The Blair memo and why it matters

The BBC's Broadcasting House had Clare Short, Louise Doughty and Bel Mooney on, explaining why the explosive Blair memo was, as they put it, "not a story". They said it was almost a year old and therefore didn't matter. It was amusing to listen to three people confidently reinforcing each other's nonsense.

Of course it is a story.

The content of the memo - with its talk of  a "lamentable confusion of tactics and strategy" - was interesting enough.

After all, we haven't had - ever - strong clear words from Blair himself about Brown. And these were at least as strong as anything Margaret Thatcher said about John Major. They were direct, not reported speech from a third party, and not in code.

But what is really interesting about the memo is not so much the content.

First, there is the fact of its existence. Tony Blair is clearly sending groups of people memos giving his view of Gordon. It must be a group - if it was only one, Blair would know the source and his ally wouldn't want to have betrayed him like that. Unless Blair was in on the leak, which I very much doubt.

Second, there is the fact and timing of the leak. This was done by someone close to Blair, deliberately in order to weaken the Prime Minister when he is already in deep trouble. The Broadcasting House trio missed the point when they said it was written almost a year ago. It was leaked now.

This memo, its circulation and its leaking is direct evidence that there is a Blairite plot against the Prime Minister involving some of his predecessor's closest allies.

If that isn't a story, what is?

Comments

[Richard]

Great to see TB indulging in such smug, self-satisfied hindsight. "Lamentable confusion of tactics and strategy": er, is n't that a fairly concise description of Blair's illegal Iraq War ?
Pots calling kettles black, Mr. Bliar?
TB and GB are synonymous with the disastrous state you have left this country in since you came to power in 1997.
If TB has developed such an acute case of selective amnesia then one suspects that his memoirs will have to be displayed on the fiction shelves.

[GARTH STRONG]

The trouble wih today's politicians is that in the hurly- burly of their snake- pit intrigues, they all seem to have forgotten two rather important things: Britain and the British people who elected them.

For god's sake!: Britain is in REAL trouble on many fronts: Is there none among them who is aware of the problems that the Nation faces?...Is there none who CARE?

Writer after writer affirms that the British people are angry with their government...yet it seems that one never hears of a politician rising up to address the concerns and needs of the nation .... nor to articulate in any substantial way a vision for the Nation's future, and a realistic plan for achieving that vision. We simply hear of what's good or best for the Party...and for me, me, me!

If I were a politician in Britain today, I would be very scared of the electorate....the victimized British taxpayer - the forgotten British citizen - whose interests seem farthest from the minds of today's politicians. One should remember what happened across the channel a couple of hundred years ago when the interests of the people were also ignored. One should not bank forever on the discipline and passive nature of the British citizen.

Where? Where are the fabled Englishmen of quality, character, courage and integrity ...who once sailed the seven seas and ruled the world, conquered evil, revealed the secrets of nature, science and mathematics..who gave the world its laws, manners and customs? Where are you now...when Britain, and the world, needs you?

Perhaps, perhaps...in some sleepy hamlet or bustling city...in Hartford, Hereford or Hampshire...in London, Liverpool, Newcastle or Birmingham, there sits a new chomping, growling Churchill or a ferrous, ferocious new Thatcher who, viewing the putrid performance of that pack of
pathetic puppies in Parliament, will rise to the occasion and restore to this once-Great Nation the quality of leadership that it deserves... and its pride, prosperity and rightful stature in the world.

That is my hope...that is my prayer.

[richard dow]

CERTAINLY SOMETHING UP TB going to ride back to save the day??????
Give the big clunking fist a P45 and install an acolyte in No.10
Wouldn,t it be delicious and utterly watchable :)

[KB]

It is not direct evidence that there is a Blairite plot. It is evidence of a plot by people with access to the memo. GB himself received a version of it - and he could hardly be called a Blairite.

[Chris Jones]

Of course its a story and it just confirms what we all know, that this Government is a shambles without a coherent plan or leadership.

Like shipwrecked sailors MPs slip from piece of wreckage to piece of wreckage searching for somthing that might keep them afloat. New policies in the Autumn (oh yeah?), a new PM, Gordon explaining it all to the electorate, a move to the left or right or middle.

Desperate people will believe and rationalise almost anything but in their hearts they know its over.

It's time to go Gordon. You have lost all trust and all credibility. The longer you postpone the worse it will be.

