Thirty Days: Tony Blair and the Test of History

This is a short 200 plus page book and it is a one evening read. Once you start it is hard to put the book down. I just read until I was finished. The cast of characters include Blair (mainly), his son Leo Blair and Cherie Blair (only briefly), his staff Campbell, Morgan and Powell, fellow politicians Jack Straw, Clare Short, Robin Cook, John Reid of the Labour Party and other British politicians and civil servants, George Bush, Colin Powel, and Condoleezza Rice. Chirac, Aznar, and Schroeder are at meetings or involved. Miller the Polish Prime Minister and Arafat make telephone appearances. The press is lurking in the background. My quick view of the book is that the author and former Times editor Peter Stothard acts like he is not in the room but rather he is a quiet observer just recording the events without comments and editorial comments. A "fly on the wall" so to speak for 30 days. The book starts on Monday March 10 and ends Wednesday April 9. The war starts March 20 2003. At the beginning or near the beginning of the book Blair acknowledges that Bush will proceed with or without Britain. The war seems set and there will be no consensus at the UN. What I found odd about the book is that there is very little mention of the WMD's, or the other reasons for going to war. There is no mention of intelligence briefings, or satellite pictures or similar. By March 10 his mind has been made up. It is more about damage control, politics, speeches, and not having ministers resigning and similar. His image in the press and on TV share a high priority along with with diplomacy. By March 10 the decision has been made. The question on everyone's mind is why does Blair back George Bush - the "poodle principle". Blair is almost alone, and the other leaders in the "coalition" do so with great reluctance. They make a minimal contribution to the Iraqi war effort and they seem poised to not want to cooperate or back out at any moment. So why does Blair do it? The only strong point we learn or hear is that by that date (March 10) Blair is determined to proceed seemingly at any cost to maintain US ties with Europe. He has decided to let "history" judge him for how the situation ends rather than trying to further explain his actions privately. He thinks that the UN should be involved, but barring no UN consensus his main point (among his 6 talking points to parliament) is that he does not want the US to become more isolated than it already is through complete 100% unilateral action. So at least Britain will help. We get a feel for his compressed and overstressed life, a political juggling act, his lack of sleep, his battle to survive as the Labour leader in a parliamentary system where he must face his opposition daily in question period and his caucus weekly. They all seem to be after his job and Iraq is as good as an excuse as any to oppose Blair. Unlike Bush he can be voted out by his own party on a whim - like Thatcher - so he is not secure for the term ele

I found this book to be an interesting read because it follows the day to day and hour by hour activities of PM Blair. Having said that it lacks a lot of the details and fails to answer some of the pressing questions. This book does an excellent job of following the daily activities of Blair starting 10 days before the Iraq invasion and for 20 days after that event. It gives an excellent insider's view of what he does during a day, how he handles stress, and living conditions at Number 10. It describes who he talks to, who gives him what advice on what subject, how he handles travel, phone calls, meetings, advisors, etc. It even covers what he eats and his preparations for the question period in parliament. What it lacked was the definitive comments from Blair why he was going to war. By the time the book starts, Blair has made up his mind to close ranks with Bush and support him with military assistance, and he had decided that was essential to preserve trans Atlantic unity. So the book is very interesting, very well written, but more about the process than the rational of his activities. I preferred Tony Blair: The Making of a World Leader by Philip Stephens. So 4 stars.

Though they are very different in style, this book shares some important similarities with Bob Woodward's Bush at War, in that both provide insider looks at political leaders in the weeks before they lead (or send) their nations into battle. But while the ubiquitous Woodward writes big, portentous books that themselves often end up affecting the debate, "Thirty Days" is a quick, journalistic snapshot that doesn't pretend to be a lot more than that. That made this a refreshing and sometimes enlightening read. I recently finished another title on the British PM (Tony Blair: The Making of a World Leader by Philip Stephens), so I felt relatively familiar with the central players in this book. Peter Stothard's quick, journalistic style introduces names and titles quickly, and while the players become clearer to us in the course of the narrative, Americans who don't have much contextual familiarity with British politicians may find themselves playing catch-up. Since 9/11, of course, Tony Blair himself has become more familiar to American news-watchers than any British politician since Churchill -- with the possible exception of Baroness Thatcher. Therefore, even Americans who may not be up-to-date on the Who's Who of Whitehall will probably find a lot of interest and instruction here. Not least, they will see the influence -- for good or ill -- that American politics and political pressures have in the counsels of our allies. Peter Stothard's book isn't a biography of Blair or a political analysis of his policies and his decisions. Instead, it's a look inside the highest reaches of British politics during one of the more eventful months in recent British history. American as well as British readers can gain a lot from the unique access Stothard enjoyed, and the useful work that came out of those thirty days.

