Tony Blair's Memoirs

[Land Waster]

Well, I finished reading them a few days ago. Where do you start? Has anybody on OTF read it?

[imp]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

No. Why don't you sum them up in 50 words or less to save anyone else the bother?

[G-Man]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

I haven;t read it, but I'll give it a try:

War-mongering cunt who destroyed the Labour Party and fucked Gordon Brown over justifies himself. Mentions Mandela, Bono, the pope and the Dalai Lama at least once. Comes across as a decent guy until self-justifications reminds the reader of his cuntitude.
[ENDS/40 words]

[Seven Saxon Kings]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

G-Man wrote: I haven;t read it, but I'll give it a try:

War-mongering cunt who destroyed the Labour Party and fucked Gordon Brown over justifies himself. Mentions Mandela, Bono, the pope and the Dalai Lama at least once. Comes across as a decent guy until self-justifications reminds the reader of his cuntitude.
[ENDS/40 words]

Heh - I have read it, and you're not that far of the mark. Never been a fan but nonetheless interesting to read his take on events that I actually remember living through, I was certainly never bored reading it. I can't say I remember there being much starfucking but there's a lot of self-justification over Iraq which really begins to grate.

[Land Waster]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

imp wrote: No. Why don't you sum them up in 50 words or less to save anyone else the bother?

Not during the WC, surely?

One thing I will say is that they are candid and open, unlike a lot of political memoirs where the author still feels that he's bound by the Official Secrets Act when it comes to giving any kind of insight.

Tbh, I put a lot of his politics to one side when reading it. It was behind the scenes insight and anecdotes that I was looking for, and he delivers those in spades.

For example, Gordon Brown accidently locking himself in the toliet of a friend's flat during one of his and Blair's early leadership arguments, and having to use his mobile to ring the flat's landline to get Tony to come and get him out.

And John Prescott is well... simply Prezza.

Blair recalls a time when Prince Charles asked him whether Prescott did ' a certain thing with him.'

"When he's sitting opposite you, he slides down the seat with his legs apart, his crotch pointing a little menacingly, and balances his teacup and saucer on his tummy. It's very odd. I've never seen someone do that before. What do you think it means?"

HRH thought that this was Prezza making a class warfare statement, to which Blair responded that it wasn't, it was just that Prescott liked drinking his tea that way.

And then there's spin. I thought this (in)famous photo summed up the almost insane nit-picking and paranoia that flourishes behind the scenes.



From the 2005 election campaign. But Blair's spin doctors warned him specifically not to put a flake in his 99 cone, as they claimed it would make him look greedy. But Blair was having none of it.

He is a greedy bastard, though. Just when he thought that the cameras weren't looking, he drops another few points in the opinion polls...

[Borracho]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/09/13/100913crbo_books_lanchester?currentPage=all

[Land Waster]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

That's a good review, but it's interesting how perceptions about openness and honesty differ according to the reader.

[Land Waster]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

G-Man wrote: I haven;t read it, but I'll give it a try:

War-mongering cunt who destroyed the Labour Party and fucked Gordon Brown over justifies himself.

I think Gordon gave as good as he got.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

Labour needs him back. It's not too late to get him in a safe seat. Back to save the party from its consistent opinion poll lead.

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

As if John Smith's untimely death wasn't sad enough, it inspired this in Blair's memoirs;

"That night she cradled me in her arms and soothed me; told me what I needed to be told; strengthened me. On that night of 12 May 1994, I needed that love Cherie gave me, selfishly. I devoured it to give me strength. I was an animal following my instinct."

Powerful image isn't it?

[E10 Rifle]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

Labour needs him back. It's not too late to get him in a safe seat. Back to save the party from its consistent opinion poll lead.

Can you work that up into a speech you'll give to some think tank or other, leak it to the broadsheets, follow it up with an op-ed piece, and bingo - a "Labour in crisis" storyline can run for a few more weeks.

[Borracho]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

Geoffrey de Ste. Croix wrote: As if John Smith's untimely death wasn't sad enough, it inspired this in Blair's memoirs;

"That night she cradled me in her arms and soothed me; told me what I needed to be told; strengthened me. On that night of 12 May 1994, I needed that love Cherie gave me, selfishly. I devoured it to give me strength. I was an animal following my instinct."

