Matthew Dancona

This is all about Don Tony

Matthew d’Ancona says that the Jowell Affair has revealed the loneliness of New Labour’s once-omnipotent Godfather, as the Cameron and Brown families prepare for their own bloody turf war when he is gone

Matthew d’Ancona says that the Jowell Affair has revealed the loneliness of New Labour’s once-omnipotent Godfather, as the Cameron and Brown families prepare for their own bloody turf war when he is gone

One evening at dinner with Tessa Jowell and David Mills, Tony Blair spotted an unsightly paint stain outside their Kentish Town house. The Culture Secretary explained that anti-war protesters had discovered her address, and had poured out the paint to signal their disgust. Mr Blair shook his head. ‘Do people really do things like that?’ he asked.

Yes, Prime Minister, they do. But one of the many things he and Ms Jowell have in common is a distaste for ugliness: they like things to be just so, for decorum to be observed. And it baffled Mr Blair that anyone should resort to such vulgar behaviour to make a political point, even when the issue was one as divisive as the Iraq war.

It is hard to exaggerate how closely allied Ms Jowell and the Prime Minister have been during the New Labour era. The strength of their partnership is one of the under-reported facts of politics in the past 12 years — an omission which has pleased them.

They are carved from the same timber, these two politicians: north London, Christian, incorrigibly middle-class. Much more than Tony and Gordon, or even Tony and Peter, Tony and Tessa speak the same language, experience the same sentiments, inhabit the same moral and aesthetic universe. Others — Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell — have been more influential in the day-to-day development of New Labour strategy, and have spent more time with Mr Blair, bending his ear and writing his lines. But Ms Jowell has been a confidante of a different order, and the best kind: one who does not boast about the fact.

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