The rise and rise of Blair Inc

4 September 2010

/article_images/articledir_12486/6243303/1_listing.png

This memoir is not a requiem for Tony Blair’s past, says Fraser Nelson. It’s a manifesto for his future — as a highly paid freelance statesman with no electorate to hold him back

Many prime ministers view their memoirs as their pension, but Tony Blair always had far greater ambitions. In the three years that it has taken him to write A Journey, he has become so wealthy that he does not need the royalties — and is giving them to charity. As his memoirs reveal, he has long thought it a shame great world leaders should have to retire. The example he cites is Condoleezza Rice. ‘She is a classic example of the absurdity of people with experience and capacity at the highest level not having big political jobs after retirement from office,’ he writes. ‘But that’s another story!’

Indeed it is. And it is a story which Mr Blair has no intention of telling. It is a story about a prime minister who prepared for himself a political afterlife which has all the trappings of office but none of the traps. It is about how, aided by a toothy grin and a contacts book, he manages to have a staff of 130 and a turnover of an estimated £20 million. It is about how a former prime minister became a curious new political breed: a freelance statesman, available for hire by Arab governments or Western democracies. His memoir is simply the latest product from the very serious business of Blair Inc.

A Journey says what one would expect about his years in office. He speaks about ‘The West’ like a man who wishes to be its ambassador. A chapter is devoted to Northern Ireland, to underline Blair Inc’s credentials in conflict resolution. (Jonathan Powell, who has written his own book on the subject, works for one of Blair’s companies.) Another chapter, ‘Managing Crises’, is a suitable overture to the risk management industry. His declaration that he has ‘always been more interested in religion than politics’ is a nod to the Blair Faith Foundation. From cover to cover, the book carefully packages and polishes the Blair brand.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Next page

More articles from: Fraser Nelson | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (3)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

Steve

September 2nd, 2010 4:51pm Report this comment

This is bad and will do nothing to enhance his post-premiership reputation despite what Mr Blair seems to think.

That being said, an old buddy of mine served in Afghanistan and said that Blair's fairly regular visits, even after he stood down as PM, were appreciated by the troops and did not receive much publicity. History will judge him harshly, but he has at times shown great character.

Tony Makara

September 3rd, 2010 2:47pm Report this comment

Tony Blair works overtime in an attempt to cultivate an image for himself. As a contemporary Prometheus, all-knowing, foresighted, and with a Weltanschauung based on a contrived version of Liberal Democracy that has to be imposed in the most absolute top-down style.

This is the mindset of a man who places himself above cause and consequence. A man who perceives of people as being bit parts in a chess game of the political Gods.

One might rightly conclude that Mr Blair is a man who has truly become divorced from the real world, detached from the feelings of others, in his relentless drive for auto-adulation.

Indeed a man for whom the manipulation of others has become his very raison d'etre.