Blair, Tony

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Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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The Social Construction of Free Trade: The European Union, NAFTA, and Mercosur

ASIN: 0521864712

Book Description

The impacts of climate change are already being observed in a variety of sectors and there is greater clarity that these changes are being caused by human activities, mainly through release of greenhouse gases. In 2005 the UK Government hosted the Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change conference to take an in-depth look at the scientific issues associated with climate change. This volume presents the most recent findings from the leading international scientists that attended the conference. The topics addressed include critical thresholds and key vulnerabilities of the climate system, impacts on human and natural systems, socioeconomic costs and benefits of emissions pathways, and technological options for meeting different stabilisation levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The volume provides invaluable information for researchers in environmental science, climatology, and atmospheric chemistry, policy-makers in governments and environmental organizations, and scientists and engineers in industry.

Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror: Observations and Denunciations by a Founding Member of Monty Python (Nation Books)

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Leave INFORMED political satire to a master
Avoid this book, not funny
Devastatingly funny account of Bush/Blair fiasco
Political satire in the best Swiftian tradition
Shamefull

Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror: Observations and Denunciations by a Founding Member of Monty Python (Nation Books)
Terry Jones
Manufacturer: Nation Books
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Binding: Paperback

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The Greedy Bastard Diary : A Comic Tour of America
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Monty Python's Graham Chapman - Looks Like A Brown Trouser Job

ASIN: 1560256532

Book Description

Terry Jones is known the world over as one of the beloved creators of the legendary Monty Python. But independent of the Python team, Jones has been writing columns targeting the Anglo-American response to September 11. His wit and venom are particularly focused on the messianic vernacular of Bush and Blair and the semantics of the "war on terror." As Jones writes, "What really alarms me about President Bush's `War on Terrorism' is the grammar. How do you wage war on an abstract noun? ... How is `Terrorism' going to surrender? It's well known, in philological circles, that it's very hard for abstract nouns to surrender." Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror proves that in times of high political anxiety, humor and irony are most potent antidotes to the spin emanating from the White House and Downing Street.

Customer Reviews:

Leave INFORMED political satire to a master.......2006-12-15

Jones has the kind of cheek to make almost anything medieval seem fresh and exciting - however, for truly incisive, biting and dead-on accurate contemporary political and cultural commentary read Christopher Hitchens. If we could find a way to weaponize Hitchen's intellectual and verbal firepower within a missile system there would be no more to fear from Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Quaeda, the Baathists, Syrian and Iranian insurgents, or any other group only too happy to strap bombs onto their children and send them into a crowd of civilians.

Read Hitchens, period, literally for anything!

Avoid this book, not funny.......2006-10-06

Ordinarily, I would not take the time to write a review, but if I could get my money and time back for having purchased and read this book, I would. I love Terry Jones' work, along with the rest of the Pythons, and I was excited when the book arrived. I expected something entertaining, and at least insightful, but what I got was one rant, retold a dozen slightly different ways. It's all based on one web site spelling out some possible right wing conspiracy, and the fact that one web site is cited again and again...and again makes me wonder what the publishers thought they had to work with? At the very least, *do not* pay full retail price for this turkey, buy it used or check it at the library.

Devastatingly funny account of Bush/Blair fiasco.......2006-08-29

Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame, prolific writer of fiction and non-fiction, has written a very funny book on current affairs, composed of articles he wrote for the Guardian and the Observer from 2001 to 2004.

He shows the real reason for the attack on Iraq quoting the Project for the New American Century's `Rebuilding America's Defenses 2000': "The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein."

The same report admits, "adversaries like Iran, Iraq, and North Korea are rushing to develop ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons as a deterrent to American intervention in regions they seek to dominate." So they want nukes to deter American aggression - sounds reasonable.

Terry is not very nice to Mr Bush. He cites an undersecretary in Bush's administration as saying, "George Bush was not elected by a majority of the voters in the U.S. [That bit's right, anyway!] He was appointed by God."

So was it God who wanted to take health insurance off four million Americans, and jobs off two million? Did God want to withdraw benefits from working families earning less than $35,000 a year, by cutting Medicaid, supplemental health insurance, nutrition assistance and welfare? CNN reports, "Half of all Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck - effectively one paycheck away from poverty." But then he (He?) balanced all this by generously awarding tax breaks worth $50,000 per person to America's richest one per cent.

