asked Blair to exert 'real
influence as a loyal ally'. The ambassadors also accused the
allies of having 'no effective plan' for the aftermath of the
invasion of Iraq and the apparent disregard for the lives of Iraqi
civilians.
The diplomats also criticised Blair for his
support for the road map which
included the retaining of settlements on the West Bank
stating, 'Our dismay at this backward step is
heightened by the fact that you yourself seem to have endorsed it,
abandoning the principles which for nearly four decades have guided
international efforts to restore peace in the Holy
Land'.
In 2006 Blair was criticised for his failure to immediately call
for a ceasefire in the
2006
Israel-Lebanon conflict, with members of his
cabinet openly criticising Israel.
Jack Straw, the
Leader of the House of
Commons and former
Foreign
Secretary stated that Israel's actions risked destabilising all
of Lebanon. Kim Howells, a minister in the Foreign Office, stated
that it was 'very difficult to understand the kind of military
tactics used by Israel'; 'These are not surgical strikes but have
instead caused death and misery amongst innocent civilians.'.
The Observer newspaper claimed
that at a cabinet meeting before Blair left for a summit with Bush
on 28 July 2006, a significant number of ministers pressured Blair
to publicly criticise Israel over the scale of deaths and
destruction in Lebanon. In an interview with the BBC regarding the
situation, Blair was quoted as saying, "Let us make sure with
urgency we can stop this situation which is killing innocent
people. Yet there had to be a long-term solution".
Relationship with Labour Party
Blair's apparent refusal to set a date for his departure was
criticised by the British press and Members of Parliament. It has
been reported that a number of cabinet ministers believed that
Blair's timely departure from office would be required to be able
to win a fourth election. Some ministers viewed Blair's
announcement of policy initiatives in September 2006 as an attempt
to draw attention away from these issues.
Upon his return from
his holiday in the West
Indies
he announced that all the speculation about his
leaving must stop. This stirred not only his traditional
critics but also traditional party loyalists.
The government under Blair introduced social policies supported by
the left of the Labour Party, such as the
minimum wage and measures to reduce
child poverty, he was seen by some as being to the
right of the party on economic and management issues.
Blair forged friendships with several conservative European
leaders, including
Silvio
Berlusconi of Italy,
Angela Merkel
of Germany and more recently
Nicolas
Sarkozy of France. This earned him criticism from trade union
leaders within the Labour Party, most notably over the political
alliance with Berlusconi who was engaged in disputes with Italian
trade unions.
Portrayals and cameo appearances
Appearances
Blair made an animated
cameo
appearance as himself in
The
Simpsons episode, "
The
Regina Monologues" (2003). He has also appeared himself at the
end of the first episode of
The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard, a
British TV series about an unknown housewife becoming Prime
Minister. On 14 March 2007, Blair appeared as a celebrity judge on
Masterchef goes Large after
contestants had to prepare a three course meal in the Downing
Street kitchens for Tony Blair and
Bertie
Ahern. On 16 March 2007, in a comedy sketch with
Catherine Tate, who appeared in the guise of
her character
Lauren Cooper from
The Catherine Tate
Show. The sketch was made for the
BBC
Red Nose Day fundraising programme of
2007. During the sketch, Blair used Lauren's catchphrase "Am I
bovvered?".
Portrayals
Michael Sheen has portrayed Blair
twice, in the films
The
Deal (2003) and
The
Queen (2006), and shall reprise the role once more in
The Special
Relationship. Blair was portrayed by
Robert Lindsay in the TV programme
A Very Social Secretary; he reprised the role in
The Trial of Tony
Blair. He was also portrayed by
James Larkin in
The Government
Inspector (2005), and by
Ioan
Gruffudd in
W. (2008).
Blair in fiction and satire
The Ghost
When
Blair resigned as Prime Minister, Robert Harris, a former Fleet Street
political editor, dropped his other work to write
The Ghost. The
CIA-influenced British prime minister in the book is said to be a
thinly disguised version of Blair.In November 2007 it was announced
that
Roman Polanski was to direct the
film version of the novel, and
would be writing the script with Harris. In 2009 the film was still
in production and the release date unknown.
In music
The band
Chumbawamba released a free
single in 1999 which they describe as "an attack" against Tony
Blair. The rapper
Life, released a
track titled "Bush and Blair" which included the lyric "This world
it ain't fair, Bush 'n' Blair, they don't care, hope you'll all be
aware".
