A Journey

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Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell's odd-couple podcast". Financial Times. The Financial Times. 28 March 2022. Archived from the original on 20 April 2022 . Retrieved 5 April 2022.

Campbell clashed with Adam Boulton on Sky News about the result of the 2010 general election, with the latter being reduced to shouting over both Campbell and the show's presenter. [33] The BBC’s new five-part series Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution is just the latest offering from this industry of gossip, speculation, and legacy-creation, albeit one with the unique achievement of featuring almost every major figure involved. But beyond the now iconic images of the New Labour years, there are some moments of real insight, and an overarching—if unintended—lesson for the politics of the Left. Some of the dialogue Blair uses to describe his first meeting with ElizabethII led to accusations of plagiarism from Peter Morgan, the screenwriter of The Queen, set during the first few months of Blair's premiership. Blair recalls his first meeting with ElizabethII in which she tells him, "You are my 10th prime minister. The first was Winston. That was before you were born." In the film, Helen Mirren's fictionalised ElizabethII says almost exactly the same thing. [79] [80] Morgan said it had been purely his own imagination. [79] Other accounts of the Blair years [ edit ]Hohmann, James (3 September 2010). "Blair Rooted for Bush to Win in '04". Politico. Allbritton Communications Company . Retrieved 9 November 2010. From the outset Blair's government played a significant role in the Northern Ireland peace process; in the book Blair admits to using "a certain amount of creative ambiguity" to secure an agreement, [23] claiming the process would not have succeeded otherwise. He says that he stretched the truth "on occasions past breaking point" in the run-up to the 2007 power-sharing deal which enabled the return of devolved legislative powers from Westminster to the Northern Ireland Executive. [24] Both Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin are praised for the part they played in the peace process. [24] Some commentators offered comparisons between A Journey and accounts of the Blair years written by other senior members of his government, particularly on Blair's relationship with Gordon Brown. David Goodhart of Prospect magazine wrote that in both Peter Mandelson's memoir The Third Man and the first volume of Alastair Campbell's Diaries (covering the 1994–97 period), "Blair is important, but a rather weak figure buffeted by events and by Gordon Brown. In Blair's own account, A Journey (in which Mandelson features hardly at all, and Gordon Brown only at the end) it is of course very different. Almost everything is driven forward by him; the new Labour project was not imminent in Britain's political history– it had to be shaped and moulded." [81] A similar theme was echoed by David Runciman in The London Review of Books, where he reflected that Mandelson's memoirs "provide a much more complete account of the Blair/Brown relationship", including details of Operation Teddy Bear, an aborted plot from 2003 to curb Brown's increasing influence as Chancellor by dividing the Treasury to create a separate Office of Budget and Delivery that would be controlled directly by the Cabinet Office. [82]

Mulholland, Hélène (8 September 2010). "Tony Blair Book Launch Party Cancelled". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 11 September 2010 . Retrieved 8 September 2010. Elgot, Jessica (29 May 2019). "Tom Watson calls Alastair Campbell's expulsion 'spiteful' ". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 8 June 2019 . Retrieved 11 June 2019. Yet, despite the legacy of bitter disappointment and disillusionment, New Labour maintains an ability to hog the media limelight, as the very existence of this series shows. The monthly public interventions of Tony Blair and the remarkable public rehabilitation of Alistair Campbell are obvious examples, but so too is Gordon Brown’s more recent re-invention as a radical campaigner on issues like Covid, climate change, and devolution.

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As we all know, despite the largest public demonstrations in British history, Britain invaded Iraq, leading to the death of hundreds of thousands. While Blair never fully admits it, it is of no doubt he appears at least personally haunted by the decision. The traumatic calamity and futility of it all is perhaps best demonstrated by his change in tone when publicly discussing the war. Whereas in the past he maintained a sense of moral certainty, the best he can now offer is a plea for others to at least understand his side of the argument. Tony Blair Cancels Book Signing amid Protest Fears". BBC News. BBC. 6 September 2010 . Retrieved 15 November 2010. This, alongside a culture that made a virtue of spin, deception, and manipulation, eroded support both within the party and across the country. Perhaps most fundamentally, the culture of political deception, beginning first with the Bernie Ecclestone affair and ending with Iraq, shook the nation’s faith in the integrity of politicians and the political process. This vacuum of public confidence in establishment politics was subsequently filled by the populist right. Rentoul, John (3 September 2010). "A Journey, by Tony Blair". The Independent. Independent Print. Archived from the original on 4 September 2010 . Retrieved 7 September 2010. The Blair Years". The Random House Group. Archived from the original on 18 February 2009 . Retrieved 13 August 2007.

Gala Dinner Serves Up a 50,000 Booster at Turf Moore". Burnley Express. Archived from the original on 15 August 2017 . Retrieved 8 May 2017. In 2012, Campbell made his first appearance in an acting role with a small part in an episode of the BBC drama Accused. [38] a b Blake, Heidi (1 September 2010). "Tony Blair: Gordon Brown Had 'Zero' Emotional Intelligence". Telegraph.co.uk. London: Telegraph Media Group. Archived from the original on 4 September 2010 . Retrieved 9 November 2010. Campbell has described himself as a pro-faith atheist, and his statement "we don't do God" is one of his more repeated soundbites. However, he was asked in late 2017 by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, whom Campbell had interviewed for GQ, to contribute to his book on the meaning of Christmas. History of Aireworth Veterinary Surgery". Archived from the original on 30 December 2011 . Retrieved 11 July 2012.In May 2022 it was announced that Campbell would appear in the Channel 4 political entertainment series Make Me Prime Minister, due to broadcast at the end of September 2022. [98] [99]

No Royal Honour for Tony Blair, Queen Upset by Revelations in Memoir". NDTV. New Delhi Television. 5 September 2010 . Retrieved 9 November 2010.THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE BULLSHIT – HOW TORY MPS ARE DEALING WITH COMPLAINTS ABOUT CUMMINGS". Archived from the original on 1 October 2020 . Retrieved 8 October 2020. In 2019, he was appointed global ambassador to Australians for Mental Health, a new umbrella organisation fighting for better services. He made numerous media appearances and caused controversy by saying on the Australian version of Question Time, that Donald Trump and fellow populists were "sowing the seeds of fascism". [69] In July 2019, in the week Boris Johnson became prime minister, Campbell penned a 3,500-word open letter to Jeremy Corbyn saying he no longer wished to be re-admitted to the party despite legal advice saying he would win a court case against his expulsion. He called on Corbyn to step down and cited his "failure" on Brexit, antisemitism, broader policy and "above all the failure to develop and execute a strategy". The story was broken in The Guardian and the full letter published in The New European. Corbyn said he was "disappointed", prompting Campbell to ask why he had been expelled. [76] [77]