It's only fair that Bush's crony Blair gets some stick too. In `Grading Tony's latest essay', Terry writes, "Tony's uncritical acceptance of information supplied by the U.S. reveals a naivety that would be surprising in any sixth-form pupil, let alone one who has hopes of going on to university and then government, as I know Tony does." He ends, "To be quite candid, Mr. and Mrs. Blair, it's lucky that your son is not in a position of power; otherwise his lack of insight and his crass ignorance would place us all in appalling peril." Other classics include, `I'm losing patience with my neighbors, Mr. Bush' and `It really isn't torture'.

Political satire in the best Swiftian tradition.......2006-04-15

This is just what you'd expect from a member of the extraordinarily literate and politically aware Monty Python. Jones shows that the years have not dulled his wit, skewering Bush, Blair and their minions with a thousand razor-sharp barbs, and showing up many of their absurdities by extending them to everyday life. Whether he is debating killing his neighbors because he suspects that they are up to no good or "justifying" the chaining of his son to a radiator because, after all, his _intention_ was to obtain information, not to torture, he makes us unsure whether to laugh or groan at the fact that this _is_ the real world of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al.

Not all of these columns (which they were originally published as) are classics, but they are always informative and most of them take a different perspective on issues that are all too often portrayed by the mainstream media with a mind-numbing sameness. Since they were published at sometimes widely-spaced intervals and of necessity repeat a lot of information, I would recommend not reading the book straight through, but picking it up and reading a chapter or two at a time.

Highly recommended chapters: 1) The Grammar of the War on Terror; 3) A Bag Over the Head is Worth Two for George W. Bush; 10) I'm Losing Patience With My Neighbors, Mr. Bush; 11) How To Bomb and Save Money; 20) If Fish Feel Pain...; 28) The War of Words in Iraq; and 32) It Really Isn't Torture.

Shamefull.......2006-01-20

Why does gifted comedians, actors and music stars think they are automatically gifted with political wisdom?
That TJ was funny in the Monty Python context doesn't a priori give him clout in political thinking, does it?
The left wing raging about Bush and Blair tells me more of Bush and Blair doing things right then the wisdom of a comedian.
The writing might be cloaked in "satire" (aka lefties way of getting away with nonsense) but it's none the less just hate propaganda.
Shame on TJ.

The Unfulfilled Prime Minister: Tony Blair's Quest for a Legacy

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The Unfulfilled Prime Minister: Tony Blair's Quest for a Legacy
Peter Riddell
Manufacturer: Politico's Publishing
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The Survivor: Tony Blair in Peace and War
Politics in Britain

ASIN: 1842751689

Book Description

This informed analysis of Tony Blair's political endgame, by Westminster's best-connected journalist, shows how little the prime minister has managed to achieve in domestic policy during his three terms, and how the war in Iraq has left him isolated in Parliament and mistrusted by the voting public.

The English National Character: The History of an Idea from Edmund Burke to Tony Blair

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The English National Character: The History of an Idea from Edmund Burke to Tony Blair
Peter Mandler
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300120524

Book Description

What kind of people are “the English”? What characteristic traits and behavior (if any) distinguish them from other people? This highly original and wide-ranging book traces the surprisingly varied history of ideas among the English about their own “national character” over the past two centuries.
Two hundred years ago, the very idea of a national character was novel and not very respectable. Today, it is again difficult for the many who think of themselves as unique individuals to imagine a “national character” that binds the English together in a national unit. But in between, as Britain became a democracy, “national character” became part of the national common sense, reflected in depictions of "John Bull" and his twentieth-century successor, the "Little Man," and in a set of stereotypes about English traits, follies, and foibles. Not at all shy to talk about themselves, the English have produced a vast outpouring of material on what it means to be English—material on which this book draws: lectures, sermons, political speeches, journalism, popular and scholarly books, poems and novels and films, satires and cartoons and caricatures, as well as up-to-the-minute social science and public opinion research.
In this comprehensive and lucidly argued book, a leading historian of modern Britain challenges long-held assumptions and familiar stereotypes and proposes an entirely new perspective on what it means to think of oneself as being English.

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How Times Change
Rentoul's Blair
Tony Blair - A Reverent Prime Minister and Politician
TONY BLAIR Prime Minister by John Rentoul

Tony Blair: Prime Minister
John Rentoul
Manufacturer: Warner Books
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0751530824

Customer Reviews:

How Times Change.......2006-05-19

Well five years after publication we find the subject of this book in serious political trouble with members of his own party asking for a date for his resignation. Nobody in the UK believes what he says any longer and his chancellor is waiting in the wings to take over. One star and forget it.