[martin]

Under bliar, nulabor destroyed The Labour Party as well as the country. The brown stuff was a willing part of that. The nulabor government became institutionally corrupt, leading to the inevitable dysfunction of today. What is needed is not a bliarite nulabor coup, but a total purge of anything nulabor. This can not happen in this government, but is a project whilst in opposition.

[Tony G]

Had the Labour party not done so much damage it would be entertainment to watch the malcontents, liars and incompetents who form that party self destruct.

[Mark Robinson]

Mr. Finkelstein: again, you've hit the nail on the head. This is a *huge* story.

This is no longer Mr. Milliband's attempt to get rid of Mr. Brown - it is a plan involving multiple players, possibly even Mr. Blair himself.

[Simon Van De Wolk]

Spot-on Daniel. But whoever has leaked the memo has a limited event horizon. Brown is certain to go, either soon or very soon. However his replacement is bound to be another Blairite and will assume the party will rally around him/her. Unfortunately, there is something missing from this equation- the British public.
Frankly, they are sick to death of a government that is more national-socialist, than old socialist.

[Marcus Cotswell]

The 'BH three' did such a good job of playing it down that I didn't even notice them mentioning it. I picked it up on Coffee House later in the day and was amazed it hadn't been discussed.
Perhaps I was too busy laughing at the bit where Clare Short described Stephen Byers as 'a failed minister' and, when asked the obvious question, asserted that she had been a successful one!

[Carl]

Excellent comment.
Except I'd be amazed if there wasn't some kind of 'nod' from TB to allow this out. That 'group' will only be Blair's nearest, dearest - and most loyal. They wouldn't do anything without approval from on high.
If true, it makes it a bigger story. TB had almost 15 years of GB's plotting ... if it's payback time, this is only the beginning.

[Paul]

Anyone still using the word "Bliar" (oh, how cutting and incisive) really ought to have their opinions disregarded. Why? Because they're obviously idiots. The same should also apply to anyone who uses the Iraq war to make hamfisted comparisons and/or morally suspect judgements.

[Tom O'Gorman]

I just wonder if this mightn't actually do Gordon some good. After all, Blair was never especially popular amongst the Labour faithful. By the time he left, he was positively loathed by a significant majority, or at least that's how it looked. The perception that the Blairites, headed up by the despised Tony himselff, are moving against Brown might lead the rest of the party to rally to Brown's tattered standard in the short term.

I certainly don't see how it weakens him with the sizable anti-Blairite wing of the Labour Party.

[Joss]

I agree - this is a complete NON story.

Like just about every other political gossip story.

The reason? Mostly the fact that the vast majority of people in this country will have no interest in it what-so-ever

This has always been the problem with political reporting and has been taken up by political blogging; most political opinion does not matter. It is a few preaching to the few.

Which maybe why I turned my own blog into a cooking site - it has more meat in it!

[Uncle Vanya]

'Pot, Kettle, Black, Pot, Kettle, Black, Pot, Kettle, Black!' Oh woe to ye, ye timerous beastie. Doth MacBlair come to Clowning Street to have Big Speaks about MacDuff Bean Broone?

Woe to those who beleive the stories of Ye strange things that go bump in the night. The dark night of Labour's demise. Oh Yeah!

[David Moss]

"This memo, its circulation and its leaking is direct evidence that there is a Blairite plot against the Prime Minister involving some of his predecessor's closest allies.

"If that isn't a story, what is?"

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Tony Blair is undermining Gordon Brown -- I think this story broke several months ago. I pointed it out to the editors of several broadcast and print outlets. There were no takers. Perhaps stories have a "time" and that just wasn't the time.

Cast your mind back to April. The government had trouble getting its own Finance Bill passed. Gordon Brown had abolished the 10 percent tax rate in his March 2007 Budget and that was about to take effect. 5 million people were going to suffer and Frank Field did what he could to help.

On 21 April 2008, the Guardian published an article by Martin Kettle, 'The 10p crisis's biggest loser'*, in which he says:

"... when Brown finally revealed the detail of his measures to Blair in private, just days before his speech on March 21 [2007], Blair naturally quizzed his chancellor about the changes in personal taxation. How many losers will there be from the abolition of the 10p rate, Blair asked Brown. My information is that Brown replied that there would be very few losers indeed - I am informed that he told Blair that the number would be about 25,000 ...

"Today the estimate is that more than 5 million of the poorest voters have lost out. The gap between what Brown said to Blair and what is now acknowledged is so great that it appears fairly clear that Brown gave Blair false information. My information is that Blair thinks this is the case."

Where could this information have come from?