Volume 65 December 2026-January 2026 : Entertainment

 

“On 2 May 1997, I walked into Downing Street as prime minister for the first time.  I had never held office, not even as the most junior of junior ministers.  It was my first and only job in government.”

Those are Tony Blair`s words, perhaps explaining the complexities he faced as he took office in one of the most powerful states in the world.  A Journey, his autobiography, looks at his life, and the May 1997 to June 2007 period he was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1953, he became the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield in the North East of England as a 30 year old in 1983, the leader of the then official opposition Labour Party in 1994, before his 1997-2007 tenure as the prime minister.

The book gives great insight into 1994 when Blair transformed the traditionally left-wing “democratic socialist” Labour Party into a more centrist, or centre right “New Labour.” 

He then led New Labour to power for a three successive terms after 1997 (a record for Labour), after British politics had been dominated between 1979 and 1997 by the Conservative party, under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

Blair resigned in 2007, early into his third term, replaced as Prime Minister by his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, and the troubled relationship between the two men who transformed the Labour Party is an interesting component of the book.

Blair justifies his changing of Labour strategy, of which he was sternly, criticised for within left-wing political circles, and by the trade unions which had been the bedrock of Labour from its formation, by writing;

“I won three elections. Up to then, Labour had never even won two successive full terms. The longest Labour government had lasted six years. This lasted 13.”

The book reveals that in after winning his first re-election in 2003 Blair promised his Chancellor (Finance Minister) Brown that he would resign before the next general election, to make way for him, but later Blair changed his mind.

Relations between soured, and Brown is said to have attempted to blackmail Blair threatening to call for a Labour Party inquiry into the 2005 ‘cash for honours` controversy during an argument over pension policy.

But the Iraq war, and the global ‘War on Terror,` as well as Blair`s relationship with his United States presidential contemporary, George W Bush, who led the assault on Saddam Hussein in Iraq, is what will get most interested in the book.

Despite global criticism, and the fact that the weapons of mass destruction that Bush and Blair had used as their main reason for invading Iraq in 2003 were never found, Blair remains convicted that they did the right thing.

He still believes that Hussein “had not abandoned the strategy of WMD, but had merely made a tactical decision to put it into abeyance.”

‘A Journey` is a great behind the scenes insight into contemporary history. ENDS

 

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