Rentoul's Blair.......2004-10-08

John Rentoul's biography of Tony Blair is a must read for those who want to understand him. The book is scholarly enough to use as a text in comparative politics. It also gives enough character development to understand who Blair is, how he was developed as a man and what Britain's youngest Prime Minister in the 20th century is like.

The text certainly gives a clear view of "The Third Way" philosophy of Blair's tenure which eschews unfettered capitalism and old labor socialism. Rentoul also illuminates Blair's Christian moral beliefs without ignoring the character of a young rock musician.

It is the best biography yet of Britain's most dynamic leader.

Tony Blair - A Reverent Prime Minister and Politician.......2003-04-02

On 4-th of july 1964,Tony was woken by his mother in the morning and as soon as he heard the first words coming out from his mother - he knew that something wasn't right and he was right
about that.
Tony's father had a stroke and it wasn't sure whether he's gonna make it or not.
This day was the day when Tony's childhood ended,a day when his political ambition began, a life which taught him the value of the family and real friends who walked with his family in the worst moments of their lives.

Tony,a child of strict parents about manners :
Was always polite,kind,helpful towards other people and he enjoyed the attention so much so when he is only 16 years old he formed a group named The Pseuds - to act.

Soon, as a 'gifted guitarist' he starts meeting people of the same interest and talked about getting into the music world.
He loved The Rolling Stones and they were going to be the next Led Zeppelin or Free (Tony's most favorite bands).
So...the band "Ugly Rumours" is formed and THE LEAD SINGER-with
a fantastic voice is someone such as : the future prime minister of Great Britain - TONY BLAIR.

...John Rentoul's biography of Tony Blair-(was made to read easy as novel, even though it was Tony's life to make that possible). It is a well-researched book and tells just about everything you'd want to know about Tony Blair.

TONY BLAIR Prime Minister by John Rentoul.......2003-03-19

With the advent of what may become the second Gulf War, Tony Blair-Prime Minister is a comprehensive biography of the leader of America's closest ally. Prime Minister Tony Blair is an unlikely choice to be the foreign leader closest to President George W. Bush. British Journalist, John Rentoul has written about the rise and times of Tony Blair from his roots in a middle class British family to that of a rising socialist politician who became leader of the "New" Labor Party and Prime Minister of Great Britian.

Rentoul traces Blair's family and their political leanings. Blair's father Leo Blair was born to a pair of actors and given to a James and Mary Blair in Glasgow. Leo Blair as a teenager was a member of the Scottish Young Communist League and had ambitions to become a Communist Member of Parliment. However, after service in World War II as a member of the Royal Signal Corps, Leo Blair underwent a political conversion. Upon leaving the military he became a member of the Conservative Party. Leo Blair married Blair's mother Hazel from a strongly Protestant family from County Donegal while working at the Ministry of National Insurance in Glasgow. Leo Blair studied law eventually becoming a lecturer in Administrative Law at the University of Adelaide in Australia and eventually the University of Durham in Durham. Leo Blair eventually became a practicing barrister and active in the local Conservative Party.
Tony Blair was the second of three children. He is described as being the child most like his father Leo.

In the opening chapter of the book it states "Tony Blair's political ambition began at age of eleven, when his father Leo's ended, on 4 July 1964. At the age of forty, at the height of his political powers and looking for a Conservative parlimentary seat, Leo Blair had a stroke."

