Tony Blair Archive from January - March 1998
From The Sunday Telegraph, March 1, 1998:
"He [Gerhard Schroder] revels in the nickname 'Herr Blair'. But the man most likely to end Chancellor Kohl's 16-year reign as German leader admits to being terrified by the British prime minister's apparent 'missionary' zeal.
"Mimicking Tony Blair is a central part of the plan to defeat Mr Kohl in elections this autumn, but he confesses to some uneasiness. 'The TV pictures of Blair rather frightened me,' he said in a recent interview. 'There is something of a religious awakening in his attitude, a missionary touch about him.'..."
From The Times, February 28, 1998:
"Downing Street has made a guarded apology to Sir Gordon Downey, the parliamentary standards watchdog, for Tony Blair's failure to declare a free day's racing with Bernie Ecclestone, I can disclose. Aides of the PM have contacted Sir Gordon saying 'sorry' for neglecting to register free tickets for himself, Cherie, and their children at the 1996 Silverstone Grand Prix. Blair met Ecclestone, the Formula One swell who later donated £1 million to Labour, and enjoyed the usual pit-lane hospitality, normally available at £1,850 for a family of five..."
From The Times, February 28, 1998:
"...Mr Blair has, on his own road to Hyde Park, executed a series of smart reverses, twisting policy to appease but never directly retreating...
"...When the Editor of Country Life was rung by No 10 in the middle of last week he knew that the Prime Minister was more than ordinarily anxious to appease the gumbooted legions preparing to march on London. The country house journal of the tweedy tendency has been unsparing in its criticism of the Government's neglect of rural concerns and the PM was keen, if not to defuse, at least to deflect the anger.
"Mr Blair has used Country Life before the election to establish his rural credentials and the photograph that graced that article also accompanied his piece this week. In immaculate white shirt and avant-garde tie the Prime Minister looks ruminatively at the camera while some, placidly sane, cattle decorate the background ...."
From Stephen Glover's column in The Daily Telegraph, February 27, 1998:
"...We have to assume, I think, that these Blairites may be around for some time. On the whole they form a pretty colourless nomenklatura - as nomenklatura invariably do. They are not a lot of fun. Lord Irvine is not a lot of fun either, but at least he is a figure of fun, with his sententious gargoyle face and pompous overblown prose. To read his letter to Black Rod is to experience something akin to comic joy. 'When I was first appointed Lord Chancellor,' he drones, 'my Permanent Secretary, Sir Thomas Legg, impressed upon me the advantages for me, both as Lord Chancellor and as Speaker, of living in the residence. I took the view that there was much to be said for accepting that advice.'..."
From The Guardian, February 26, 1998:
"Damon Albarn, lead singer of the pop group Blur, yesterday described Labour's attempts to court musicians and artists as vulgar and disgusting ..."
From Hugo Young's column in The Guardian, February 26, 1998:
"...As a political choice, the Dome is part of a rotten message. The signals it sends out may be convenient for Labour but, in the totality of the Labour project, they are depressing and wrong-headed. They're a statement about what the Blair Government thinks of British culture. There's been a lot of trite talk about schools and hospitals, as if the only test for public spending must be rigidly utilitarian. Philistine nonsense. But comparisons with arts spending are highly relevant. Music, theatre, museums, visual arts, opera: many temples of great culture, all over the country, are struggling to survive, while a fortune exceeding that spent on the entire Getty Museum in Los Angeles, which was built for the centuries to house work for the ages, is lavished on a cultural statement that is proud to proclaim its utter ephemerality..."
From an article by Roy Hattersley in The Observer, February 22, 1998:
"...In her days of greatest anguish, Clare Short - traduced in private briefings for suggesting the rich might pay more in tax - believed that the two men played 'good cop and bad cop'. Blair, she told her friends, gave his emollient smile while Campbell with the Prime Minister's approval, did the dirty work ..."
From The Daily Mirror leader, February 21, 1998:
"Lord Chancellor Derry Irvine is one of Tony Blair's closest allies.
"But best friends need to be told home truths once in a while.
"The fact is that Lord Irvine is fast becoming a national joke.
"The Lord Chancellor is making the Prime Minister look bad and damaging the reputation of the Government.
"He personally chose 87 works of art from galleries for his plush London flat.
"That's at least £1m worth of treasures for an apartment that's already costing £650,000 to be 'refurbished'.
"The Lord Chancellor should get back to doing his job.
"That means more time on improving justice and less on interior decoration."
