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The final, ghastly days of Blair
Last updated at 23:52pm on 15.12.06
Master of the black arts of spin: Alastair Campbell
When Alastair Campbell left Downing Street in the wake of the death of Iraqi weapons expert Dr David Kelly, the Prime Minister's allies explicitly stated that he had learned his lesson.
They said that there would be no more spin, no more deception, no more smears, no more burying of bad news. Government henceforward was to be conducted on a straightforward basis.
How utterly wrong these claims turned out to be. I have been keeping a file of ministerial lies and deceptions, and it is now bulging.
Only last week, Defence Secretary Des Browne was forced to apologise to MPs after a leaked document showed that he had misled the House of Commons about plans to axe allowances to British soldiers serving in war zones.
Earlier this month, General Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the Army, said that he warned ministers about the extreme danger of the Afghanistan expedition, exposing as a piece of tawdry spin John Reid's remarks that he hoped our soldiers would return 'without a shot being fired'.
Tony Blair's promise that our underequipped Armed Forces would be provided with whatever they needed to fight their battles is another pledge that turned out to be fabrication.
But ministers do not lie just about foreign affairs. Last month, in an astonishing statement, a High Court judge rebuked Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain for 'lack of candour to the court' with reference to a sensitive case involving a controversial political appointment designed to appease the Democratic Unionists.
This was a very grave allegation, and particularly shocking directed at a Cabinet minister. In a government of principle, this would have been a resignation matter.
Over the summer, the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, was caught out making misleading statements about his connection with the U.S. gambling tycoon Philip Anschutz, while the former Home Secretary, David Blunkett, was exposed as a serial liar on a scale that might impress even Mohamed Al Fayed.
But nothing comes close to the events of last Thursday. These will, I believe, come to define the final, ghastly months of the Blair administration in the same way that Black Wednesday defined John Major.
It was a day that contained a series of momentous events: the bombshell (and very welcome) decision to drop the Serious Fraud Office investigation into whether BAe Systems paid £60 million in 'backhanders' to win a lucrative weapons deal with Saudi Arabia; publication of Lord Stevens' report into the death of Princess Diana; and the police interview with Tony Blair as part of the 'cash for peerages' inquiry - the first time that a serving Prime Minister has ever been interviewed as part of a police investigation.
Anyone familiar with the workings of Tony Blair's Downing Street and its careful manipulation of the political agenda by use of a diary grid system, which enables future news events to be charted and orchestrated, will spot a familiar pattern here.
The Prime Minister's aides chose the date of the interview - intriguingly, police sources have stressed that the timing was left up to Downing Street - because they knew that it coincided with the Diana report and the news would be partly 'buried'.
Downing Street officials, however, maintained that it was purely a coincidence that the two events took place on the same day. The trouble is that No 10 has misled the public so often that it no longer has the right to be believed.
Scepticism is all the greater because No 10 also lied, several times, during the course of Thursday. The first falsehood was uttered early in the morning, when Joe Murphy, the political editor of the London Evening Standard, rang Dave Hill, the Downing Street director of communications, to check a rumour that the police were set to interview Tony Blair that day.
Hill replied: 'Look, nothing is happening. I think that's pretty unequivocal.'
At 11 am, at the meeting of the Parliamentary Press lobby, the Prime Minister's official spokesman, Tom Kelly, was asked whether the police had been in touch. He replied: 'Nothing new to report.' But at the very moment he was speaking, the police were inside Downing Street quizzing the Prime Minister.
This astonishing and successful attempt to mislead journalists follows a long line of examples of the Government systematically lying to the Press and public about the cash-for-peerages crisis.
I know of cases where reporters have phoned No 10 to ask whether certain officials had been interviewed by the police. They have been told 'No' - and then discovered that they had, in fact, been questioned.
Another gross act of deception came in the form of a press release put out by the Labour Party on November 28 - the day that the Electoral Commission, an independent watchdog, published a document on party finances.
Yesterday, I asked Downing Street's Dave Hill to explain his conversation with the political editor of the Evening Standard early on Thursday morning. 'I knew nothing. I did not know anything. I did not know that the police were expected at the time,' he said.
I told him that I was prepared to accept his comments (although only with some reluctance, for since he is one of the three or four most senior figures at No 10, and, being director of communications, he would be expected to be consulted about the timing of a major event like the arrival of the police).
But his answer raised a further question. If he was, indeed, in this blissful state of ignorance, why didn't he just say he hadn't a clue what was going on? Hill seemed incapable of answering this question.
The horrible truth is that Thursday's episode is simply the latest in a line of evasions, lies, falsehoods and even smears to issue from Dave Hill and his colleague Tom Kelly - the man who so callously denounced Dr David Kelly as a 'Walter Mitty character'.
Yet I have known Hill for 15 years and know him well enough to be sure he is a fundamentally decent man. He went into Downing Street three years ago with a high reputation - but that is vanishing fast.
Before ending our phone conversation, I told him that he would be foolish to destroy his own integrity on behalf of Tony Blair, a man who - whatever the result of the current police investigation - is now certain to go into history as one of the most disreputable, duplicitous and dishonest Prime Minister in British history.
Reader views (19)
The people of the UK are now getting a full dose of what we in the USA have been experiencing for years: the outright buying of elections. Interestingly enough, some of the same trans-atlantic figures are involved. Phillip Anschutz has been a major purchaser of American politicans for decades.