However, the book indicates that many of Blair's acquaintances during his school and law school years were suprised when he decided to become active in politics. Blair was not a member of any political clubs while in school or in-between. Blair had been a singer and manager of a rock n roll band "The Ugly Rumors", had long hair and a van. Unlike his American political counter parts, he never experimented with drugs, smoked marijuana or was seen drunk. In response to the question of whether he ever smoked marijuana, he said no, but if he had "he would have inhaled" in a jab at his friend President Bill Clinton.
One of the suprising discoveries found in the book about Tony Blair is his Christian Socialism. Unlike many American politicians not much mention has been made of the fact he has been a confirmed Christian since his Oxford days. Moreover, he is the only British Prime Minister since Gladstone known to regularly read the Bible.
Tony Blair and his wife Cherie Blair are as political a couple as the Clintons. Both have worked in local politics and both have run for seats in Parliment. When Blair ran his first successful race for his current seat from the Sedgefield Riding, Cherie was seeking a seat in a "marginal" Labor district or riding. However, after Blair won his first election, Cherie decided to forego elective office as one politician was enough in the family. Since Blair's election in Parliment in 1983, the Blairs have had three children and Cherie has continued her career as a successful barrister.
Over half the book covers Blair's career as leader of the Labor Party and Prime Minister. When he became Prime Minister at age 42, only tweleve years in Parliment, he became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool who became Prime Minister in 1812.
The book is well documented with footnotes after every chapter. Because of its "scholarliness" it may tend to drag at times in the chapters which deal with his years as Prime Minister from May 2, 1997 through the time the book was written in January 2001. As such it chronicles in detail Tony Blair's first term.
In it, the achievements of the first term include the Balkans, Northern Ireland,as well as helping provide a better standard of living for all of Britian.
Blair is described as a "hands-on" Prime Minister, informal but energized and possibly hyper-working on the phone from planes, on vacation and on the weekend.
With as much detail provided of all aspects of Blair's life, TONY BLAIR-Prime Minister gives the reader and the world great insight into Blair's actions now in his second term as Prime Minister.

Pariah: Misfortunes of the British Kingdom
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Pariah: Misfortunes of the British Kingdom
Tom Nairn
Manufacturer: Verso
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1859846572

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Pariah is a retrospect of Tony Blair's recent New Labour plebiscite, so far the most absurd 'election' of the 21st century. After a much-vaunted Constitutional Revolution, overwhelming victory was obtained on less than a quarter of the electoral register, with more people abstaining than voted for Blair. In 2000 the Constitution of the United States collapsed into farce; this year it was the turn of the United Kingdom, as the oldest and most stable of Western democracies turned into a despised pariah of the global age. 'How is Britain breaking up?' asks this book. Is there any chance—or indeed any need—of its being repaired? In this corrosive polemic Nairn argues that democratic and constitutional reform alone provides an answer to such questions. But the longer the British ancien régime endures, the less chance there will be of such changes taking place by agreement. 'Reform or perish' is the moral; but to perish further looks like the only way towards reform.

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The Millennium Dome
Elizabeth Wilhide
Manufacturer: Ted Smart
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0583346952

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A photographic record of the birth & conctruction of the Dome in 192 pages 10 3/4" tall.

The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency

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Why the "special relationship" didn't work for Blair
Bush is his Co-Pilot: Blair, Bush and the Iraq War
Useful account of Blair's links with Bush

The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency
James Naughtie
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
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Binding: Hardcover

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Blair's War

ASIN: 1586482572
Release Date: 2004-09-21

Amazon.com

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was regarded as something of a maverick in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He broke ranks with the majority of his own Labour Party in England, as well as the prevailing opinion among European leaders, to support George W. Bush's plan to topple Saddam Hussein. But according to veteran British newsman James Naughtie, such a maverick approach is completely in character for Blair, who has a long history of sticking with his convictions even if it puts his own popularity at risk. Curiously, that mindset has actually led to a great deal of popularity for Blair, first among the British people and then among American war supporters who lauded Blair for his consistent support of Bush. Contrary to characterizations of Blair being an advocate of invasion purely for political interests or as a victim of neo-conservative brainwashing, Naughtie presents Blair as a man of genuinely independent thought, convinced of not just the viability but the necessity of using force to bring greater security and freedom to the world. The Accidental American focuses heavily on the hours and days following the 9/11 attacks, detailing the urgency Blair felt reacting to the crisis and along the way providing candid (and newsmaking) glimpses inside the corridors of power, such as Colin Powell's characterization of the Dick Cheney-Donald Rumsfeld-Paul Wolfowitz group as "f---ing crazies." While Naughtie interviewed Blair for the book and explains Blair's beliefs and motivations in tremendous detail, the Prime Minister is never laid bare, remaining intriguingly enigmatic throughout. Still, The Accidental American is a valuable look at one of the more fascinating and important figures in modern global politics. --John Moe

Book Description

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair is the most popular foreign leader in the United States, and one whose support for America has made him widely reviled at home. Why did Blair become such an object of fascination here? What are Democrats to make of their old friend's attachment to Bush? In a Europe profoundly skeptical about a new American imperialism, why did Blair decide to face resolutely west across the Atlantic?