Titles and honours
Styles from 1983 election
- Mr Anthony Charles Lynton Blair MP (1983–1994)
- The Rt Hon Anthony Charles
Lynton Blair MP (1994–2007)
- The Rt Hon Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (2007–)
Honours
Works
- Blair, Tony (2002). The Courage of Our Convictions
Fabian Society, ISBN
0-7163-0603-4
- Blair, Tony (2000). Superpower: Not Superstate?
(Federal Trust European Essays) Federal Trust for
Education & Research, ISBN 1-903403-25-1
- Blair, Tony (1998). The Third Way: New Politics for the New
Century Fabian Society, ISBN
0-7163-0588-7
- Blair, Tony (1998). Leading the Way: New Vision for Local
Government Institute for Public Policy
Research, ISBN 1-86030-075-8
- Blair, Tony (1997). New Britain: My Vision of a Young
Country Basic Books, ISBN
0-8133-3338-5
- Blair, Tony (1995). Let Us Face the Future Fabian Society, ISBN 0-7163-0571-2
- Blair, Tony (1994). What Price Safe Society? Fabian Society, ISBN 0-7163-0562-3
- Blair, Tony (1994). Socialism Fabian Society, ISBN 0-7163-0565-8
See also
Notes
-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/election97/background/parties/harpbla.htm
- British Politics: Labour Manifesto (1997)
- Blair loyalists insist centre ground is key to
election victory | Politics | The Guardian
- Blair: The Inside Story BBC 22 February 2007.
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7427809.stm BBC News
Blair launches faith foundation
- Blair: 'Why adoption is close to my heart', 21
December 2000, The Guardian
- Nethermere Ltd v
Gardiner [1983] ICR 319
- see also, Thomas Marshall Ltd v
Guinle [1979] Ch 227; Methven v Cow Industrial
Polymers Ltd [1980] ICR 463; Miss
World Ltd v James Street Productions Ltd [1981] FSR
309
- Blair caught up in private tutor row
-
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/article6832096.ece
-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/oct/20/labour.politics
- BBC Archive
- BBC News Archive, "1998: Northern Ireland peace deal
reached"
- Philip Stephens, "Blair’s remarkable record", Financial
Times, 10 May 2007
- Telegraph.co.uk.Omagh, Northern Ireland's worst
atrocity.24/12/2007
- Malaysian former PM Mahathir accuses Tony Blair as
war criminal_English_Xinhua
- Pinter demands war crimes trial for Blair | World
news | guardian.co.uk
- Ian Kershaw, "How will history judge Blair?", BBC News, 10 May
2007.
- Timothy Garton Ash, "President Blair: Americans love our leader but may
cause his downfall", The Guardian, 24 July 2003
- Blair a casualty of U.K. support for Iraq war,
The Washington Times, 8 November
2003
- Diplomat's suppressed document lays bare the lies
behind Iraq war, The Independent, 15 December
2006
- PM misled House on Iraq arms, says Cook,
Sydney Morning Herald, 6 October
2003
- Blair Risked Much in Support of U.S.-U.K.
Friendship, National Public Radio, 9 May 2007
- Talk of war dents Blair's popularity, Daily
Telegraph, 17 February 2003
- Tony Blair: Highs and lows, BBC News, 10 May 2007
- Pressure on Blair Mounts as 8 Aides Resign,
New York
Times, 7 September 2006
- Tony Blair to Resign in a Year, ABC News, 7 September 2006
- The End of the Tony Show, Der Spiegel, 10 May
2007
- Tony Blair's Last Hurrah, US News & World
Report, 10 May 2007
- Israel may ease grip in Tony Blair deal to revive
West Bank, The Times 14 May 2008
- As Gaza is torn apart by war, where is Middle East
peace envoy Tony Blair? He's been on HOLIDAY
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7180306.stm
- Hencke, David (29 January 2008) Insurance job takes Blair's earnings above £7m,
The
Guardian
- Lectures see Tony Blair earnings jump over £12m -
Times Online
- People: Tony Blair’s earnings are £12m a year |
News | The First Post
- AFP (2007). Blair charms France's ruling party amid talk of EU
top job. Retrieved 13 January 2008.
- cite news | last=Blair | first=Tony | title=German party cool
on Blair for EU | date=28 October 2009 | publisher=BBC World
Service News |
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8329554.stm}}
- cite news | last=Blair | first=Tony | title=Downing Street is
less optimistic about Blair campaign to become EU President |
date=29 October 2009 | publisher=BBC World Service News |
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8333192.stm}}
- Tony Blair Sports Foundation
- "Mission statement", Tony Blair Faith
Foundation, 30 May 2008.
