Broken Vows: Tony Blair The Tragedy of Power

Tony Blair has become a controversial figure in Britain. When Blair became prime minister in 1997 he was very popular. He won a landslide majority, and had an approval rating of 93%, and went on to serve ten years as prime minister. Today his approval rating is 22% and some people really dislike him. Tom Bower has written an extremely critical review of his government’s performance between 1997 and 2007. The negative tone reflects the sense of betrayal and disappointment felt by many Britons. They initially saw him as a different type of politician, someone they could trust. He seemed likable, charming, and honest. Bower believes Blair was a fraud, and that the British people were misled. The book provides a laundry list of his failures as a politician and as a person. Many Britons believe he was a duplicitous liar and this book will confirm their prejudices. Bower ignores Blair’s achievements, whatever they were. However, he did win three general elections. He seems to have upset a lot of people on the way up, who are now willing to criticize him on the way down. The book's negative portrait of Blair caused little fuss when it was published in Britain, indicating that many British people probably agreed with its assessment.Blair has always been an opportunist and skilled at schmoozing people useful to him. He started with Labour leader Michael Foot who was very left-wing. It has been alleged by Margaret Thatcher’s official biographer that Foot was a Soviet agent during the Cold War. Blair ingratiated himself with Foot who helped him become an MP. Later, Blair became good friends with Bill Clinton and George Bush. After Blair retired, he became a friend and well-paid advisor to the likes of Paul Kagame of Rwanda, a violent authoritarian, and Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, a dictator.Bower claims he spoke to 200 former civil servants, including the four cabinet secretaries — Britain's top civil servants — who worked with Blair. They had no reservations about heaping criticism on him. General Guthrie was Britain's top general, and now admits he had a low opinion of Blair and opposed his regime change wars. Guthrie talked Blair out of sending British troops into Zimbabwe and Angola. Once safely retired, Guthrie attacked Blair forcefully over Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2011, Blair was calling for regime change in Iran and Syria.Bower claims that Blair intentionally deceived the British people about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. When things started to unravel in Basra, the big southern city British forces had responsibility for, Blair did not do enough to make sure that the troops had enough resources to do the job. A similar thing happened in Afghanistan, where 10,000 British troops were sent into Helmand in 2006 to take on a resurgent Taliban. Blair seemed to enjoy the excitement of war, but he failed to support the troops once they started fighting.Bower claims that Blair presided over an undeclared open-door immigration policy and kept it a secret. Douglas Murray has claimed that Labour misled the British people about the benefits of immigration and suppressed uncomfortable facts about the immigrants. Many critics of immigration were accused of racism and even fascism. Murray has attacked Blair's government for its naïve belief in multiculturism and pursuit of diversity. Blair’s administration believed that the indigenous population had to adapt rather than the new arrivals. Blair’s immigration policies have done his party lasting damage among Labour’s traditional working-class voters who take a less nuanced view on immigration than the metropolitan elite.Blair's Labour Party is depicted in the book as clueless and incompetent. Most Labour MPs have only ever worked in politics and are not qualified to run large government departments. Since 1945, Blair and Harold Wilson have been the only Labour prime ministers who have won a general election. Blair’s greatest achievement may have been to make the Labour Party electable again. He moved the party back to the centre and incorporated neoliberal thinking. The middle classes in marginal seats were attracted by Blair’s charm and likability. He was also articulate and well educated. It could be decades before Labour find another Blair and are trusted with power again.Blair liked to be at the center of world events. Although his narcissism did not always serve Britain well, the Good Friday Agreement was an example of how he was capable of bringing people together in a constructive way. The result was peace in Northern Ireland after thirty years of conflict. Blair also wanted to join the eurozone’s single currency because he wanted to be viewed as a good European. Replacing the pound with the euro would have been disastrous for the British economy. Luckily, Gordon Brown, his number two, prevented that from happening. Some parts of the British media have recently accused Blair of treason, for allegedly plotting with the EU to stop Brexit. Blair campaigned for a second Brexit referendum but was mostly ignored by the public. He was condemned by Prime Minister Theresa May for trying to subvert the Brexit process.After Blair left office, he developed an obsession with making money which has resulted in conflicts of interest between his business interests and his charitable foundations. According to Bower, he also grew addicted to private jets. Rupert Murdoch believed that Blair had an affair with his ex-wife, Wendi Deng. This has been categorically denied by Blair. Murdoch is a powerful enemy to have and it may help explain Blair's recent run of bad press. Murdoch's media outlets had supported Blair and helped him become prime minister in 1997. Blair's second career as a well-paid political advisor, often to some unsavory regimes, became controversial in Britain. It seemed undignified for a former prime minister to behave in this money-grubbing way. Blair damaged his reputation. This unfortunate period is covered in a chapter called “Gun for Hire.”Blair has made some significant errors of judgment during his career but these days he still likes to present himself as a wise elder statesman. The BBC likes to hear his opinions, but most Britons pay little attention to what he says these days.

