He is the face of New Labour, engineered the Third Way and led the British Labour Party to three general election victories in a row. For 10 years, he served as Prime Minister, championing the cause of “Middle England”. His legacy is remarkable but it is eclipsed by the war in Iraq. He probably was for Americans, what Barack Obama is for Europeans today. He is Tony Blair.
In his best-seller A Journey, Mr Blair tells his story as a politician and statesman. The son of a fostered Glasgow young communist-turned-Tory candidate, Mr Blair says it is all about leadership and risk-taking. He claims he got much of his power from the aspiration-driven alliance he had built with the people. Mr Blair did not hesitate to circumvent his party whenever and as necessary. The book follows a thematic sequence. Its style is informal with a dose of well-calculated candidness.
Autobiographies are written for a variety of reasons: a confession, a testament or a farewell. This work is above all a vindication for the author’s role in the Iraqi war. The British people have not forgiven him for a costly war based on the premise that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Incidentally, Mr Blair gave the £4.6 million advance payment he got for this book to the Royal British Legion, which looks after military personnel and their families.
He speaks well of all his political contemporaries: Bill Clinton, George Bush Jnr, Vladimir Putin, Nelson Mandela and many others.
He seeks self-aggrandisement by showering praise on others. About Mr Clinton he says his sexual adventure arose out of “his inordinate interest in and curiosity about people”. Mr Bush Jnr saw the world in a simple way: right or wrong. Mr Blair concludes that this “led to decisive leadership”. The former Prime Minister projects himself as a super leader who happens to be also human. He tells us he enjoys his moments on the loo, felt terrorised during Prime Minister’s question time and, at times, depended on alcohol to prop up his spirits.
All in all, Mr Blair comes across as charming, arrogant, maverick. He loved all that Princess Diana represented. He branded her “the people’s princess” who was “the essence of an era” and personified the aura he craved for his New Labour. He considered her and himself to be manipulative, “perceiving quickly the emotions of others and able instinctively to play with them”. Both lived by the media and “died” by the media.
Mr Blair looks good, speaks well and has lots of charisma. He is a fine showman conscious that even buying an ice cream from a street hawker can be a PR exercise. The media initially loved him. Then their love story ended; the media played a big part in Mr Blair’s downfall. They labelled him “Bliar”, the “guardian of capitalism”, a “war criminal” and “Bush’s poodle”. He accuses the media of finding “merciless delight in destruction”.
Mr Blair’s journey intertwines with that of his alter ego, and successor, Gordon Brown. If for the media Mr Blair was all image, Mr Brown was substance. Mr Blair acknowledges New Labour owed a lot to Mr Brown’s intellectual underpinning, drive and commitment. In his book, Mr Blair “patronises” his Chancellor of the Exchequer but admits that Mr Brown was indispensable for his government. There were times when Mr Blair thought of kicking Mr Brown out of Cabinet but concluded that would be political suicide. Unlike him, Mr Brown was well-linked to the party’s grassroots.
Their relationship turned bitter after Mr Blair failed to keep his promise not to stand for the 2005 general election. His excuse was that Mr Brown was not really committed to the agreed domestic reform programme. Their feud did great harm to New Labour and, in 2007, Mr Blair gave way to Mr Brown. The rest is another story.
The raconteur reveals little of his inner self, his real motives and sources of spiritual strength that are required for such a demanding position. He claims he was never obsessed with being Prime Minister. Yet, he obviously found it very hard to leave. His story provides interesting insights but fails to give definite answers. Towards the end of the memoirs, Mr Blair confesses that “I have always been fortunate in having a passion bigger than politics, which is religion”. Regretfully, if this is true, there is nothing throughout the book which shows how religion, or spirituality, helped him in politics or even in taking key decisions. This is a grave omission, especially for someone who felt the need to embrace his wife’s religion and convert to Catholicism.
Mr Blair says he is not yet at the end of his journey. “I have much further to go”. There is no indication as to where the remaining part of the journey will take him. His journey remains marred in controversy but he surely did things his own way. During the only public signing of the book, protesters threw shoes and eggs at him. Will history be more kind in its judgement of one of the most electorally successful party leaders?
Mr Blair concludes it is not that “the power of politics is needed to liberate the people but that the power of people is needed to liberate the politics”. Perhaps, one day, Mr Blair’s epitaph will read “Here rests the people’s prince”.
I wish all readers peace and happiness as we celebrate the birth of the real Prince.
fms18@onvol.net