- Bush gives Blair highest US civilian honour |
Politics | guardian.co.uk
- For services rendered? George Bush awards 'staunch
friend' Tony Blair Presidential Medal Of Freedom | Mail
Online
- President Bush awards Tony Blair Presidential Medal
of Freedom - Times Online
- Blair wins Dan David Prize | JTA - Jewish &
Israel News
- RFI - Blair's peace-broker prize surreal, say anti-war
campaigners
- Gaby Hinsliff, "The PM, the mogul and the secret agenda",
The Observer, 23 July 2006
- Michael White, "Blair risks 'poodle' jibes to join Murdoch's
jamboree", The Guardian, 29 July 2006
- Peter Watt, "The 'Complex' Issue of 'Humanitarian' Intervention",
ZNet, 6 August 2006
-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/26/making-blair-eu-president-crazy
"one of the two greatest living mass murderers on earth"
-
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6873691.ece
"Blair is a war criminal, bereaved parents tell inquiry"
- Jon Silverman, Legal affairs analyst, "Blair's new look civil liberties", BBC News,
14 May 2007
- "Blair's spin is the porn of politics, says
Major", The Telegraph, 24 October 2003
- "Blair questioned in honours probe", BBC
News, 14 December 2006
- A MORI opinion
poll published in the The Sunday Times on 15 May found that
among the general public, Blair had the support of 32%, John
Prescott, 19%, Margaret Beckett 14%, Gordon Brown 9%, and
Robin Cook
5%.
- Electric Review 23 February 2003
- "Ev'rybody must get stones", The Observer, 8
December 2002
- How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World, Francis Wheen, Harper
Perennial 2004, ISBN 0-00-714097-5
- Blair questions Papal gay policy
- Catholic leader's rebuke for Blair
- http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/8558 Tony Blair addresses
Obama's first annual National Prayer Breakfast
- Polly Toynbee, Michael White and Patrick Wintour "We're a left-of-centre party pursuing prosperity
and social justice", The Guardian, 11 September
2001
- "The Death of Socialism", 17 May 2007
- Neal Lawson, "A decade of Blair has left the Labour party on its
knees", The Guardian, 19 April 2007
- YouGov UK Polling Report, Left vs Right, 23 September 2005
- Peter Kellner, "What's
left of the Labour leader?", New Stateman, 28 October
2002
- "Why Blair was no conservative", Financial
Times, 18 May 2007
- Steve Richards, "Blair the politician: A conjuror who lost touch
with his party", The Belfast Telegraph, 11 May
2007
- Mike Marquesee, "Labour's long march to the right",
International Socialism, Issue 91, Summer 2001
- Charlie Kimber, "Can the left reclaim the Labour Party?",
Socialist Worker, 2 August 2002
- Mark Rice-Oxley, "Tony Blair's decade of peace and war", The
Christian Science Monitor, 11 May 2007
- Alan Cowell, "Tory leader urges British opposition to stake out 'center
ground'", International Herald Tribune, 1 October
2006
- This government has been the most rightwing since
the second world war
- Brookings 18 Nov 2003 retrieved 16 April 2008
http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2003/1118energy_sandalow.aspx
- farsham house group 11 Feb 2005 retrieved 16 April 2008
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=9530
- BBC News Oct, 24, 2000 retrieved 17 April 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/988089.stm
- Hugo Young: Blair has not been a poodle, but
poodleism still beckons | World news | The Guardian
- BBC News
- Anthony Seldon, Blair, (London: Free Press, 2005), p.
506.
- Assaf Uni, Finance scandal has local community worried,
Haaretz, 10 December
2007.
- Ned Temko, Behind-the-scenes group's unerring knack of backing
the right man, The Guardian, 2 December 2007.
- Jewish Care, Fundraising Dinner 2006.
-
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dalyell-attacks-jewish-cabal-538006.html
- Seldon, Blair, p. 506.
- Seldon, Blair, p. 618.
- Seldon, Blair, p. 620.
- Diplomats attack Blair's Israel policy,
Guardian Unlimited, Matthew Tempest, 26
April 2004
- Cabinet in open revolt over Blair's Israel
policy, The Observer, 30 July 2006
- BBC News, "Blair attacked over right-wing EU links", 15 March
2002
- Ed Vulliamy, "By their friends shall we know the Sultans of
Bling : Blair's relationships with Berlusconi, Bush and Murdoch
have defined his premiership. Now Merkel is to join the trio",
The Guardian, 27 October 2005
- Martin Kettle, "Why Ségo and Sarko have transfixed the British
left", The Guardian, 28 April 2007
- Masterchef Addict's blog, The Stage,
15/03/2007
- Review in The Guardian
- [1]
- BBC NEWS | Politics | Blair to get US Medal of
Freedom
Further reading
Miscellany
External links