Was relative before the neocommunists gained traction disguised as liberals or democrats.

I don't know how the UK survived with the attitude and ineptitude of Tony Blair and his Ministers.

NO comment !!!!It is almost impossible to believe this could happen in this day and age.

Best historical review of one of worlds biggest liars.

This is a 594 page book.It was, for lack of a better word, a bad book. Thank God I’m done with it.I’m not sure who the intended audience is. I read the FT every day, thoroughly, and I follow the politics closely and have lived in the UK since 1992. I listen to Radio 4 and used to make an effort to watch the 9 o’clock news (now the 10 o’clock news). I vote in local elections, Tory for mayor and Lib Dem for everything else.With the best intentions on earth, I completely lost track of what's what. So if the author was making an effort to keep a reasonably well-informed and very interested anti-Labour reader with him, 600 pages did not suffice for him to weave some sort of narrative that would allow me to keep track of some of the main characters, policies, ideas, anything.Not that Tony Blair, the subject matter of the book, makes this easy. The book is a history of the travails of the 4 ministers in charge of Health, the 5 ministers in charge of Education, the 7 who had a go at Immigration, the 3 who were ignored in the Foreign Office, the sundry permanent secretaries, gurus, press officers, confidantes, generals, admirals, spies and fixers he went through in his ten years in 10 Downing Street, his refusal to protect his closer lieutenants, his special relationship with George Bush, his not-so-special relationship with Gordon Brown and, of course, IRAQ.Regardless, no narrative emerges, no thread. And the author has barely a good word to say for anyone. Statistically speaking, one or two of the main 50 characters in this tragedy must have been OK guys, but no, not here. Reid comes across as handy; a "safe pair of fists." That gave me a laugh.If the intention was to prove that it was chaos and the manner to convey the chaos was to plunge the reader in 600 pages of chaos, then mission accomplished.I totally despise Tony Blair, but at some point I did find myself thinking “well, the guy won the election on the premise that he will meet the Tories halfway, why is the entire Labour party refusing to listen,” or alternatively “he’s spending all this money on schools and hospitals and teachers and doctors and administrators, how awful that the results are not coming,” or “damn that tight-fisted Gordon Brown,” but I did have to do it over the author’s heckling about immigration and a 40% debt/GDP (give us a break, bud, that was the lowest in the G20) and I got the feeling the book’s whole point is to confuse you to the point where you feel you’re surfing along with a God-fearing Chauncey Gardner who talks big enough a game bring his party into power, only for them to make a dog’s dinner of the opportunity and in a bout of frustration starts a war in the Middle East to get away from it all.So I was starting to think there was method in the madness, and then on page 571 I lost all faith in any detail the author provides when JP Morgan banker Ian Hannam is described as “mining diamonds in Sierra Leone.” Ian Hannam may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but he’s a pretty straight guy, he was one of the SAS who stormed the Iranian Embassy back in the day and he later in life had the guts to take on the might of the FCA and judging from the rest of the book would probably very much be to the author’s liking if Tom Bower had bothered to check.And all that’s fine. But get the bloody name straight. It’s Ian Hannam, not Hamman.I did not mind too much that the author is bigoted (we all have our faults) or that he has an axe to grind. I don’t’ mind that Blair’s success in Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement is not covered here. I’m rather prejudiced myself in my feelings against Tony Blair, besides. But I got nothing out of this book, especially now that I know I cannot trust the sundry juicy stories about his post-premiership sell-out. It’s a slapped-together mess with no beginning, no middle and no end. The conclusion to this 594 page tome takes up less than a page!Bottom line, if I did not like this book, I have no idea who will. Perhaps somebody who knows all the detail and wants to have some fun guessing who served what angle to the author. If that does not describe you, stay away.

Tom Bower has notched up an impressive number of biographical "scalps" over the years, giving us warts-and-all portrayals of big beasts in politics and the business world. Disgraced former Prime Minister Tony Blair is the latest and there is a fascinating story to tell. I never voted for his government but like many people was excited by the possibilities raised by Blair's election in 1997, particularly in relation to Britain's playing a more positive role in the European Union. But my disillusion had set in long before the disaster of the Iraq War. Tom Bower is merciless in his dissection of Blair's political skills and lack of moral compass (despite the politician's adoption of the Roman Catholic faith), and the epithet "Bliar" that was accorded Blair in retrospect seems fully justified. Following his departure from frontline politics, Blair went on to make millions from speeches and advice to some pretty despotic heads of state, and his performance as "mediator" for the Quartet relating to Israel-Palestine was pathetic and biased. This book leaves one with quite a nasty taste in one's mouth, yet Blair's inner personality remains an enigma. Or maybe he doesn't really have one.

