A Lesson from The Boss

For the last session of the Blair Government class at Queen Mary, University of London, the students went to see their subject himself at his London office on Friday. This year’s students were eight when Tony Blair became Prime Minister. (Also in the photograph are some of the postgraduates who help with the course and who run the Mile End Group, the contemporary history centre at Queen Mary.)

He had some interesting thoughts on the comparison between his “coalition government” and that of David Cameron and Nick Clegg, but the discussion was confidential, so you will have to wait for the book on which Jon Davis (front left) and I are working, The Blair-Brown Coalition.

With the death of Osama bin Laden at the start of this month, and the departure of the last British troops from Iraq yesterday, the Blair government years do feel more like history. (I was on BBC Radio 5 Live last night trying to give a sane and balanced assessment of Britain’s role in Iraq, but it was a phone-in, so I wasn’t getting much help: the madness starts at 17 mins 20 secs.)

Our venture in ultra-contemporary history is becoming slightly less ultra.

Update: More photos from the seminar here.

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