Peter Stothard's task (or prize) is to tail Tony Blair for the 30 most crucial days of his prime ministership. But I feel like he never connects with Blair during that time. Either TB is holding back during this period or Stothard never gets the total access he touts. Either way, Blair seems like he's simply part of the woodwork in the story.But not that the book is totally without merit or interest. Where it does excel is in depicting Blair's inner circle. Stothard points out that Blair's governing model - to an upprecedented extent in British history - more resembles an American presidency than a typical Prime Ministry. "Unelected advisors" dominate the space closest to Blair. We're used to that here. But in the UK, TB's total absorbtion of his role model Bill Clinton's approach to governing is seen as an alarming trend.Dominating the scene is media advisor Alastair Campbell. Perhaps that's because as an ex-journalist, he connects best with Stothard. Or maybe it's because Campbell is undoubtedly Stothard's patron in this endeavour. [Like Blair would suggest that a journalist tag along with him for 30 days?] But, it's more than that. Campbell dominates the book because Stothard has got it right. Campbell is *the* dominating presence in Blair inner circle. In the whole aftermath of the Iraqi conflict - the WMD debate, the row with the BBC, the suicide of Dr. Kelly - Campbell's fingerprints are everywhere.He's a constant presence here on almost every page. He has the best jokes (Blair asks him for help in drafting the start of a speech...Campbell suggests "My fellow Americans..."), is connected to the best information (all via text messaging it seems), sees around all the corners. All while training for the London Marathon (which the 43-year-old finished in 3:53 shortly after the 30 Days were up...a great achievement considering all he was going through during training).It's tough to imagine how the Prime Minister is going to survive without this guy by his side everyday.

There will always be an England, according to the refrain of the song I learned in the first grade of school; it's just that we never dreamed Britain would one day be a poodle trembling under the wings of the American eagle. Tony Blair, as this book abundantly makes clear, is England's "Cleopatra" to the mighty George "Caesar" Bush. When you think of how Caesar used Cleopatra, for his own personal pleasure and the benefit of Rome, you get an idea of how this book portrays Blair. It is an incisive book in many ways, and because of that it is also very sad. The goal seems to be one of fawning obsequiousness to Blair's decision to support Bush's war on Iraq. Sadly, little details seep through to thoroughly undermine the decisive image sought by Blair. Stothard writes of Blair's visit to Camp David, "The hosts' first view of their British guests is of the cleverest men in Whitehall, without a raincoat between them, muttering nervous words about having 'only one suit' while rain lashes in horizontal lines over the tarmac." Geeeee. These Brits, who think they can advise and guide an American oil-patch president, didn't think to phone ahead and ask about the weather? Okay, another example. Near the end of the war, President Bush flew to "Merry Old Ireland" to meet Blair at Hillsborough Castle, just outside Belfast. Once again, Stothard is at his unwitting best, "The Prime Minister is not having his normal cooked breakfast; there's just bananas, melon, croissants, because that's what the Americans want." Geeeee. Even McDonalds is sometimes able to come up with a more varied menu. Who runs Britain? Not Blair, that's for sure. Stothard writes of a Scots Member of Parliament who "has several thousand Catholic constituents who put the Pope's views before their Prime Minister." Blair's Foreign Secretary has problems of his own because, "Muslim voters are well represented in Blackburn, Lancashire. They dislike the idea of their elected representative helping the American takeover of a Muslim country." Very early, he mentions plans to curb anti-social behaviour in Britain by "schemes to punish graffiti-writers and car-burners." Graffiti is a problem? It can be solved very simply, quickly, easily and cheaply by having a few blokes with paint sprayers who simply paint out any graffiti within 24-hours of it being reported. It works. The whole book is written in this manner, expressing the idea "wouldn't life be nice if only somebody would do something." In describing a speech that was pivotal to Blair's political survival, Stothard writes, "He has written most of them alone, in longhand in blue ink, high in the small sitting room of the flat . . . ." Geeeeee. Doesn't Blair have any speechwriters or aides to whom he can think out loud and get back several written draughts of a speech? It's little wonder Britain is so leaderless. If you can't organize a staff to put together a speech, how can you get trains to run on time or clean up gra