I’m still interested in the origins of the invasion of Iraq, the why and the when. At one level this is banal. We know, originally from CBS reporter David Martin, that within hours of the 9/11 attacks Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeldt was ‘telling his aides to start thinking about striking Iraq, even though there […]
[…] Spin-doctors (e.g Alastair Campbell) are propagandists. They are not public affairs strategists who prepare for all possible audiences/crises before they happen. The mistake made by Prime Minister Blair and his unelected advisers, including civil servants, was not anticipating that, following the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, rather than a spin-doctor, they needed (public […]
[…] Mrs. Thatcher, which led to the progressive collapse of Labour as a radical, reforming party.(2) Mrs. Thatcher claimed legitimacy from the events of the 1970s; and the Blair faction have, in turn, accepted as legitimate much of what was done in her name. The Tory and Labour Thatcherites see the 1970s as a disaster […]
[…] little less potent, and Greg Palast experienced quite a few of them when he brought his brand of clever, witty and vigorous exposure to bear on the Blair government in 1998. For detailing the corruption at the heart of New Labour in his Lobbygate reports in The Observer (see Lobsters 36 and 38), Palast […]
[…] 1971-1973. ‘Old Labour’ did OK. It was just a shame it didn’t have a better leader. Some of the Callaghan obituaries claimed that he was consulted by Blair on some issues. There is no evidence of this. Blair, paying tribute, said that Callaghan was a ‘giant of the Labour movement’. While this may have […]
[…] The fruits of this system are still very much alive in the UK. Despite his image as a moderniser of both British politics and social attitudes, Tony Blair is a typical product of it. As a politician, he depends upon the skills of an advocate, rhetoric and persuasion, rather than analysis, upon charm rather […]
[…] the Sun, which went around the world as an ‘exclusive’. It will be remembered by many overseas not for the sun-drenched image of a post-invasion youthful-looking Mr Blair, but because the same photograph included a large impression of the soles of his shoes, a cultural gaff in some countries, symbolic of treading on ‘unholy’ […]
[…] make Ayer a peer. In the Lords Ayer would no doubt have performed similar services for the government as Meta Ramsay is now thought to provide the Blair administration. Having later to settle for a knighthood, left Ayer with a life-long detestation of Harold Wilson. This whole Camden Town social group felt, though they […]
[…] Movement and his former allies, but in the words of his former wife Margaret, has sold his soul to the devil. Never mind, that ghastly conservative creep Blair tells us we should be proud of our MI6 boys and girls for they give us a cutting edge over the rest of the world. Has […]
[…] has completely replaced the Tories as the main party of British capitalism by hijacking the historical Labour Party in violation of its own constitution. But while Tony Blair had almost zero experience of labour movement politics and was certainly no intellectual, those who theorised and rendered the process possible – in terms of a […]