To James Naughtie, a renowned British journalist with unparalleled knowledge of Blair and a deep understanding of American politics, the story of our love affair with Blair provides a fascinating mirror on the troubles facing Western democracies, and on America itself. In The Accidental American, the first book about Blair written specifically for American readers, he explores how a politician swept to power by a party once avowedly socialist came to make common cause with American neo-conservatives; and became the gatekeeper between America and Western Europe.

Though Blair has been feted by Congress and is beloved by the White House, his real beliefs about America remain almost unknown. Naughtie has watched Blair close-up for many years and has many contacts inside his circle of friends and advisors. In the tumult of a presidential election year, this book provides a revelatory portrait of a master politician and revelatory insights into the politics and character of our own country.

Customer Reviews:

Why the "special relationship" didn't work for Blair.......2005-03-07

This book represents a great achievement in explaining what drove the seemingly strange pairing of a UK Labour prime minister and a US Republican President on a venture that hardly any other major political leader in the world supported, being the war on terror post 9/11 which ultimately led to the invasion of Iraq and its ongoing occupation at great cost to the occupiers and the Iraqi people.

The writer is a UK political correspondent with great experience of the Labour Party (he has written the best account to date on the Blair relationship with Gordon Brown, whose unwillingness to remain Number Two features to the end of this book) and the US and while he covers the US aspects very well his real story is on the road that led Blair to a policy that few in his party really supported and has since cost him dear in public perceptions of his leadership.

After a rather unfocussed start (where the story seems to be continually jumping around in time) it settles down into an incisive chronological analysis of how Blair having reached his agreement with Brown to be leader then became prime minister without any prior government office experience and with an unassailable parliamentary majority started to develop links with Clinton which then had to be replaced with Bush after his slim victory over Gore.

That both have developed such a strong personal bond despite very different backgrounds and world views is skilfully explained in the context of Bush badly needing Blair to have international credibility for his very US neo-conservative driven strategy and Blair having taken a very personal decision with little input from his Cabinet in seeking a great international issue to grasp. The book gives a very good feel for the inner workings of Blair's "presidential" style of government especially in Cabinet that led to this being so easily done and which Naughtie demonstrates led to Bush underestimating how far Blair had gone out on a limb and was then exposed to UK parliamentary revolt against that decision.

Naughtie includes lots of personal off record comments that flesh out how the end result was Bush and his Executive conceding little to their end gameplan (the book should kill any remaining views of the UK ever being likely to benefit from the much touted "special relationship" unless US and UK interests are aligned on an issue) and Blair having made a personal commitment based on his early views of Islamic revolutionaries then being moulded post 9/11 into a intransigent loner who trusted his instincts and not the counsel of his colleagues and advisers plus other political leaders. The book is worth buying just for the chapter on the failings of the various Intelligence Services and how in the UK their role was to try and provide evidence and justification for a decision which Blair had already made and in which they failed him plus fooled themselves into not providing the clarity that may have stalled (if not stopped) him.

A very unique book with one of the best book covers I have seen in years!

Bush is his Co-Pilot: Blair, Bush and the Iraq War.......2005-01-05

The political behavior of British Prime Minister Tony Blair is something of an enigma - why does he support the American president, so despised in the UK, at great harm to his popularity? Why did he back Bush into the war in Iraq, ostensibly in quest of weapons of mass destructions, even though the UN inspectors urged for more time?

As Blair followed George W. Bush, his popularity in the UK plummeted, his party is in something close to an open revolt, and his standing in Europe has deteriorated. And for all his trouble, it appears that Blair got precious little in return from the American administration. As French President Jacques Chirac recently put it "I am not sure that it is in the nature of our American friends at the moment to return favors systematically."

British journalist James Naughtie, author of another acclaimed book about Tony Blair (the Rivals, about the relationship between Blair and Gordon Brown), tries to answer these questions precisely. His answer is that Blair is a true believer; he believes that the 9/11 has been a wake up call for the world. "I could see this Islamic Extremism... bring about a very dangerous conjunction of terrorism and states that are utterly unstable and repressive" (quoted on p. 203). These views of Blair's antedated 9/11. They were the impetus for his promotion of the Kosovo war. Already in the late 1990s, Blair saw a new international order rising, one based on the struggle against evil. The terrorist threat required a whole new political philosophy:

"Before September 11th the world's view of the justification of military action had been changing. The only clear case in international relations for armed intervention had been self-defence, response to aggression. But the notion of intervening on humanitarian grounds had been gaining currency" But after 9/11, "What had seemed inchoate came together." The need for security required preemptive action. Countries which suppressed freedom, harbored terrorists or had weapons of mass destruction had to be dealt with. In effect, Blair agreed with Condoleezza Rice's claim that "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud".

