The manner and style of yesterday’s resignation speech showed just how much of a presidential style of politics Tony Blair has brought us. We elected a Prime Minister, and created a President, and I’m sure that was never quite our intention, even if it was maybe his.
Looking back now, over these past ten years, and the reality which finally emerged from the long-held dream of a Labour government, what should we decide to make of Tony Blair ?
The press reviews are rightly mixed this week, as we witness both British and US soldiers perishing, for the most part pointlessly, each and every day.
And beyond Baghdad and back at home, it’s clear to anyone that this government is tired, and has been lame for far too long as it awaits the departure of the king. (more…)
The London bombers of 21st July 2004 were convicted today, including Omar Khyam and Jawad Akbar, from Crawley.
(This article was first published here on 01st April 2004; see alsothe 7/7 attacks on Londonand further writing underIraq).
Every week, since December, I’ve run this route. And all those months, I’ve run past that house, safely unaware that someone inside was planning to kill me.
It’s just seven miles, but in many ways it’s a microcosm of England. Starting alongside factories, warehouses and office blocks, across the main road by the new shopping park, and through the bleak housing estates. (more…)
Yes, I’d like to remind you, I’m running for President
- appreciate your vote, and here is an industrial love song. Joe Walsh, Eagles - November 1980
We’re having an election here. On 5th May.
So much has happened since our last, in 2001.
And can eight years really have gone by, since John Prescott was dancing away the London small hours to the heady optimism of D-Ream’s ‘Things can only get better’ ? (more…)
Early morning, November ‘04
Shot rings out in the Fallujah sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride
In the name of love
What more in the name of love ? Adapted from ‘Pride’ (’The Unforgettable Fire’, Island Records - October 1984) With apologies to U2 and the Rest of the World.
No, I didn’t run today.
Today’s workout: 4 x shame, 3 x guilt, 2 x despair, depression intervals.
Multiple repetitions.
Today is gonna be the day
That they’re gonna throw it back to you
By now you should’ve somehow
Realized what you gotta do
Oasis - October 1995
Some day you will find me
Caught beneath the landslide
In a champagne supercity in the sky
Oasis - October 1995
How can you make up for a lifetime of neglect ? Certainly neglect is what it had amounted to. Malign intent there hadn’t been, but the effect was the same either way. That was a thought to occupy me, as I joined the motorway at 5 am on Sunday morning, with a very long drive ahead and far too little sleep behind me. But I had to make amends, and this was the only way to do it.
Because for forty years and more, and I’m ashamed to admit it now, I’d just never been to Manchester. (more…)
Dear Tony
The peoples of the world are more or less united, and at the very least divided. With the exceptions of the US, UK and Spanish leaders, a world majority feels that there is not yet a case for war.
Millions protest in the streets, cabinet ministers resign in the face of their electorate’s overwhelming view that although there is a real case to answer, the case is not proven.
Everyone agrees that whilst there is a threat, actually there is no new threat here since 1991, and, crucially, that there is no link whatsoever demonstrated between Iraq and 9/11. (more…)
Dear Jonas It was amazing to read Ed’s account of thunder over the Texas plain on a blue Saturday morning.
Aspirations, beauty and death - these are thought-provoking counterpoints at a critical time in destiny.
It is truly my privilege to see such drama unfold through different eyes half a world away. To witness, and perhaps not to pass a view.
It’s just that as I run through a serene English winter’s afternoon, I wonder how will our two countries grieve the first seven victims of the forthcoming conflict ? And the next seven thousand, or seven hundred thousand ? (more…)
Barack Hussein Obama
this column is taking temporary residence deep in the snows of New Hampshire.
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148. Farewell to Tony Blair
