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Cheers - AE

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Book review.

... Tom Logan, professor of politics at Reading University, said both men were pricks.
Go read the whole thing.

Other than The Mash it sounds to me like Blair's book is a shit read with a few gem quality digs about Gordon Brown to give us a good laugh.
Tony Blair uses his new book to expose Gordon Brown as a manipulative figure who lost a winnable election by abandoning the principles of New Labour.
The former prime minister’s memoir discloses that a “maddening” Mr Brown effectively blackmailed him while he was in No 10. He suspects the then chancellor of orchestrating the investigation into the cash-for-honours scandal.
I'd be shocked if it wasn't so plausible for the power crazed mandman.
The pressure on Mr Blair to step aside became so great that he admits he may have become reliant on alcohol as he faced coup attempts from Mr Brown’s supporters. He discloses that he began drinking every day and needed the “support” that alcohol provided.
Oh, cue violins. What is it with this fashion of whoring for sympathy by claiming that (insert whatever) drove you to the bottle? Harden the fuck up, Tony, or at least tell us it was line of charlie after cabinet meetings or something interesting.

Anyway, anguish over Iraq blablah mistakes about asylum seekers blah Diana was a manipulator like me (that's going to go down well with the Di worshippers) blblahblablah Queen is haughty (going to go down well with the monachists) blahblahblah didn't understand fuck all about Islam (no, really?) blahblah lied about stuff when truth inconvenient (ooh, there's a shock) and finally back to the Chthonic cockwit of Cowdenbeath:
... Mr Blair squarely lays the blame for Labour’s landslide general election defeat earlier this year on his successor’s change in strategy.
...
Mr Blair adds that Mr Brown was not a politician able to handle modern politics, which dissects personality and was uncomfortable in the role of average citizen.
In an interview with Andrew Marr to be broadcast later today he said that towards the end of his premiership the relationship between the two was "hard going on impossible".
"The difficulty is when he was my number two, in sense, the chancellor to my prime minister, people maybe overestimated his capacity to be prime minister," Mr Blair said.
Not me, you grinning mutation, and not a hell of a lot of other people. And by the sounds of it not you either.
For the first time, Mr Blair discloses his deep misgivings about Mr Brown but concludes he was effectively powerless to remove him.
He describes the prospect of removing the chancellor in 2004, when many of his supporters were urging him to act, as almost impossible because of the support that the chancellor had.
But while we're laughing at his sliding the knife into Gordon while simultaneoulsy, and in typical Blair fashion, professing admiration for him let's not forget what a nasty, authoritarian, cock slot Blair himself is. He's even provided a nicve little reminder.
Mr Blair also addresses the contentious issues of the identity card scheme, since dropped by the Tories, describing the opposition to the cards for civil liberties reasons as absurd.
What a complete c...
He was convinced ID cards were the way forward because he could see no other alternative to dealing with illegal immigration and because he thought ID cards would simplify transactions such as mortgage applications and bank withdrawals.
...unt! What the hell did mortgage applications (with the possible exception of Peter Mandelson's) and bank withdrawals have to with you? This is such bullshit I find it incredible that even you believe it, and since you are now a self confessed liar why would anyone think different?

But the most entertaining stuff I've seen so far (other than TDM of course) was in The Australian:
TONY Blair has lashed his successor in his memoirs, saying Gordon Brown's reign as prime minister was "a disaster" that was "never going to work".

But Blair has also admitted he lied to prevent the collapse of the Northern Ireland peace process, saying he took “horrendous” chances and stretched the truth “past breaking point” as he dealt with deadlocked unionists and republicans.

...

In [the book] he writes that Brown had “zero” emotional intelligence, was “maddening”, “difficult” and wore him down with “relentless personal pressure”.

...

While acknowledging Brown's strengths, his succession was “unwise because it was never going to work,” Blair wrote.

Brown lacked the political instinct “at the human gut level”, Blair said.

“Political calculation, yes. Political feelings, no. Analytical intelligence, absolutely. Emotional intelligence, zero.”

“It is easy to say now, in the light of his tenure as prime minister, that I should have stopped it; at the time that would have been well nigh impossible,” Blair wrote.

...

The party lost the May election because “it stopped being New Labour”. Unless Brown defined himself thus, his premiership “was going to be a disaster. I knew it.”
All good fun, and no doubt it's sent Gordon scurrying firstly back to his computer to crank out some similar digs at Blair, and secondly back to his local Carphone Warehouse for fresh Nokias. It's almost worth buying their books except of course this entertainment will soon be over. Far better, I feel, to introduce the new (blood)sport of All-in Former Political Ultimate Cage Fighting.

Two cunts enter, then we all leave.

3 comments:

Oldrightie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Oldrightie said...

Nice work, matey. All excellent points. However the shit that drove you and millions of others to leave has cost us our grandkids futures as well as our own. What a bastard of a mutation Labour are.

Angry Exile said...

Whenever the subject of me leaving comes up I have to say for the record that I wasn't driven to leave, I just wasn't sad when I did and have never once felt homesick for Britain. Some certainly do feel driven out and I've met a few, but plenty of migrants go to their new countries rather than run from the one they were born in (and that's not just relevant to the UK). Others miss the place like crazy and end up going back despite all its faults. I'd probably never have thought about coming to Oz if it wasn't for my Aussie missus, and if I had left Britain for anywhere of my own choosing it'd probably have been for the US. On the other hand I can't argue about Labour (shame the Cobbleition are no better) and if Britain hadn't been such a shithole Mrs Exile would almost certainly have been happy to stay there.

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