Couldn't stop reading this book. Amazed and horrified in equal measure. If this was even one tenth true it would be a dreadful indictment of the Blair / Brown years. I have little doubt that its mostly true.The depiction of the military adventures are awful but so is the lack of genuine progress in education, immigration and health. Should be obligatory reading before anyone is allowed to vote.The book shows clearly that while Blair and his acolytes may have been believers in the 'third way'....they were never able to genuinely change the spots of their leopard and new labour was mostly a veneer that held them together long enough to remain 'electable' but the cracks were always there and when the 'glue' departed the inevitable happened. For those who find it difficult to understand how the party could go from central ground to Corbyn mania the book shows that the loony left never really departed they were just laying dormant.

A lot of research has gone into this book, but I found it difficult to read, and difficult to search, as events are reported out of sequence. It is hard to be sure of the writer's motive in writing the book, as he appears to be intent on showing everyone in the Labour Party in a bad light, not just Blair, and chooses to attribute all Blair's decisions to ignorance, innocence or lack of preparation, rather than deliberate actions based on questionable motives. Astonishingly, I found only one fleeting reference to Mo Mowlam, whose sterling work led to the Good Friday Agreement for peace in Northern Ireland, for which the writer gives credit to Blair.

Even if you’ve read other books on the Blair years, this one should not be missed. It is extensively researched, unambiguous and written in a very readable, immediate style that takes the reader’s viewpoint practically onto the sofas where decisions were made – or not made; government confusion, division and lack of clear decision-making are themes that run throughout the book.The depth, detail and style of ‘Broken Vows’ give the reader the sense of being present at events. Most of the quotes and comments are from named individuals rather than anonymous ‘sources’; various political insiders of course, but also many professionally impartial and highly respected people whose remarks and criticisms thus carry extra weight. This book is a gripping, fascinating read but, perhaps inevitably, somewhat depressing in one respect; whether or not you believed in the ‘Third Way’ at the time, the sense of national opportunities wasted is palpable.If you come to this book looking for a strong critique of ‘New’ Labour, you will certainly find it. Iraq and the other wars and major aspects of domestic policy (especially health, education, energy and immigration) are covered in revealing detail. Other events and policies are also mentioned, but the main focus is a study of specific areas of policy and how they help us to understand Blair through understanding the actions of his government.There are just a few lighter notes in this powerful book, but there were two anecdotes of the off-duty prime minister that raised images I will not easily forget (although I will try)!Far more seriously, the details given here about his activities since he left office are eye-opening. In my opinion, this book does help us to understand Tony Blair, but not quite as I had expected it to. Indeed, ‘discovering the truth was a surprise’, as Tom Bower comments in his introduction – although, with hindsight, perhaps I should not have been so surprised.One very revealing moment that stayed with me was reading of Blair, after he left office, introducing himself as “Britain’s most successful prime minister”. I did think of four other prime ministers from three different parties who were considered very successful and left enduring legacies – including one who led Britain to freedom in the war against Fascism and one who built the modern welfare state – but of course they pre-dated May 1997 and the new dawn of ‘spin’, so I must be mistaken.A fascinating, compelling and highly recommended book.