Maybe you Brits can do what American politicians have so far refused to do: have public financing of campaigns with no private contributions allowed whatsoever.
American author Jeff Blankfort has an interesting theory about Tony Blair. Blankfort mentions how the UK got absolutely nothing out of its support for the very costly Iraq War. No cheap oil. Little or no access to any those lucrative contracts for rebuidling the country. Blair certainly didn't enter the war for political reasons because he already knew that the vast majority of the Britsh public opposed the it. Why then would Blair or any other similarly unprincipaled politician do something that he knew at the time was the equivilant of political suicide. It certainly wasn't the result of the persuasive abilities of the less than mesmerizing Bush Jr.
Maybe Blair has something much darker in his past than the relatively minor peerages for sale scandal. Something so serious that Blair was willing to commit politcal hari kari so that it wouldn't come out. Blankfort smells blackmail and so do I. This is the only plausible explantion for this act of shear folly.
- John Fraser, Reno, Nevada, USA
"Why Tony, you've gone quite pale."
- Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan
It's a matter of very public record that Tony Bliar is a liar, sustained by a risible collection of career liars, faceless yes-people and obsequious sycophants similar to himself.
The deceit and elitism in British political and media life has become even more repugnant than it was two decades ago and hope of any return to a semblance of decency and integrity is fading.
These people are sewer rats and the first step towards recovering this situation is to deliver these war criminals unto short, sharp, unbiased justice at The Hague court for war-mongering savages to face charges of treason and genocide.
- Sally Chummer, North London
And Brown will be no better
- James, Maidenhead, England
It is surely the duty of the press, to investigate, question and make public the veracity of current and future governments to ensure that not only the public's but the press itself remain truly diplomatic. It is only through a free press that the public retains any true sense of political reality.
Unlike the above article I would charge various sections of the press of being duplicitous or at least being used by the New Labour machine. Tony Blair must be held to account for the way he has shamefully manipulated and conived to undermine one of the most respected democratic institutions in the democratic world. For that he and his cronies needs be punished.
- James Hepburn, Glasgow UK
I do hope you are right in our assessment of how Blair will be viewed in history; I cannot bear to watch this dishonesty and the apparent lack of interest in investigating the dishonesty by the media. How can someone like Tessa still be in a postion of responsibily, her mortgage was paid off by money that had been filtered through more than 30 accounts, yet Blair clings to her. This CANNOT be right!
- Julian Williams, Narberth
"They said that there would be no more spin, no more deception, no more smears, no more burying of bad news."... and naive journalists believed them.
- Robin, London
Theres so much Blair sleaze that I can confidently say SNP will beat Labour in Scotland at the next election.
- Frank Murray, Bristol
It's all been said above, both by the author of the article and by the comments. And they are so thick that they have to ask why people are leaving Britain...!
- Steve Wynn, Birmingham, UK
If Mr Blair or any member of NL even told me the time you would not be able to believe them.
All the latest by-elections and council elections show that the electorate has lost all faith in them and they have only themselfs to blame.
- Keith G, Leeds UK
For New Labour Government, read Politburo!
- Steve R, London, UK
Re the last sentence of the article, Blair isn't just: " ... one of the most disreputable, duplicitous and dishonest Prime Minister in British history". He is the most disreputable, duplicitous and dishonest Prime Minister in British history!
- Phil Jones, London UK
We get the Government we fully deserve, and if they are bent or corrupt and the like, then have a good look around the place. Painful isn't it, know what I mean?
- Ted, Shetland
This is the consequence of government not being limited to defending the country and defending property rights by way of the law police and armed forces. To be charged with doing what are matters for the private sector and other governments will result in dysfunctional government.
- Charles Smyth, Belfast Northern Ireland
Tony Blair likes to call himself "the bloke that runs the country". That has to be everything in it including the press. So does he do a good job?
- Larry, Leamington Spa, UK
Good article just about says it all
- Gp, Manchester
They will lie with such volubility - truth would seem nothing but a fool. So is there any wonder British society is in such an awful mess. Strange as it may seem we as a nation were much happier and contented during the WW2 years when propaganda about food availability, productivity, military and civilian lossess and victories were an essential part of everyday life. New Labour just lie for the sake of self interest.
- Robert, Hull, East Yorks.,
The governments (current and previous) have done a good job of numbing the people such that when a 'serious' issue is raised, (lies, deception, propoganda) the public seem to ignore it - perhaps a consequence of the quiet british manner. The government have been exposed time and again to be a crew of deceitful, selfish, power mad pirates, and unless the people stand up and do something about it, we will sink further into a dictatorship. Our liberties are being taken away, now with fingerprints at the roadside, police records for those who have committed no offence, iris scanning at airports, false reports of 'a new terror threat and many new taxes to pay for the incompetent financial management of our country and the endless pursuit of chasing Mr Bush's arrogant and illegal acts. The sad irony is that currently there is no party or individual capable of taking this country back to where it should be. What a sad, sorry and desperate state of affairs... !
- Alex, uk
Thank you for your quotable quote:
"... Tony Blair, a man who - whatever the result of the current police investigation - is now certain to go into history as one of the most disreputable, duplicitous and dishonest Prime Minister in British history."
- Shan, Newport
