Contemporary history
The Cult of Caro
I have not been a member of the Cult of Caro until now, although I know and admire many people who have been for many years. But this summer I read The Passage of Power, the fourth volume of Robert A Caro’s life of Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Call me simple, or herd-minded, because this is the part, [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 27 August 2012 at 7:57 pm
The Untruth Machine is back
I see that the Guardian-Mail axis has mobilised to counter Tony Blair’s wish to re-engage with British public life. Interestingly, the Guardian’s contribution, by John Harris yesterday, was notably mild and willing to entertain the proposition that Blair might have something to offer.
Even so, it was shot through with the hardening anti-war conviction that no right-thinking [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 18 July 2012 at 4:46 pm
Differing views on the Iraq war, nine years on
My own newspaper, The Independent on Sunday, continues its campaign against the nine-year-old decision to join the US invasion of Iraq on its front page today. I do not agree with my colleagues about this. I think the decision was a noble one, taken democratically and constitutionally.
I did, though, in my review of the fourth [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 24 June 2012 at 11:47 am
Alastair Campbell: “I have never been asked that question before”
We had a terrific evening with Alastair Campbell at the Mile End Group at Queen Mary, University of London, yesterday. The video and transcript are here.* The Pepys of New Labour told how he kept a diary in tiny handwriting full of shorthand and abbreviations in exercise books and scraps of paper including the back of a White House menu.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 21 June 2012 at 4:54 pm
I’ll have that on my gravestone: “Not far wrong”
Me, me, me. The first thing I did when I got a review copy of the fourth volume of Alastair Campbell’s diaries was to look myself up in the index. On 24 September 2001, he wrote: “John Rentoul had a very good line on the ‘psychologically flawed relationship’ and it wasn’t far wrong.”
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 19 June 2012 at 10:08 am
Brown saved by Iraq: Blair had decided to sack him
Remarkable stuff in the fourth volume of Alastair Campbell’s unexpurgated diaries, which are serialised in The Guardian yesterday and tomorrow.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 17 June 2012 at 10:00 pm
He Told You So
One person who has more right than most to claim vindication by history is Bryan Gould (pictured), defeated by John Smith for the Labour leadership in 1992 and who left British politics soon afterwards. I wrote in November that he and Peter Shore, two Labour politicians I knew well in the 1980s and 1990s, had [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 15 June 2012 at 12:40 pm
Cameron and Osborne’s “coming of age”
George Osborne gave an assured performance at the Leveson inquiry today. He was as impressive as Jeremy Hunt was the opposite, and reminded us that you do not become Chancellor at the age of 38 without some raw political talent.
He had no view on Rupert Murdoch’s bid for the whole of BSkyB, except that it [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 11 June 2012 at 10:07 pm
Has He Got History For You
Alastair Campbell is launching the fourth volume of his unexpurgated Diaries at the Mile End Group at Queen Mary, University of London, at 6.30pm on 20 June.
He will be “In Conversation With” me, before taking questions. Details of how to apply for tickets are here.
The Burden of Power completes the quartet of the complete diaries, [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 2 June 2012 at 4:52 pm
“Whom do the voters really want?” (“That’s nice.”)
Fifteen years ago today Tony Blair won the first of three elections. To mark this momentous anniversary, a few things.
1. The man himself has been interviewed by China Daily TV. The story is here, and the video is here, which I do recommend for the interviewer (pictured), who is wonderful. A couple of times he [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 1 May 2012 at 9:45 pm
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