Powerful image isn't it?

For some reason, it puts me in mind of the infamous "We fucked like wild animals" passage in Tony Cascarino's autobiography.

[E10 Rifle]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

Cherie Blair got it on with Tony Cascarino? I really should give footballers' autobiographies more of a chance.

[Land Waster]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

Selected Ambient Works 85-92 wrote:

As if John Smith's untimely death wasn't sad enough, it inspired this in Blair's memoirs;

"That night she cradled me in her arms and soothed me; told me what I needed to be told; strengthened me. On that night of 12 May 1994, I needed that love Cherie gave me, selfishly. I devoured it to give me strength. I was an animal following my instinct."

Powerful image isn't it?

For some reason, it puts me in mind of the infamous "We fucked like wild animals" passage in Tony Cascarino's autobiography.

Blair probably did say something like that behind the scenes. He was surprisingly 'foul-mouthed' for a practising Christian, allegedly.

[enzee199]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

I read it a couple of years ago, and it was interesting enough to see his perspective on things.

Obviously Iraq gets centre billing with him putting forward his justification for what he calls liberal interventionism.

I did find the new labour stuff quite good. His view that he 'got' aspiration and connected with the public in a way that perhaps his party didn't is interesting. He also shows that he was really in favour of the sort of radical reform that we're actually seeing now and his regret was that little was achieved on the domestic agenda.

Blair v Brown is another interesting bit. He says just enough to turn opinion against Brown and does poison the well a bit for the likes of Milliband. It is quite revealing about the struggles and division which goes on at the top.

I think though that it was written quite soon after he left office, so it doesn't benefit much from a sense of distance, or perspective. Of course that makes it interesting in his own right in that it's quite raw still, but I'd be interested in what Blair had to say in perhaps 5-10 years time.

[enzee199]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

Tubby Isaacs wrote: Labour needs him back. It's not too late to get him in a safe seat. Back to save the party from its consistent opinion poll lead.

It doesn't need him, he's too tarnished by Iraq. But it does need someone like him - someone with wide appeal and good on television. Basically a Tony 2.0

[G-Man]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

Many practising Christians are foul-mouthed.

[Borracho]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

E10 Rifle wrote: Cherie Blair got it on with Tony Cascarino? I really should give footballers' autobiographies more of a chance.

Now there's an appetising image for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

[ursus arctos]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

He's just won Philanthropist of the Year from British GQ, which would be hilarious if it wasn't so profoundly distressing.

[Borracho]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Jones

[Guy Profumo]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

ursus arctos wrote: He's just won Philanthropist of the Year from British GQ, which would be hilarious if it wasn't so profoundly distressing.

Would it not be more appropriate to put this on the "WTF" thread on the "World" board, rather than bury it all the way down here on "Books"?

(Though thinking about it, it probably deserves a thread of its own...)

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

[quote]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Jones

"philanthropy" - you don't know what it is
do you, Mister Jones?

[Lucia Lanigan]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

Magazine people are the strangest bunch. This one's obviously a self promoter who can't really do anything, but you need an angle to get noticed. His a few years ago was to back the Tories, something only a berk would have done but for which I note he received an OBE. I wouldn't mind betting this was the least financially profitable toadying of recent years.

I only really noticed this dude when he gave an eyebrow-raising party political broadcast masquerading as an interview on Robert Elms' excellent, but very niche, BBC London radio programme. Unbelievably jarring stuff I was shocked he got away with, but to a tiny audience already dead set against everything he was professing to believe in. That was about as far as it went though. Fashion money keeps these publications afloat and I doubt their cufflink-hungry readers pay much attention to that kind of ideological manoeuvring.

[ursus arctos]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

I wouldn't be surprised if some other part of the Conde Nast empire were interested in currying favour with the government of the day. They tend to work that way.

Apologies to those who found this "buried" in Books. I always use the "Recent Topics" view, which is agnostic as to which board a post appears on.

[Land Waster]

Tony Blair's Memoirs

Lucia Lanigan wrote:

Magazine people are the strangest bunch.

Fashion money keeps these publications afloat and I doubt their cufflink-hungry readers pay much attention to that kind of ideological manoeuvring.

And the scary thing is that some people rely on them to know what's happening in the world.