From The Sunday Times' profile of Eric Anderson - one of Blair's teachers at Fettes - February 15, 1998:
"'He was forever knocking at my study door,' says Anderson. 'Round it would come the grinning Blair face, which said, 'Sir, I don't think this rule or that rule is right, can we change it?' He was rumbustious, maddening, pretty full of himself and very argumentative.' Blair was in Anderson's words, 'sometimes a pain in the neck'. There was, however, 'some sort of chemistry between us', and Blair's thespian talents were revealed when Anderson cast him as Mark Antony in Julius Caesar ...."
From an article by Paul Majendie, Reuters; February 13, 1998:
" ... Veteran theater director Sir Peter Hall used to rail against Margaret Thatcher with ever increasing fury during her years in power. Now he has turned his ire on Labour.
"'It's a disaster,' he said. 'The message seems to be that they are not going to support what I suppose they are calling the old arts -- opera, theater and ballet. This is rather worse than the excesses of Thatcherism.'
"Alan McGee, head of Creation records where Oasis have become the multi-million selling rock group of the Nineties, is also dismayed.
"McGee, who donated 50,000 pounds to Labour's election campaign, said: 'It's all surface with Blair. Of course the likes of me and (Oasis star) Noel Gallagher are there to be used, especially before the election' ... "
From The Sunday Telegraph, February 8, 1998:
"Tony Blair is facing the biggest backbench rebellion and cabinet split since he came to power. More than 80 Labour MPs are expected to oppose plans to water down legislation on workers' rights and to use Tory laws to crack down on strikers.
"...One MP who attended the meeting said: 'If this turns out to be another disaster, Tony Blair will have no one to blame but himself. The party will know it is his policy and there will be plenty of people who will not forgive him'..."
From The Daily Mirror, February 7, 1998:
"A maverick Labour MP yesterday called his new women colleagues robots with a 'chip inserted into their brain'.
"Left-winger, Brian Sedgemore angered scores of newly-elected MPs in his party by comparing them to women in the film The Stepford Wives.
" ... And Mr Sedgemore declared:'New Labour wants art that is a pungent as processed cheese, as soul-searching as a conversation between Po, Laa-Laa, Dipsy and the other Teletubby, as original as Dolly the Sheep.'
"But the MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch went on to joke:'Like all New Labour MPs, I've been programmed by Millbank to stay on message for 1,000 years without having my batteries topped up' ..."
From The Sunday Times, February 1, 1998:
"Prime Minister's questions is waiting for an answer. When will Tony Blair give a direct reply to a query from an opposition leader?
"The Labour leader is being accused of using 'stonewalling' tactics on William Hague and Paddy Ashdown to avoid difficult questions during his weekly grilling in the Commons.
"An analysis by the Sunday Times of the 21 prime ministerial question times since Labour came to power last may shows that he has failed to give direct answers on at least 16 of the occasions....
"...Psychologists note he is increasingly abusive to Hague. The insults have grown as the Tory leader has shown no flicker of emotion at any of Blair's put-downs...
"...Lord Blake, the constitutional historian, said PMQs had shown up a defect in Blair's character. 'He is petulant and rather ill-tempered...'..."
From Michael White's article 'Blair & Co do hate the Guardian' in The Guardian, January 30, 1998:
" ... Asked about a John Gray article he said he admires the LSE professor, but: 'I don't spend a lot of time reading the Guardian nowadays. I prefer to read a Labour paper.' The audience tittered nervously. Ten minutes later he dismissed another recent article by Prof Gray - which detailed welfare cuts inherited from the Tories - as 'complete nonsense'.
"This abuse is short-sighted and stupid, but Mr Blair, his ministerial allies and officials do it all the time. He accused the paper of mischief-making at this week's NEC. His spokesman, Alastair Campbell, regularly berates the Guardian at lobby briefings. They both tell people to read the Times.
"Challenged to justify a Blair appearance in the Mail, Mr Campbell, who sometimes behaves like a chippy school drop-out (but actually went to Cambridge), told the Guardian: 'Your news coverage has moved into full betrayal mode. Statistical facts are now 'black propaganda', spread by 'desperate spin doctors' as part of a 'frantic damage limitation exercise'. The facts are lost, just as the facts on lone parents were lost in your coverage.'
"But Mr Blair was glad enough to hurl the Guardian's cash-for-questions findings at William Hague during Question Time this week. What's more, none of them ever lambasts the Murdoch or Rothermere press for their mischief or mistakes (we all make them; so do ministers) or their eagerness to spread Robin Cook's private life endlessly across their pages.
"Why does he do it? Because Labour activists read the Guardian, which is broadly supportive of Labour's goals, but - like the Luton audience - not slavishly so. New Labour news managers love control. The Guardian is hard to control (even by its editor!); other, more top-down papers are more easily squared.
