Blair Affair Nightmare: Adam Boulton's Book

Adam Boulton writes up the Blair administration tenure of 10 years, skipping all important information and delivering a eulogy on a war criminal.

Adam Boulton, Sky’s political editor, has published a book on the Blair (blah) years, Tony’s Ten Years: Memoirs of the Blair Administration, published by Simon & Schuster. Being married to Anji Hunter, the yearlong personal assistant to the Prime Minister, one would have expected more. On the other hand, one is not surprised that it is one sided and slightly boring, missing out on all major points of interest.

Throughout Tony Blair’s infamous tenancy at number 10, Boulton reported every row, revolt, reshuffle and resignation. Boulton nowadays tries to set himself up as the Walter Cronkite of Britain, just as infamously trying to make capital out of no news items.

He has written a book that pretends to take the reader behind the scenes of contemporary history by intercepting unflattering but unimportant details of the daily work in cabinet. Tony will be ever so pleased with this eulogy, a flattery so sickening treacle syrup is salty and sour in comparison. He even makes a case that only Blair could have made the Northern Ireland peace process work by his skill and temperament. He doesn’t address the real questions though, is it at an end? How much was paid to bank accounts of Northern Irish politicians to make them swallow it? Because the only cause for a freedom fight like the Irish one (or any other) is always and only the personal enrichment of its leaders.

To make the fairytale more digestible to the less credulous reader, he sprinkles negative information into the book, well dosed not to distract from the great hero, just enough to make it believable. He reveals some of the lies, the blackmails, the bullying and the cheating of Downing Street and its inhabitant. But we knew that all before, even if some details might not have been common knowledge. He goes in great detail into the Prescott election incident. Yawn. Yes, we know.

He also writes about many other persons than only Blair Superman, for example about Lord Mandelson of Sleaze, and most come off very creditably. Which cabinet were we talking about? It is to hope that a person less hypocritically inclined will someday give us the true story of it all. Obviously, strong inducements have been brought to bear on Boulton and his wife to publish this hand tame accolade.

He analyses Blair’s press officer Campbell as a ruthless bully and a compulsive liar. Well, that was exactly why he had become press officer one is tempted to say. He had to give word of a Prime Minister who was a compulsive liar and a ruthless bully. So no surprise there either.

He goes into the ignorance of Blair, for example his complete ignorance of the Balfour Declaration which laid the foundation of a State Israel in the lands rightfully belonging to the people of Palestine. But we knew he was an ignorant git, anyhow, so what is new about that? To this day I am not even convinced that Blair is literate.

There are many faults in little details, not even worth mentioning, and dates, that are not really that important to warrant making a list of them. The main problem of the book is that it doesn’t address any real issues. All the meat is missing on the bone, because the writer carefully avoids going into the troublesome spots of that Prime Minister’s tenure at Downing Street.

The obvious lapse concerns world politics. He does not tell us what made the man become a war criminal, ordering and abetting the manslaughter of tens of thousands innocent people in Iraq, locals and British alike. He leaves us in the dark by what means he was convinced of the Bush game, if by flattery, by blackmail, or by pecuniary inducements, and hereby consented to kill British Boys and Girls in the friendly fire of incompetent American marksmen.

Did Blair know that Bush was lying through his teeth when telling the world about Iraqi weapons? Did he know that it had been Bush’s company which had sold chemical weapons to Iraq? Did he know that the CEO in charge of that company at that time was some Hilary Rodham Clinton? And how much was he paid for keeping quiet? How much was he paid for sending troops into a war that is and was only in the interest of the Bush family’s firms in weapons and oil?

Or let’s quote Tony Blair: ‘It is of paramount importance that ministers give accurate and truthful information to Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity.’ So stated in the ministerial code of July 2001 drawn up by the same Tony Blair at that time PM (for Prime Minister) of the United Kingdom.

While Tony Blair was PM, the Government put a ban on all tobacco advertising. All tobacco advertising, except that of a very rich man. We talk of Bernie Ecclestone, the man who makes millions each year from Formula 1 motor sports. The PM declared to Parliament that the exclusion of Formula 1 sports events from the ban had been done through normal Whitehall procedures. In reality, the decision was taken by Blair himself only hours after meeting Ecclestone in Downing Street.

Furthermore in May 2004, leaked documents and shocking photographic evidence exposed the nauseating practices of maltreatment commonly used by U.S. personnel on Iraqi prisoners. Abu Ghraib has become a name of shame, and nobody will ever trust a United States Government again after that. These atrocities have put a further fatal taint on all US troops after the Vietnam War and many more crimes against civilians and prisoners.

After the international outcry over this barbarism, Tony Blair played the dumb coxcomb he is and pretended not to know anything. ‘It is not correct that ministers or I were aware of those allegations in respect of American troops.’ This statement was never corrected.

Now, Bill Rammel, who was a Junior Foreign Office minister at that time, has issued a statement to the effect that he had been briefed by the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross during a meeting in Geneva taking place seven weeks before the PM made the above statement to the Commons. He further stated that he convened an emergency meeting of Foreign Office officials immediately and was assured there that defence ministers were aware of the fact and had taken steps.

This goes to show, Tony Blair is not only a war criminal, but also a liar. He has actively demoted the post of Prime Minister to that of menial helper of a war crazed chimpanzee. As every politician is hankering after the post of PM (for Prime Minister) all his life, all his life is spent in training to be PM (for Principally Mendacious). Now, if you are somebody who likes to read what he already knows, then fine, the style is pleasing. The news content is zero, most grievously, considering that a person in the know would have been handy to give the information necessary to tell the real truth. But every penny spent on books like this one must be considered active pollution of the environment.