http://blogs.independent.co.uk| Blogs from the Independent newspaper - news, views and features from the world's most free-thinking newspaper| Wed, 22 May 2013 11:41:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2| en hourly 1 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/05/08/forthcoming-titles/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/05/08/forthcoming-titles/#comments Wed, 08 May 2013 20:43:01 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=34785 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 [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/05/08/forthcoming-titles/feed/ 8 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/30/the-definition-of-blairism/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/30/the-definition-of-blairism/#comments Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:01:58 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=34563 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 [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/30/the-definition-of-blairism/feed/ 27 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/24/some-more-thatcherite-than-others/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/24/some-more-thatcherite-than-others/#comments Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:42:48 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=34448 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 [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/24/some-more-thatcherite-than-others/feed/ 2 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/22/top-10-misquotations/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/22/top-10-misquotations/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:30:29 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=34361 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” [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/22/top-10-misquotations/feed/ 8 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/16/blair-like-a-loose-horse-in-the-grand-national/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/16/blair-like-a-loose-horse-in-the-grand-national/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:50:10 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=34187 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 [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/16/blair-like-a-loose-horse-in-the-grand-national/feed/ 16 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/15/blairs-seven-awkward-questions/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/15/blairs-seven-awkward-questions/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:10:22 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=34130 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).]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/15/blairs-seven-awkward-questions/feed/ 7 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/14/british-martialism/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/14/british-martialism/#comments Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:18:04 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=34153 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 [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/14/british-martialism/feed/ 1 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/11/seven-questions-labour-cant-answer/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/11/seven-questions-labour-cant-answer/#comments Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:11:35 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=34071 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, [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/11/seven-questions-labour-cant-answer/feed/ 23 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/05/blair-i-would-have-given-cameron-a-run-for-his-money/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/05/blair-i-would-have-given-cameron-a-run-for-his-money/#comments Fri, 05 Apr 2013 08:59:31 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=33883 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. ]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/04/05/blair-i-would-have-given-cameron-a-run-for-his-money/feed/ 89 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/03/09/reinventing-blairism/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/03/09/reinventing-blairism/#comments Sat, 09 Mar 2013 18:15:08 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=33180 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 [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/03/09/reinventing-blairism/feed/ 1 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/03/06/tony-blair-was-right/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/03/06/tony-blair-was-right/#comments Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:31:38 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=33085 Many thanks to the Queen Mary Labour Society for a good discussion this evening. They invited me to deliver a talk entitled “Tony Blair Was Right” (their choice not mine), and we had a lively and intelligent debate. I reprised themes that will be familiar to readers, such as The Finest Peace-Time Prime Minister of the [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/03/06/tony-blair-was-right/feed/ 8 http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/02/27/blair-on-iraq-on-newsnight-in-full/ http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/02/27/blair-on-iraq-on-newsnight-in-full/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2013 19:21:13 +0000 John Rentoul http://blogs.independent.co.uk/?p=32862 The BBC has put up a video and released a transcript of the rest of Tony Blair’s interview with Kirsty Wark, about 15 minutes long, which will be broadcast on Newsnight tonight. Here is the transcript: 00:00:01: Kirsty: When was the moment that you knew that there were no weapons of mass destruction? 00:00:06: Blair: The moment [...]]]> http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/02/27/blair-on-iraq-on-newsnight-in-full/feed/ 9