Thirty Days: Tony Blair and the Test of History

I found this book to be an interesting read because it follows the day to day and hour by hour activities of PM Blair. Having said that it lacks a lot of the details and fails to answer some of the pressing questions.

This book does an excellent job of following the daily activities of Blair starting 10 days before the Iraq invasion and for 20 days after that event. It gives an excellent insider's view of what he does during a day, how he handles stress, and living conditions at Number 10. It describes who he talks to, who gives him what advice on what subject, how he handles travel, phone calls, meetings, advisors, etc. It even covers what he eats and his preparations for the question period in parliament.

What it lacked was the definitive comments from Blair why he was going to war. By the time the book starts, Blair has made up his mind to close ranks with Bush and support him with military assistance, and he had decided that was essential to preserve trans Atlantic unity.

So the book is very interesting, very well written, but more about the process than the rational of his activities. I preferred Tony Blair: The Making of a World Leader by Philip Stephens.

There will always be an excuse in England (4/28 people found this helpful)

There will always be an England, according to the refrain of the song I learned in the first grade of school; it's just that we
never dreamed Britain would one day be a poodle trembling under the wings of the American eagle.

Tony Blair, as this book abundantly makes clear, is England's "Cleopatra" to the mighty George "Caesar" Bush. When you
think of how Caesar used Cleopatra, for his own personal pleasure and the benefit of Rome, you get an idea of how this book
portrays Blair.

It is an incisive book in many ways, and because of that it is also very sad. The goal seems to be one of fawning
obsequiousness to Blair's decision to support Bush's war on Iraq. Sadly, little details seep through to thoroughly undermine the
decisive image sought by Blair.

Stothard writes of Blair's visit to Camp David, "The hosts' first view of their British guests is of the cleverest men in Whitehall,
without a raincoat between them, muttering nervous words about having 'only one suit' while rain lashes in horizontal lines over
the tarmac." Geeeee. These Brits, who think they can advise and guide an American oil-patch president, didn't think to phone
ahead and ask about the weather?

Okay, another example. Near the end of the war, President Bush flew to "Merry Old Ireland" to meet Blair at Hillsborough
Castle, just outside Belfast. Once again, Stothard is at his unwitting best, "The Prime Minister is not having his normal cooked
breakfast; there's just bananas, melon, croissants, because that's what the Americans want." Geeeee. Even McDonalds is
sometimes able to come up with a more varied menu.

Who runs Britain? Not Blair, that's for sure. Stothard writes of a Scots Member of Parliament who "has several thousand
Catholic constituents who put the Pope's views before their Prime Minister." Blair's Foreign Secretary has problems of his own
because, "Muslim voters are well represented in Blackburn, Lancashire. They dislike the idea of their elected representative
helping the American takeover of a Muslim country."

Very early, he mentions plans to curb anti-social behaviour in Britain by "schemes to punish graffiti-writers and car-burners."
Graffiti is a problem? It can be solved very simply, quickly, easily and cheaply by having a few blokes with paint sprayers who
simply paint out any graffiti within 24-hours of it being reported. It works.

The whole book is written in this manner, expressing the idea "wouldn't life be nice if only somebody would do something." In
describing a speech that was pivotal to Blair's political survival, Stothard writes, "He has written most of them alone, in
longhand in blue ink, high in the small sitting room of the flat . . . ." Geeeeee. Doesn't Blair have any speechwriters or aides to
whom he can think out loud and get back several written draughts of a speech? It's little wonder Britain is so leaderless. If you
can't organize a staff to put together a speech, how can you get trains to run on time or clean up graffiti? Perhaps, as Cleopatra
realized one night while lying flat on her back, it's time to accept a pro-consul as the real ruler of the country.

Cleopatra had the guts to fight back. Her mistake was seducing Marc Antony, the wrong Caesar in the wrong place at the
wrong time. Instead of independent thinking, Stothard tells of a brilliant, principled, idealistic prime minister surrounded by
fawning toadies who are afraid to visit the "Gent's" without prior permission from Tony.

It's not that Stothard is unobservant. He sparkles in descriptions of the visit to Camp David. He contrasts the flock of puppies
bouncing along after the Blair Poodle to American presidential aides who are as independent as a bunch of posse riders
gathering at the campfire after having strung up a few rustlers.

The great weakness of this book is it's lack of revealing detail. He never came up with a typical daily schedule for Blair, and he
omitted the full text of Blair's "pivotal" speech to the House of Commons. Readers deserve to have that text, and possibly texts
of some of the other crucial statements or debates.

Ignoring the text of Blair's significant speeches is like writing a history of World War II and ignoring the speeches of Churchill,
Hitler and Roosevelt. Perhaps, though, that is Stothard's final message -- Blair is far from being a Churchill, or even a
Thatcher.

Nonetheless, it's a fascinating look at Blair. Stothard cites President Clinton and "the absurdities of the Monica Lewinsky
affair" for not taking greater military action. Maybe, in five or ten years time, Brits will look at the turmoil and terror in the
Middle East and ask plaintively, "Why can't we find our own Monica Lewinsky when we need her the most?"

On the other hand, if the "Mother of All Wars" which toppled Saddam Hussein proved to be the catalyst that set the Muslim
world onto the path of a docile, Allah-fearing, oil-pumping and trouble-free region and thank Blair as the "God-Father of all
Peace."

Thirty Days: Tony Blair and the Test of History

Peter Stothard

Reader Reviews:

More About Process Than Substance - But A Good Read (3/4 people found this helpful)

There will always be an excuse in England (4/28 people found this helpful)

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