Forthcoming Titles

I am pleased to say that Faber Finds is reissuing my 2001 biography, Tony Blair: Prime Minister, as a paperback and e-book on 20 June. It comes in a plain cigarette wrapper (pictured).
The new edition has a 20,000-word Afterword to cover the 2001-07 period and to provide an assessment of Blair’s record as Prime Minister.
I [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 8 May 2013 at 9:43 pm

The Definition of Blairism

I fear that, in my article for The Independent on Sunday, I broke a rule that I expect my students to observe: first, define your terms. I said that most MPs were Blairites, but my definition of Blairism was inadequate:
The Blairite party’s policies, as well as choice-driven public service reform, include being on the side [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 30 April 2013 at 6:01 pm

Some More Thatcherite Than Others

Great detail in a YouGov poll spotted by Hopi Sen, who sent me this “Skitch”. Among those who thought Thatcher was a great prime minister, Blair is her heir; among those who thought she was terrible, Cameron is.

This is partly a false negative created by Labour supporters who disliked Thatcher and therefore say that Cameron [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 24 April 2013 at 6:42 pm

Top 10 Misquotations

The fabulous misquotation by The New York Times on the day of Lady Thatcher’s death, “Turn if you like; the lady’s not for turning,” suggests another subject for a Top 10. As I argued the other day, what Mrs Thatcher actually said

was one of the best-crafted word plays in modern English speech-writing, transforming the familiar phrase “U-turn” [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 22 April 2013 at 3:30 pm

Blair, like a loose horse in the Grand National

Two notable quotations about Tony Blair this morning. One from Polly Toynbee, and one from Dan Hodges.
She says that Blair and “other old warhorses – John Reid, David Blunkett and Tessa Jowell – … are like loose horses getting in the way of the riders in the Grand National”.
He says that Blair’s comments in the [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 16 April 2013 at 10:50 am

Blair’s Seven Awkward Questions

I see that Jason Cowley, editor of the New Statesman, has beaten me in trying to answer Tony Blair’s seven questions for the Labour Party (Times, pay wall).

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 15 April 2013 at 2:10 pm

British Martialism

I know longform is just a long way of saying long, but sometimes there is a place for long articles, which they do in America but not here so much. They also do them in Australia. Or, at least, David Hayes does them in Inside Story.
He has written a magnificent 6,000-word essay called “Britain’s military [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 14 April 2013 at 10:18 pm

Seven Questions Labour Can’t Answer

Tony Blair’s article for the sumptuous centenary edition of the New Statesman has been widely reported, including by me, as an attack on Ed Miliband for thinking that the centre of British politics has been, or could be, shifted to the left.
So it is, but Blair has said all that before, including in his memoir, [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 11 April 2013 at 1:11 pm

Blair: “I would have given Cameron a run for his money”

Fair and balanced report from Stephanie Baker of Bloomberg on the state of Tony Blair’s post-prime-ministerial assemblage of good works and paid consultancy.

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 5 April 2013 at 9:59 am

Reinventing Blairism

The launch of the What Works Network on Monday was promising. Oliver Letwin and Danny Alexander announced the setting up of four new centres to assess evidence for “what works” in policy on crime, old people, pre-school children and local economies.
The models for these independent centres are Nice, the National Institute for Health and Clinical [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 9 March 2013 at 6:15 pm