So is the Labour PM really in accord with Bush, Cheyney and Rumsfeld? In Naughtie's thorough discussion, it is not so simple. There is a great difference between Bush and Blair. Naughtie quotes Blair as saying "I never quite understand what people mean by that neocon thing" (p.71)

That may be the key to explain the great divide between Blair and the Bush administration. Blair may not be aware of the gap, or of its enormity. The Prime Minster believes in the importance of democracy. For him, the military action against Iraq or El Qaeda is only a part of a greater attempt to create international security and peace. "You cannot deal with terrorism security as simply a security issue. You also have to deal with the more compassionate side of the issue... the poverty, the lack of interfaith understanding. All these things need to be part of the agenda." Although Bush and his administration may pay lip service to these ideals, for them internationalism and real international cooperation are anathema. They cannot possibly support them.

In my view, Blair's partnership with Bush committed him to the Bush administration's incompetent, corrupt and extremist policies. Naughtie seems to think that Blair's support was essential or at least important, to Bush (see for example p. 203). But I disagree - in the Bush administration, the moderates, as Paul O'Neal observed, act as cover only. Bush would use Blair for all he is worth - but he would concede nothing in return.

I have much sympathy for the ideology Blair advocates, but Bush is no partner for promoting it. Blair's collaboration with the Bush administration not only diminishes his popularity - it also discredits his cause.

Useful account of Blair's links with Bush.......2004-10-24

James Naughtie, the Today presenter, has written a useful account of Blair's links with the USA, particularly with Bush and his colleagues. Naughtie recalls that when he asked Pentagon insider Richard Perle what came next after Afghanistan, Perle replied, "The really important thing is that there is a next."

So, in January 2002, Bush set the timetable for invading Iraq and told Blair. Blair then promised to join Bush's war, secretly changing government policy from peace to war, without telling anybody.

Naughtie writes that the `bloodstream' of the US-British special relationship is the intelligence linkage. Indeed, the USA's intelligence services are the world's biggest and most expensive. Yet all the US intelligence claims about Iraq's WMD - the uranium oxide bought from Niger, the mobile chemical laboratories - have been proven false. US intelligence was so bad that the CIA's head resigned, and his deputy left too.

The Labour government had all these intelligence resources behind them. Yet their notorious government dossier on WMD was largely pilfered from a ten-year-old PhD thesis! So what, exactly, did Britain gain from this so-special relationship and its precious `bloodstream'?

As a result of the illegal invasion of Iraq, there is now an illegal occupation of Iraq. Naughtie quotes a senior Foreign Office man who described the US's occupation policy as `a catastrophe from beginning to end'.

When Naughtie asked Blair if he agreed with the White House lawyer who said that the Geneva Conventions were `quaint', Blair replied, "Of course not. Neither do the Americans." Typically, Blair was denying the evidence just put in front of him.

Labour's war (for the Labour Party could have stopped it, but didn't even try) has weakened all that it holds dear. The link with the USA is in danger, the EU split, NATO divided, the Labour Party eviscerated, and Parliament, the Foreign Office and the intelligence services all discredited. But worse, Labour's war has made Israel increase its killings, thrown the Middle East into chaos, worsened the risks of terrorism to Britain and elsewhere, and added the danger of endless wars in a `clash of civilisations'.

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A Critical Discussion about the New Labour Party
Good, but needs more depth
Superb overview of 'new Labour'.

The Blair Agenda

Manufacturer: Lawrence & Wishart
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

A Critical Discussion about the New Labour Party.......2002-03-14

This was a good book but I must say that it wasn't really what i expected. This book is a critical study of the policies of the Blair Administration, but it is all left-wing criticism. I expected a more accurate discussion about the New Labour - more detailed information about the policies, and then a critical discussion! However, if you already know something about British politics, and the New Labour, I would assume that you would be interested in this book!

Good, but needs more depth.......1999-07-15

Good, but needs more depth. I am enthusiastic about the Claridge Press's new book "Blair's Britain" (also available through amazon) which goes into the deeper social, cultural and even spiritual implications of what the Blair Revolution is doing. Read the two in tandem if possible to get a complete picture.

Superb overview of 'new Labour'........1999-04-30

I highly recommend this excellent volume to anyone curious about the current state of the British Labour party.

Editor, Mark Perryman has done a masterful job bringing together eleven first rate essays on the topic.