That's what I thought throughout the New Labour years and this book confirms me in my opinion. Only it was far worse than I thought. Bower's forensic, well-written hatchet job does not pretend to be a balanced history. It is more a Judgment of History on what Blair did with the power he won in three consecutive elections (how long will he hold this Labour record? Maybe forever.).Bower portrays a messianic personality who wanted to make the world a better place but lacked both the character and knowledge to do so. His charisma could win over his party, the voters, doubting colleagues, senior civil servants and military men. Bower quotes extensively from a whole range of conversations held during Blair's decade in power. Blair had a butterfly mind, no interest in policy detail, circumvented the conventions of collegiate cabinet government and had one overriding daily imperative - to secure a good headline or soundbite. New Labour was an election-winning machine lacking policy. All the rest was gesture politics.Having secured the support of Murdoch, Blair relied on Campbell to keep his image sweet. He was a vulnerable figure without hinterland in the party he led and was totally reliant on Cherie and close acolytes to keep his head above water in a job for which he was ill-prepared. Bower laments Blair's lack of historical knowledge and condemns his arrogance in failing to make proper use of the government machine. New Labour entered government in 1997 with prejudices about what they did not like but with no evaluated alternatives. Pilot schemes were not considered: New Labour was in too much of a hurry to deliver demonstrable improvement to win in 2001. Within 4 years they realised they had made serious mistakes in health, education, and immigration and tried to reverse what they had done with Brown throwing money around like confetti to cover up the rebranded Tory policies they now found themselves relaunching.New Labour was deceitful. Duff statistics showed schools and hospitals getting better while exam grade inflation, test results and NHS productivity told a different story. Centralised target-setting produced the same sort of skewed outcomes as did those for Stalin's tractor factories. Had Blair ever heard of Stalin? Immigration statistics were likewise managed - but still appalling: New Labour has handed over large sections of its working class vote to UKIP.New Labour was dysfunctional. Just like historians debate whether Nazism was just Hitlerism so they will debate whether New Labourism was little more than Blairism. 'Power tends to corrupt' can also be inverted to '18 years without power tends to corrupt' : a desperate Labour Party succumbed to the Blair spell of election victory. An outsider without roots in the working class, trade unions or the socialist intelligentsia came to dominate a party which could hardly believe its luck. Moses had delivered them from Pharaoh. This explains the personal ascendancy he was able exercise over colleagues and the origins of his sofa government. It had become little more than a Tony Blair Fan Club.Except for Gordon. The F word figures prominently in Bower's pages as the Chancellor showers the expletive over his boss on numerous occasions. Blair was scared of Brown and was a poor butcher of ineffective ministers. Too nice for his own good. But any PM who has to tell a service chief to go and knock on his Chancellor's door as a supplicant for funds in preparing for the Iraq War is a weak PM.This book is not about the Iron Chancellor but he figures prominently: the way he made the Treasury a no go area for No 10 also shows Blair as a weak PM. Brown's raid on pension funds and use of PFI to fund New Labour spending shows a callous willingness to mortgage the nation's future in order to secure election victory. Eventually Brown broke his own Golden Rule and splashed out money merely to cover up New Labour's non-delivery in public services.Blair spoke of the scars he bore from trying to reform health and education. What this book does not do is explain the grass roots misery caused by constant upheaval in health and education. Millions of health and education professionals were put through an unnecessary mill because of Tony Blair - and his successors. Bower talks of the billions wasted on the failed NHS computer system. What of the poor (and often unnecessary) IT training forced on the staff? Pay improved but job satisfaction decreased. We are now entering the fourth decade of school reforms. Parents and teachers presently condemn the new KS1 SATs. Health and education have become central to our politics. Blair and his successors want quick results for their limited time in office. This is never deliverable. The unhappy result is an acute inability to retain staff and an increasing reliance on overseas workers. More exam marking is being farmed out overseas. My hope is that this book will lead politicians and public alike to understand that the morale of public servants - from the Chief Secretary to the humblest school and hospital cleaner - is the key to improved productivity. But I doubt it. I doubt whether working people ever figured very much on Tony Blair's personal radar. His thirst for money and attraction to the rich would suggest they did not.Blair followed Thatcher in projecting British power in the world. Both PM's became immensely popular and well-known global figures. But Blair was unable to emulate the Falklands Factor with his Iraq adventure. I thought at the time that it was both brave and foolish for a popularity-craving man like Blair to risk his reputation with this war. Bower emphasises that Blair was no American poodle but gung-ho for regime change. He would have preferred a UN resolution as cover but he set his course long before the Cabinet were brought into the loop. Amazing how many top people were kept out of the decision-making loop until late in the day. Blair control-freakery even tried to elicit the removal of the CGS a few months before war because he felt the Admiral was too timid. Speaking Truth to Power was difficult in the Blair governments. He really did think that he could walk on water!All political careers end in failure. Hubris set in earlier with Blair than with Thatcher but the results were similar. Both lost party support after delivering three election victories and both left controversial legacies. Our parliamentary system really does work. It can eject a powerful leader who has lost the confidence of the House. Far better than the US system of gridlock and lame duck presidents. But even here Blair felt the need to dig in his heels and stay on a few more months as a lame duck PM just so he could notch up his ten years in office to beat the record of any previous Labour leader. One that is unlikely to be broken. A lot of good things happened in the New Labour years. It could hardly be otherwise. However, there was also a lot of failure on the big issues and it is the big issues that matter. Bower's book concentrates on the big issues.

If you want to know why our lovely country (not ironic) is as it is, read this book and Call Me Dave. You will see why a man who won three elections is so derided. Everything from his personal vanity (eeeurgghh the underpants scene) , the luxury lifestyle, the greed, the basic ignorance of political and economic history, the corruption of normal modes of government, the quest for soundbites and headlines regardless of the effectiveness of expensive and often failed initiatives and much more. Sharing the blame, ministers who could not run a whelk stall, and in most cases had probably never eaten a whelk. They could have stopped him in his tracks. They chose not to. Five stars for content, three for the writing style which is heavy going journalism rather than a book. Call me Dave is much better written. For the sake of Anne and all those others who died that day, I hope to see him in the dock before too long.