"In every country in which Mr Murdoch operates (and minimises his tax bill) he is a power-broker, speaking power, not truth, unto power through his diverse media outlets. The Blairites have charmed Lord Rothermere and made a Faustian bargain with Rupert. They think they have a good bargain..."
From Danny Rosenbaum and Alexander Games's article in Punch, Issue 47:
"... The figures at the centre of this controversy are Robert Earl, the multi-millionaire boss of the Planet Hollywood chain, and Mark McCormack, head of the sports sponsorship company IMG.
"It was Earl who came to the rescue of the Labour Party late last year, after Blair had been forced to agree to return a £1 million donation from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in the cash-for-fag-ads scandal. But, in stumping up the £1 million to make up the shortfall, Earl may precipitate a controversy of similar proportions. For we can reveal that he is a close business associate of McCormack, who stands to make £9 million from a contract negotiated by Mandelson to line up private sponsors for the Dome.
"The celebrity restaurant chain Planet Hollywood, chaired by Earl, counts McCormack among its coterie of directors. McCormack joined the board on June 1 1996, and on July 18 last year he signed the Planet Hollywood registration statement as executive vice president...."
From The Guardian, January 27, 1998:
"Details of the design and cost of Tony and Cherie Blair's newly-fitted kitchen remained a mystery last night as Tory questioning revealed only the overall cost of five years of refurbishments at Downing Street.
"As the nation waited to learn whether the First Family had plumped for Shaker or Smallbone, the Prime Minister's office disclosed little more than that £155,000 had been spent on the flat in No 10 since 1993 and £105,000 on the No 11 flat, now home to the Blairs.
"In the financial year 1997-8, a total of £126,000 had been spent on Nos 10 and 11, Downing Street said an answer to a question tabled by Eric Forth, Conservative MP for Bromley and Chislehurst. That had included work to refurbish previously unused rooms in No 11 now used as family rooms by the Blairs.
" ... The only clue last night to the possible style of the Blairs' Downing Street refurbishments remained the design of the kitchen of their former home in Islington revealed in the "Blair - The Movie" election broadcast, where tantalising glimpses of a spice rack and units were spotted behind the then leader of the opposition. Photographs of the Prime Minister in his Sedgefield constituency home reveal the classic Islingtonian elements of Aga-style stove and pine table...
" ... As the assorted rows over patronage and perks at the public expense continue, Paddy Ashdown will tonight join the attack, accusing Mr Blair of undermining his own mission to restore trust in politics with 'the glamour and glitz of the new Camelot' and calling for 'frugality'..."
From The Observer, January 25, 1998:
"...But that very same day Bell had earned the wrath of New Labour's machine. The Prime Minister found himself mired in sleaze allegations ....
"Blair winced at Bell's attack.
"To have revealed the story of the legal bill that very day might have been considered unsubtle. Three months passed. Then the Mirror landed its scoop.
"The author of the Mirror exclusives, Will Woodward, is a former lobby correspondent of the Hartlepool Mail...
"...Friends of Bell note the irony of this particular cash-for-questions scandal. 'Martin asks a question about Labour's cosying up to a million-pound donor, one who promotes cigarettes and, thereby, cancer. Then he has to pay nine grand. He had better save up before he asks another question.'"
From The Sunday Times, January 25, 1998:
"Labour MPs are threatening a backbench rebellion after accusing Tony Blair of breaking Labour's election manifesto promise to boost trade union rights in the workplace..."
From The Guardian, January 24, 1998:
"...It is right that Mr Blair should want a smooth-running machine. The problem is if the Government confuses, as politicians have done down the centuries, the message and the messenger: it is still far from clear, not least on welfare, what the message is. Those in the leadership circle blame the media for many of the rows of the last few months: lone parents, the Ecclestone affair and the Blair-Brown rift. If they truly believe that it is just a matter of controlling the agenda, they are in trouble.
"Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is disillusionment in many areas, especially among traditional Labour supporters, and that the Government has squandered much of the goodwill it inherited on May 1. That will only be redressed when it is seen to be expending as much energy on the message as it does on the means of delivering it."
From The Scotsman, January 20, 1998:
"It is a remarkable admission for a Labour prime minister, even one who revels in the prefix 'new'. The traditional European social democratic model no longer works, he says. It is time to study what is wrong with it and replace it with something better.
"The Left in Britain and the rest of Europe has long realised that Tony Blair is not a socialist in the usual meaning of the word. Now it seems he even has doubts about the philosophy's more moderate manifestation, social democracy, which has dominated mainstream European thinking since the Second World War.