Book Description

American Ally is the definitive account of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's support for the United States in the War on Terror. Drawing on his exclusive access to the key players at the White House and Downing Street, Con Coughlin explains what led Blair to risk his political career for a cause that he truly believed in. Just as Bob Woodward called on insiders to analyze George W. Bush in Bush at War, Coughlin now calls on his own experience and sources to offer a critical analysis and account of Tony Blair at war. </p>

Here is an in-depth, probing look at the man who has become America's first ally in the post-9/11 world. Tony Blair's staunch support for the United States since 9/11 has confirmed his position as one of the most important and controversial world leaders of the twenty-first century. In the aftermath of terrorist attacks in London and with Iraq in turmoil, the relationship between Britain and the United States will be critical in determining how future international crises are resolved. American Ally is an essential read for those wishing to make an informed opinion. </p>

Customer Reviews:

Overly sympathetic account of warmongers.......2006-11-28

This account of Blair's role in Bush's wars contains some useful information, but it is overly sympathetic - Coughlin is executive editor of the Sunday Telegraph - relying on inside sources and interviews with Bush and Blair.

Coughlin reminds us how the government's expensive secret services have let us down. In January 2001, Britain's Secret Intelligence Service said, "The actual threat [from Al Qa'ida] does not match the media hype." And, "Their resources and targets tend to be abroad rather than in Britain."

Blair showed his vast conceit when he said to Bush the day after the war started, "I kind of think that the decisions taken in the next few weeks will determine the rest of the world for years to come. As primary players, we have a chance to shape the issues that are discussed. Both of us will have enormous capital, and a lot of people will be with us."

But Britain's role was dupe, not ally. A senior British intelligence officer said, "We were completely and utterly stuffed by the Americans. We should never trust them again, or until we see a change of attitude from the Bush administration. Forget what they say, it's what they do. They simply didn't take any notice of any advice we gave them. They just did what suited them." So all Blair's warm words about Palestine are just chaff. Coughlin gullibly writes, "Blair succeeded in getting Bush to make a public commitment to establish a Palestinian state before the end of his second term."

On weapons of mass destruction, Blair said as late as September 2003, "I have absolutely no doubt that evidence will be found and I have absolutely no doubt [again!] that it exists."

An Al Qa'ida leader said, "prolonging the war is in our interest." Blair wants the same - he said, "I have absolutely no doubt [again!] as to what we should do. We should stick with it. There is absolutely no doubt [and again!] in my mind that what is happening in Iraq is crucial for our own security. Never mind the security of Iraq or the greater Middle East. It is crucial for the security of the world. If they are defeated - this type of global terrorism and insurgency in Iraq - we will defeat them everywhere." He was making the coloniser's confusion of insurgency with terrorism. But the Iraqi insurgents have already won, and Iraq, the Middle East, Britain and the world will be safer when the troops have left Iraq.

Blair's lies and folly are class requirements, not personal failings - the British ruling class wanted war with Iraq, and he was their front man, doing whatever led to war. But enough of this ruling class deception and self-deception. What matters is that the working class acts to end the occupation.

Another Dodgy Dossier.......2006-11-24

As future historians begin to ask how it was that the Britain inherited by Tony Blair, internally secure, economically strong and confident abroad, but yearning for reform at home; turned into the Britain Blair leaves behind - disaffected, facing defeat abroad, with growing inflation and internally insecure, with creeping erosion of civil liberties - they could do worse than turn to this book. Unfortunately, as an account of the Blair premiership it's neither particularly engrossing nor entertaining. Described as `vivid' on the jacket, it reveals little that isn't already in print. Since it relies for its insights largely, as Coughlin himself admits, on high-placed sources insisting on anonymity, we are forced to accept them on a `trust me' basis.

There are minor errors in points of detail which don't inspire confidence. For instance, the UK City of Durham never was a coal-mining city: and it becomes clear that the book is full of apparent statements of fact which actually are assertions: how does he know for instance, that Colin Powell's abortive visit to Israel/Palestine in 2002 failed because `Ariel Sharon had influential allies in the White House who made it their business to ensure that Powell's mission was a failure?'

The book is disappointingly short of authentic personal witness and observation: something one might have expected from what purports to be a definitive account of a personal relationship between two powerful individuals. For instance, it's interesting to compare Coughlin's account of the 2002 dinner at the presidential ranch at Crawford Texas at which, according to Coughlin, Blair `wore a black suit out of respect for the recent death of the Queen Mother' with Sir Christopher Meyer's vivid and much more entertaining personal witness - much rubbished by Downing Street - that on arrival at the dinner Blair had to dash away and quickly change since mistakenly he'd arrived wearing jeans.

