It’s always difficult to know what to get a politics-mad relative at Christmas. Another Private Eye annual perhaps? Tickets to see Matt Forde’s stand-up tour? A Blu Ray box set of The Thick Of It? Or yet another ‘hilarious’ satirically themed book like ‘Five on Brexit Island‘ or ‘The Illustrated Tweets of Donald Trump.‘ Fortunately for those long-suffering politicos anticipating several cheeseboards and a ‘witty’ festive mug, help will be at hand for next year due to the imminent arrival of what will surely be the Christmas bestseller of 2022.
For word reaches Mr S that Lord Adonis, Britain’s most ironically-titled peer, is turning his quill to a subject very close to his heart: the definitive biography of Tony Blair. Adonis of course has detailed knowledge of the Blair years: he served in the No. 10 Policy Unit for New Labour’s first two terms before being ennobled for the third, spending five years in the education and transport departments and entering the Cabinet in 2009. The last decade has seen the rampant Remainiac fighting a desperate rearguard action to defend the Dear Leader against the slings and arrows of Corbynites.
Indeed in recent months the peer’s exaltations of dear Tone have reached Pyongyang levels as he beseeched Blair to return to the fray. He’s urged his online army to ‘Bring back Blair,’ argued that ‘If Tony Blair was leader of the Labour party we’d be competitive with Boris Johnson for winning the next election’ and advised Keir Starmer to do appearances with the JP Morgan banker to help boost his popularity across the country. Bold blue-skies stuff.
When approached by Mr S to ask if the book would be more hagiography or hatchet-job, the peer remained tight-lipped, only confiding that the work was in ‘in its early stages’ but that he would be ‘very happy to say more in due course.’ It seems that Adonis is following something of a trend, given the warmly-received release of the BBC’s Blair-Brown documentary in October ahead of the 25th anniversary of New Labour sweeping to power next May.
Adonis of course remains a political actor himself, having taken up the chairmanship of the European Movement in March to take Britain back into the EU. But he is also an accomplished writer, having recently published an excellent account of Ernest Bevin’s life
Let’s hope he’s able to apply the same level of objectivity when assessing the legacy of his own political hero.
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