"This distances Mr Blair not just from the likes of Lionel Jospin, France's conventional socialist prime minister. It puts him to the right (to use outdated and inadequate terminology) of a Christian Democrat like Germany's Helmut Kohl..."
From The Observer, January 18, 1998:
"Tony Blair has moved to rein in Chancellor Gordon Brown, with Downing Street launching an assault on the Treasury's handling of a series of government crises.
"The sources are blaming the Treasury for mishandling the Geoffrey Robinson affair, cuts in single parent benefits and the Government's single currency policy. A senior source inside Downing Street claimed Mr Brown had 'psychological flaws'..."
From The Daily Telegraph, January 17, 1998:
"Lady Castle accused the Prime Minister of delivering a 'mish-mash of moralising' over planned welfare reforms, writes Joy Copley.
"Dismissing Tony Blair's 'clever words', the former social security secretary said protecting the basic state pension and linking it to earnings was the best way to ensure a secure old age...."
From Bob Holman's article in The Guardian, January 17, 1998:
"...New Labour now exalts the powerful, and speaks disparagingly of the poor as welfare dependents. The Daily Mail writes of 'Tony Blair's glitzy champagne parties.' His door is open to millionaires like Bernie Ecclestone to advocate their business interests. It is not open to the unemployed and low-paid..."
From The Scotsman, 15 January 1998:
"The Prime Minister is 'sad and dismayed' at claims in a controversial biography of the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, that he reneged on a deal between the two men over the Labour leadership contest three years ago...
" ...Despite assurances from the Prime Minister's official spokesman yesterday that Mr Blair considered the book to be no more than 'trivia', The Scotsman has learned that the revelations have annoyed him and that he is 'baffled' by Mr Brown's decision to become involved in the publication so soon after the election.
"A source close to the Prime Minister said yesterday he was "sad and dismayed" at the book and the row it had created, but is at a loss about what to do...
" ... The row has split Labour MPs at Westminster, many of whom feel that the rift has severely damaged the relationship between the Government's two most important figures.
"Another senior minister told The Scotsman that in his view the book had seriously "de-stabilised" the relationship between the two men.
"The minister, a close ally of Mr Blair, said he thought it was hard to see how the relationship could recover...."
From Boris Johnson's column in The Daily Telegraph, January 14, 1998:
"It was confrontation time last night in Downing Street, apparently. A livid Tony Blair flew in to have it out with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 'Brown faces Premier's wrath' said the headlines. Blair wanted an explanation from Brown, we were told, and it had better be good ...
"...The reality, perhaps, is that Brown was always likely to lose a race against Blair. He was too dour, too Old Labour, for the task Mandelson had in mind. But it was Gordon Brown who had the credentials. Blair just had the teeth..."
From The BBC, January 12, 1998:
"The British Prime Minister Tony Blair may be on a high-profile tour of Japan, extolling the virtues of British Industry, but many local people could be left wondering who he is.
"That is because 4% of Japanese believe the Prime Minister of Britain is, in fact, Prince Charles.
"The revelation comes in a Royal Mail survey of international attitudes towards Britain that finds foreigners do not know as much about Britain as we may like...
"... Several interesting candidates for PM emerged from the results. While footballer Alan Shearer may be best known as England's deadliest striker, 3% of Indians believe he leads the country as well.
"And the bad news continues for Tony Blair.
"It seems that his landslide victory on May 1 last year did not make headlines in the Indian subcontinent where an enormous 26% of people still think John Major rules the roost at 10 Downing street.
"One in six Americans and South Africans think the same.
"And Virgin boss Richard Branson's ballooning efforts may have boosted his profile in Germany where 4% of people believe Prime Minister Branson leads the nation...
From The Daily Telegraph, January 12, 1998:
"...Mr Blair and his allies are furious that the publication scheduled for next week [of the biography of Gordon Brown], has raked up controversy over the rivalry between the two and distracted from Labour's achievements in office.
"Extracts, published in Scotland yesterday, allege that Mr Brown believed he was the victim of a 'gay smear' orchestrated by Blair supporters before the 1994 leadership contest.
"The author, Paul Routledge, was quoted as naming Peter Mandelson, now the minister without portfolio, and Alastair Campbell, now Mr Blair's press secretary, as conducting a dirty tricks campaign against Mr Brown after John Smith's death..."
From William Keegan's column in The Observer, January 11, 1998:
"Is Tony Blair single-handedly reviving the left-wing in this country? I ask this question only half in jest, because there are several hands helping the Prime Minister in this 'project'. Apart from anything else, Blair himself does not appear to spend enough time in this country to accomplish the revival of the Left entirely on his own..."