Nevertheless, 'American Ally' may offer some clues about the causes of Britain's decay under Blair, offering as it does an exclusively Blair-centric account of his relationship, first with President Clinton, then with President Bush. Beginning with the moment when he declares, " We are a leader of nations or we are nothing", this neo-con Utopian masquerading as a socialist ('...With my class background I could and- lets be blunt about this - would have joined another party....')came to Downing Street possessed as none of his predecessors - save one - of the power of his own belief. The well known high mutual regard between Blair and Margaret Thatcher is once again rehearsed here. The memory of Thatcher's success in the Falklands made a big impression on Blair, reinforcing his will when, early in New Labour's term the Kosovo crisis catapulted him to a platform from which he was able eventually to orchestrate the defeat of Milosevich, dragging the US under Clinton along with him only at the cost of public and Parliamentary opposition leaving him personally at times dangerously exposed. But Milosevich fell and if today Kosovo remains unstable, the adventure brought peace of a kind leaving Blair with a sense of the correctness of his own judgment powerfully re-inforced. Kosovo and the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement were Blair's finest hour.

From the moment of Clinton's defeat, Blair made it his mission to forge an equally strong relationship with George Bush. The first so-called `Colgate summit ` is once again recounted.. From their first meeting, it is clear that Blair's well-known talent for appearing to agree with each person he meets - whatever their opinion - played a large part in persuading George Bush that here was someone he could work with. For his part, Blair seems to have been progressively deluded into believing that the things he had to say were in fact carrying weight with the President and his team. In fact, not even his much-promoted insistence on the problem of Israel/Palestine seems to have had much effect on the course of events there. Its interesting to read that Ariel Sharon's decision to withdraw Israeli troops from Gaza and pull out of certain settlements was actually negotiated by Elliot Abrams- a leading neo-conservative brought into the White House to work on the `road map'- in Blair's complete ignorance; while in the Rose Garden Bush continued to insist on Blair as `America's staunchest friend.'

As chaos and killing in Iraq grew and spread following the fall of Baghdad, Blair's dismay at the trap into which his personal determination had lead the UK and its military forces grew. The Abu Ghraib scandal, says Coughlin, compounded Blair's deep sense of betrayal at the way the Bush administration handled Iraq. A `Downing Street aide' is quoted; `....we all came to the view that we would never embark on another venture like this with the Bush administration.' So that's all right, then.

With so much instant history already available on the tragic partnership of Bush and Blair its hard to recommend this one, comprehensive though it is. Readers seeking a more balanced and insightful account would do better to turn to `The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency - James Naughtie's recent masterly account of these crucial years. Those with a taste for something more anecdotal and racy will enjoy DC Confidential, the account by Sir Christopher Meyer of his years as British Ambassador in Washington.

With its portrait of a firm-jawed leader of principle standing shoulder to shoulder with his principal ally, and then, in spite of personal suffering, bravely resisting public and Parliamentary disapproval as he struggles to `complete the job', 'American Ally' reads like a dossier to accompany the job application which Blair is presumably already making to the lucrative American lecture and foundation circuit against his coming exit from Downing Street. And for Con Coughlin? To paraphrase a well-authenticated proposal from Blair himself to the British satirist Rory Bremner: "How does Sir Con Coughlin sound?"

Brings up excellent now rather forgotten points.......2006-03-20

Like how Blair and Clinton handled Desert Fox in the late 1990's. This (for those who don't recall) was when the UK and US both sent planes over Iraq and knocked out suspected areas that were considered dangerous to international security. Author Coughlin explains very well what a deadlock this ended up being for the UK and USA in terms of keeping post-Desert Storm Iraq a safe-place for the Middle East and in fact the entire world. This book also is a testament to how deadly Saddam became after Desert Storm like as it reports how in the late 1990's Saddam was considered by Forbes magazine to be one of the five wealthiest men on earth with a personal fortune of around 5 billion dollars! And that is just the money he personally had. Iraq had lots more from oil sales. Clearly Saddam had to be taken out by George W. Bush before Saddam became so wealthy the Iraqi leader was unstoppable. Read the rest of the book for more great, important details.

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British Prime Ministers

British Prime Ministers