Gordon Brown and Tony Blair at a Labour Party rally
Posted on 08/31/2010 5:25:15 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Tony Blair uses his new book to expose Gordon Brown as a manipulative figure who lost a winnable election by abandoning the principles of New Labour.
The former prime minister’s memoir discloses that a “maddening” Mr Brown effectively blackmailed him while he was in No 10. He suspects the then chancellor of orchestrating the investigation into the cash-for-honours scandal.
Gordon Brown and Tony Blair at a Labour Party rally
The pressure on Mr Blair to step aside became so great that he admits he may have become reliant on alcohol as he faced coup attempts from Mr Brown’s supporters. He discloses that he began drinking every day and needed the “support” that alcohol provided.
The Daily Telegraph is the first newspaper to see a full, foreign language, copy of Mr Blair’s memoir, entitled A Journey, before Wednesday’s official publication.
It provides the first definitive account of the relationship between the two men which dogged the Labour government from 1997.
The former prime minister discloses that some of his biggest mistakes in office were his failure to predict and tackle the boom in asylum seekers and to address the emerging “underclass”.
He discloses his “anguish” over the Iraq war and admits that he failed to predict the “nightmare” in the aftermath of the conflict. But he insists going to war was correct and says he will devote the rest of his life to making amends.
In the postscript, Mr Blair squarely lays the blame for Labour’s landslide general election defeat earlier this year on his successor’s change in strategy.
He asks himself why Labour lost, and replies: “The response, I fear, is obvious. It won as New Labour. It lost by ceasing to be that.”
Mr Blair adds that Mr Brown was not a politician
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I was not impressed w/ Brown. I always kinda liked Blair. He is very likable, articulate and smart.
Yeah, he had his share of wrong headed moves. I guess my comments were more of a personal nature.
Which takes you back to the 90s when Clinton claimed the New Democrat title and Blair claimed the New Labour title.
Which is another way of saying third way compromisers, which infuriated the True Liberals
And The Toon sent his war room to UK to help elect Blair.
yitbos
I still respect him for what he did with the war.
No, I’d rather a conservative lead the U.K. but seeing as the alternatives were Brown and McCain ally David Cameron I miss Blair.
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