From The Observer, January 11, 1998:
"... The book itself [Routledge's biography of Gordon Brown] is hardly likely to create great tension between Brown and Blair themselves - both will dismiss it as journalistic tittle-tattle - but it will deepen the tensions inside the party by revealing the extent to which Brownites regard their man as the authentic voice of Labour, and Blair as a middle-class impostor ..."
From The Times, January 10, 1998 - edited extract from Gordon Brown: the Biography by Paul Routledge:
"Peter Mandelson showed his hand to Gordon Brown in a letter that superficially offered him support but was plainly freighted with subversive intent. He argued that if Brown stood against Blair it would inevitably damage Labour and Gordon would be blamed for splitting the party. Nonetheless, Mandelson offered to front Brown's campaign should he decide to run, but the offer was a cleverly worded invitation to stand aside for Blair. It was a well-crafted letter. It also gave the game away. Understandably, Brown did not reply."
From The Daily Telegraph, January 10, 1998:
"Tony Blair issued a clear warning to Labour faint-hearts that he would not be deflected by short-term unpopularity or internal criticism from carrying through his welfare and social reforms, saying he intended to 'go the Full Monty' in pushing through his agenda.
"His reference to the highly acclaimed film about male strippers was greeted with as much bemusement as amusement in a speech to Japanese businessmen on the first day of his visit to Japan, but its tone will be clearly understood by his backbenchers...."
From Jeremy Hardy's column in The Guardian, January 10, 1998:
"It is now widely stated that Blair idolises rich people. But he has got off too lightly, because this affection is so often represented as an adolescent crush. If he had filled the Cabinet with pop stars and footballers, one might believe this, and it might be possible to look upon him in a kindlier way. It would be quite sweet to have a new Premier who tells all his school friends: 'Of course I'm not going to forget you. I want you all to come and live with me in Number Ten Downing Street!'..."
From The Guardian, January 9, 1998:
"Gordon Brown is convinced he could have beaten Tony Blair in a contest for Labour's leadership and that the Prime Minister broke a secret pact between them, according to a forthcoming authorised biography of the Chancellor ..."
From The Evening Standard, January 9, 1998:
"The deserted wife of Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has expressed her bitterness at her treatment by Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson blaming them for their part in the break-up of her 28-year marriage...
"... Mrs Cook said she and her husband were being driven to Heathrow on 1 August last year, on their way to a holiday in Montana, when Mr Campbell called the Foreign Secretary's mobile phone to give him one hour to decide whether to stay with his wife or end his marriage ..."
From The Times, January 7, 1998:
"The Government's new individual savings accounts will earn the Exchequer between £3 billion and £5 billion in saved tax relief over the lifetime of the next Parliament, the Liberal Democrats claimed last night. Malcolm Bruce, the party's Treasury spokesman insisted that Tony Blair had failed to be open and honest about the relief."
From The Independent, January 6, 1998:
"...Under Blair, the gathering of all political power in Downing Street, and a distinct social bossiness offers thinking Tories some interesting ammunition ..."
From The Sunday Telegraph, January 4, 1998:
"When Tony Blair takes tea this afternoon with President Albert Rene under the waving tropical palms of the Seychelles, the two leaders may choose to compare notes on how they came to power.
"The Prime Minister won a landslide election. Mr Rene staged a coup...
"Mr Blair is the first serving British prime minister to visit the republic since independence from Britain in 1976. A year later, when the first president, James Mancham, was in London for the Queen's Silver Jubilee, Mr Rene staged a coup.
"Recent attempts to get any British minister to visit have been unsuccesful. Only last year, Lady Chalker, the former overseas development minister, cancelled a scheduled visit at short notice. She was reportedly advised that the President would refuse to discuss allegations that the islands might be being used as a money-laundering haven...."
From Simon Hoggart's column in The Guardian, 3 January 1998:
" ... If Tony Blair really wanted to reform the Lords, instead of filling it up with more party placemen and lobby fodder; he could add a few 'ordinary' people - those whose lives are too full in other ways to bother about a career in politics, but who could bring real knowledge and experience to our legislature. Of course he won't; he could never be sure which way they'd vote ..."
From Susan Taylor Martin's nominees for 1997 awards on Nando.net, January 2, 1997:
MOST INTRIGUING NEW WORLD LEADER: British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He looks like Puck in a business suit, sounds like a Shakespearean actor and is young enough (44) that President Clinton ought to consider getting a bottle of Grecian Formula whenever the two appear together.
MOST INTRIGUING SPOUSE OF A WORLD LEADER: Cherie Blair, wife of above and a Crown Court judge. Any woman who can make $322,000 a year and look good in a white horse-hair wig gets my vote.