Sympathy for Tony Blair

I never thought I would, but I did. Reading Andrew Rawnsley's 'The End Of the Party,' I actually felt a great wave of sympathy for Tony Blair.

I'd put off reading it. 820 pages of New Labour seemed a chore.And the book came out almost a year ago. What's the point? However the Quango rule is one fiction novel, one non-fiction; and the other fiction was 'Cameron:The rise of the New conservatives,' which looked even less appealing. TEOTP looked the lesser of two evils.

I've only read about 50 pages but Rawnsley's book is magnificent. It captures the feeling of 9/11 far better than history book. Reading the words I was transported back to that day almost a decade ago. The absolubte horror. And then the realistation that the world was changed. Maybe not like for our Grandparents when Chamberlain announced war with Germany. But something similar.

George Bush had gone missing. The President, locked up in a bunker by the secret service who had conflicting reports about more attacks, hadn't said anything.
He was also George Bush. "I know they call me the Toxic Texan" he'd told Blair.

His presidency had been a poor one. He'd left the undeliverable Kyoto document unsigned, which was pretty brave, considering that for world leaders Green was the new Black. But instead of a compromise, or even a concession he'd offered nothing.
He was already the 'cowboy' president. "Gaffe" prone to an alarming degree. The left were outraged that their man Al Gore had had his election stolen. Labour had backed Gore. Even including Blair personally, so sure were new Labour that he would win. So far from being Bush's poodle, he was rooting for the Democrats.
Blair wasn't first to meet the new president. That was Chirac.
The first Blair/Bush conference ended with a ridiculous press conference after the summit. When asked what the two leaders had in common Bush said "We both use Colgate toothpaste."
Blair was already a world statesman. And good at that role. Bush looked like an idiot.

So with some justification when the Prime minister arrived at Whitehall on sept 11, he expressed his fears several times. "I hope the Americans don't something knee jerk."
On BBC radio the report of the falling towers ended with the chilling " .. another 10 airliners are in the air and are still unaccounted for."

That was the fear on the day and after. That's what I remember most. The fear that the Americans might declare war on Islam or something. As I drove past the American community school, which was covered with flowers, I really thought that they might. This was war. This might even be nuclear war..Why not? if there's one country on earth that could be hit by nuclear missiles and not made much worse its Afghanistan.
And Bush, whose British media image was the gun totin', sixshooter redneck was just the man to do it.

Blair was desperate to speak to Bush. To express sympathy and also to reassure. But also to try and head off any precipitate action. To try and exert a calming influence on a wounded ally.
Even after his first telephone conversation with the president, when Bush had said ' Don't worry. We're not going to pound sand,' Tony wasn't convinced.
"I need to look him in the eyes." Blair drafted a memo designed to 'steer Bush and keep him on the rails. We should try and get them to agree a measured response, focused on the Taliban, and keeping public support."

Blair could already see this as a world changing event. He was already telling ministers that he knew if this enemy.."had chemical or biological or nuclear weapons, they would use them Use them against our cities without a second thought."

That was the feeling in the country at the time too. That we would be next. That a mushroom cloud would soon float up over Canary Wharf. An Anthrax release at Heathrow. A cargo ship packed end to end with TNT and gas cannisters would detonate in the docks and destroy Liverpool.
And to be fair to Tony Blair, the fact that those things didn't happen is not because the threat didn't exist. Mumbai, Bali, London tube, Madrid train bombings, Moscow airport were successful. Many, many more weren't.. Shoe bomber. The underpants bomber. The liquids on airlines explosives. The bomb in Seattle a few weeks ago. The bombs in Soho. Glasgow airport...
Blair was right about intention. Just wrong about the terrorists capability.

If you think back ten years the west was suddenly under seemingly unprovoked attack. If the intelligence services were saying.. 'Iraq has the weapons the terrorists want..Iraq doesn't like us..It's a way for them to strike out..much like the Libyans in the 1980's. Iraq needs the cash..." then Blair was right to be very concerned.

So that's why I rediscovered sympathy for the former Prime Minster. He didn't know what was coming next and his job was to stop anything coming next at all.

But then he goes and blows it all on the plane to Washington on the very next page..

"The British Ambassador to the United States, Christopher Meyer, was having a screaming fit and threatening to resign . Tony Blair's special chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, had told him that he had been bumped from a seat at the Washington dinner with Bush to make way for Alistair Campbell."

Tony ! .....you spin obsessed monster.

Relaunch of the relaunch of the relaunch

Are we all set for Monday's big "Gordon relaunch" tentatively called Goordoom 19.

Guido rules the waves

Small departure from normal monetary based comment from me. Just wanted to say maximum respect to Guido Fawkes for his revelations about Damian McBride and the sick heart of new Labour.

Our Government, not content with leading us to economic disaster, has at its centre a group of nasty, ignorant and contemptible people; obsessed with hurting the Tories rather than healing the country.

Not only has Guido calmly exposed this (no mean feat to take on the 5th most powerful Government on the planet), but it has also revealed the complicity of much of the mainstream media such as the Telegraph and Mirror journalists in going along with the Government spin merchants.

All power to Guido for the week ahead. The cover up of the original sin always proves more fatal. Blogs are becoming more influential, just see the headlines of all tomorrow's papers.

Banks might lend £50 billion, says Gordon brown

How would he know this?....Gordon Brown predicted on the Jeremy Vine show today that banks would lend an extra £50 billion in the UK this year, helping to bolster the economy etc.

As readers will be aware, this is money ordered by the Brown Bunker to be lent no matter what. Nice that he portrays it in public as if he is making a economist's prediction about loan market improvement....rather than the dictat from central planning that it is. He does not mention that it is the Government projects that will be the recipients either, rather than struggling companies and families.

The end of Pic'n Mix; Woolies bows out?

The Pesto Wire has another flash - apparently Woolies will go into administration, the Stores part tonight. BBC worlwide, the capitalists armed with the licence fee, will buy another piece and the distribution business will carry on as a profitable venture.

Long negotiations with the banks have failed, as they always do unless a company genuinely truns around its cash flows and builds working capital. Peter Mandelson could not help, much like Darling could not help Northern Wreck raising rates on mortgages today - the government is howling into a gale. Perhaps these setbacks will encourage a little more sobriety and less shouty 'saving the world' mouthiness on their part.

However, I have not yet entirely given upn on Woolies. Hilco was trying to buy the stores to sell some to Tesco and keep the profitable ones. It could buy the leases and warehouses out of administration, much like Barclays bought Lehman's having walked away when the company was alive.

At least Deloitte are the administrators, with a bit of luck it will be Lee Manning who is always very keen and good at keeping companies going.

G20 - New Labour rules the World

This may seem like an odd title. but I belive it to be true.

With George Bush overseeing things rather than Barack Obama, there is not much the US can agree too. Further more some of the more outlandish ideas, like moving back to the Gold Standard need to be considered over a period of time.

So what we will be left with is an agreement that something needs to be done. This will be tax cuts for all, which have already been pre-announced, a reduction in interest rates, which also have already been done and an agreement for another meeting to discuss Global financial oversight for February 09 when Obama is in power.

So, in effect, we will have a New Labour meeting. No new news, just a re-hash of what has already been done and put on in a nice spinny manner for public consumption. Sadly, we all know now how ineffective a means of government this is.

I wonder if they will even get Madelson and Campbell to draft the final speeches?