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“... policies were more prescriptive than libertarian: an awkward inheritance that encumbered Tony Blair’s government from the start. When Labour returned to office in 1997 education (as we were repeatedly told) was to be central to its programme. Though the rapid growth in the number of comprehensives had given England a closer approximation to a ...”

“... If we allow that the Party does wish to enact the Report in something like its present form, a Blair government will face other major constraints. The Report will be costly and almost certainly demands an economy which is already strong or else an electorate which is prepared to accept longer-term cuts in private consumption. But the British economy is ...”

“... give incentives to motivate the self-interest.’Letwin and Redwood’s ideas also had traction in Tony Blair’s 1997 National Health Service Act. Together, the 1990 and 1997 Acts turned NHS hospitals into trusts able to operate as commercial businesses. Many formed Private Finance Initiative partnerships to build and maintain hospitals – these ...”

“... set to be removed again. But Keir Starmer and his soon-to-be chancellor, Rachel Reeves, are, like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the children of their political moment. Blair and Brown, for all their achievements, continued to inhabit the house that Thatcher built. Starmer and Reeves, with their aversion to tax rises and ...”

“... beat and racy words, but because of the singers’ lifestyle. And beware of politicians (like Tony Blair and Bill Clinton) who play musical instruments. Contemporary readers would be sensitive to the political aspects of Plato’s decision. Athenian tragedy and comedy were intensely democratic institutions, not only in the way they were ...”

“... Laws states unequivocally that Labour and the Lib Dems could have come together at any time during Blair’s years in office, and there is a strong undercurrent of regret that Tony wasn’t around to make things easier for them in 2010 (Ashdown tries to get Blair involved from the Middle ...”

“... treatment of Jenkins and Rodgers will also seem extraordinarily kind to those who remember some of Tony Crosland’s or even Jim Callaghan’s remarks, but Owen is beyond saving, even for Crewe and King. From the moment he is introduced – ‘a tendency to begin by arguing passionately on one side of an issue and to wind up arguing equally passionately on the ...”

“... of British politics – from Enoch Powell, who was by then, scarier still, an Ulster Unionist, to Tony Benn and Michael Foot. With a sly coyness that sits oddly with her later reputation, the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher, operated, like Wilson, on the sidelines of the Yes campaign. The result, in a notionally divided ...”

“... of the mujahideen seriously,’ the speaker continues. ‘Do not listen to the liars Bush and Blair who say that al-Qaida is finished. We are not spokespersons for al-Qaida but we pray in the same direction.’ I notice, at the back of the hall, two men in suits who are not journalists, though one of them holds a notebook. They listen attentively. An ...”

“... Commonwealth countries are richer for their presence.’This was originally written to be read by Tony Blair on a video-link at a commemoration of the Great Famine, funded in part by the Irish Government, which was held in Cork on the June Bank Holiday weekend of 1997, but the plan was abandoned and the apology was read out by the actor Gabriel Byrne. It ...”

“... a possible counterweight to England’s hegemony in the Union. Weight expresses some sympathy for Tony Blair’s efforts to rebrand Britain and kickstart a progressive patriotism (he neglects to mention the memorably awful appearance of Fritz the bulldog in one of Labour’s 1997 election broadcasts). ‘Cool Britannia’ was crass, he says, but well ...”

“... salaries and approaching retirement, can be expected to show more resilience on this issue than Tony Blair’s government did when dealing with the ageing Pinochet. They might even grant Milosevic his wish and call Blair and other Nato leaders as witnesses – an order they might have to obey, since the Yugoslav ...”

“... for a boutique-hotel jolly for senior staff. The school was ‘a wonderful inspiration’, Tony Blair had said in 2006, and whatever her errors, Shuter talked to the Today programme in March with exemplary tact about her former pupil Mohammed Emwazi, who’d just been identified as ‘Jihadi John’. Shuter has the right to apply for a rethink on ...”

“... fifth a titled woman, sister to a Cabinet Minister. The principal males, Martin Murray and Gavin Blair Summers, are, Binding informs us, modelled on Stephen Spender and Giles Romilly. Fellow Travellers thinly fictionalises a passage in Spender’s life which he has himself recollected in World within World. In 1933, the poet (in the novel a novelist) became ...”

“... Etienne, which has a capacity of 38,000, there will be a paltry two thousand Scottish supporters. Tony Banks has called the French hosts ‘miserly’, and 22 Liberal Democrat MPs have signed a motion condemning the French authorities. A few more tickets have become available thanks to a contingency fund. While Blair has ...”