by Tom Bower
‘politically correct interference …’ Blair, p. 577
‘extraordinarily poorly written’ House of Commons Select Education Committee, 12 October 2005
‘The trouble is …’ Powell, p. 68
The number of schools deemed … Lupton and Obolenskaya, p. 32; The Times, 12 January 2006, citing NAO report
‘There was a significant …’ Public Finance, 23 September 2005
‘English ten-year-olds …’ Specialist Schools and Academies Trust Annual Conference, 30 November 2006
That, reported the academics … Lupton and Obolenskaya, p. 35; Toynbee, Guardian, 2 July 2013
Studies conducted at … Civitas, ‘Blair’s School Legacy Is a Sham’; ‘Straight As? A-Level Teachers’ Views on Today’s A-Levels’; ‘The Ins and Outs of Selective Secondary Schools’; Lupton and Obolenskaya, p. 33, citing Durham University’s Curriculum, Evaluation and Management Centre (CEM)
The reading skills of ten-year-olds … Brown, ‘Going Back or Going Forward? Tensions in the Formulation of a New National Curriculum in Mathematics’, n.d., p. 4, noting that most schools refused to co-operate with PISA in 2003. The PISA results in 2006 showed declining standards over the previous five years in the international rankings of British children in maths – seventh to seventeenth – and reading – eighth to twenty-fourth. The government blamed parents. Brown commented that, in truth, there was no change in standards between 2006 and 2009. In contradiction, a TIMSS study showed a sharp improvement in maths and science between 2003 and 2007
Setting targets had failed … Brown, King’s College London lecture, slide 24
‘He would rather sacrifice …’ Powell, p. 35
On the night … The Times, 15 March 2006
Enquiries revealed that … ibid., 23 March 2006
A paper by Robert Cassen … Cassen, Rowntree report, 2007
the attainment of disadvantaged pupils … Lupton and Obolenskaya, pp. 27–8
Despite the huge expenditure … ‘Social Mobility Strategy’, LSE, 2011
The number of state-school pupils … Lupton and Obolenskaya, p. 45
‘primary schools in the poorest …’ Toynbee, Guardian, 2 July 2013
The only children … Sutton report, June 2007
The exam results … NAO report, 2007
he would use inaccurate … Blair, p. 523
he upped his target … ibid., p. 577
educating less than 3 per cent … Lupton and Obolenskaya, p. 29
She advocated that pupils … Gillard, Axes to Grind, p. 29
CHAPTER 43
The civil servants’ excuse … McNulty, interview with author
‘I was cornered …’ Blair, pp. 573–4
‘What is to be gained …’ Rawnsley, End of the Party, p. 362
To save her political … Powell, p. 220
Stevenson had decided that … Levy, pp. 252, 259–60
‘There were very good …’ Blair, p. 607
He criticised the media … ibid., p. 589
Ninety minutes later … ibid., p. 608; Hutton, interview with author
‘Gordon is going to …’ Rawnsley, End of the Party, p. 363
‘mafia-style politics’ Powell, p. 226
CHAPTER 44
Traditional NHS administrators … Mays and Tan, Journal of Health Service Research Policy, vol. 17, supplement 1, January 2012, p. 135
Economists in the Department of Health … Smee, Speaking Truth to Power: Two Decades of Analysis in the Department of Health (CRC Press, 2005), p. 26
Researchers, he wrote … Ham, ‘Reforming the NHS from Within’, King’s Fund, 2014, p. 12
‘vast network of …’ Blair, p. xxiii
‘Attendances at A&E …’ Warner, pp. 122, 125
the cost of the IT project … King and Crewe, p. 196
‘short-term imperatives …’ King’s Fund, ‘Audit of the NHS under Labour 1997–2005’, 2007, pp. 20, 44
‘We succeeded in strategy …’ Powell, p. 187
‘a real and imminent …’ The Times, 27 June 2006
‘Tony’s fascination with technology’ Powell, p. 175
To her alarm … Reform, ‘NHS Reform: The Empire Strikes Back’, January 2007
‘We’ll put doctors …’ Lancet, vol. 369, issue 9,574, May 2007, p. 1,679
‘We consciously decided …’ Powell, p. 300
she would be officially … King and Crewe, p. 174
‘We were mired by …’ Blair, p. 594
‘Eighteen months of …’ ibid., p. 608
‘frivolous … Unfortunately for …’ Powell, pp. 230–1
she had criticised Maria Hutchings … The Times, 9 January 2007
Worse, it was clear … Flesher, interview with author
‘Those dinosaurs …’ The Times, 8 May 2006
CHAPTER 45
‘I’ve always accepted …’ The Times, 21 November 2005
To douse the uncertainty … Keay, ‘Can the Market Deliver Security and Environmental Protection in Electricity Generation?’ Chapter 10 in Rutledge and Wright (Eds), UK Energy Policy and the End of Market Fundamentalism (Oxford University Press, 2011)
Despite spending £2.5 billion … The Times, 26 September 2005
The result of Blair’s latest … Rutledge, ‘New Labour, Energy Policy and “Competitive Markets”’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2007, vol. 31, issue 6, pp. 901–25
So far, only 2.4 per cent … The Times, 11 February 2005
a ‘fantasy-land’ … ibid., 17 May 2006; www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/July2006-UKEnergyReview-MalcolmKeay.pdf
‘the (very small) risk …’ ‘Meeting the Energy Challenge’, DTI White Paper, 2007, p. 132
The number of those suffering … www.theiet.org/factfiles/energy/uk-energy-policy-page.cfm, pp.26–7
‘hopelessly, absurdly …’ Blair, p. 533
Euro scepticism, he jibed … The Times, 25 June 2007
‘around three times higher’ Rickett, ‘Paper on Renewables’ Target’, 2007, p. 2
‘Overnight … our drafts …’ Rickett, interview with author. During that period, the proportion of electricity generated from renewables grew from 2 per cent to 3 per cent. By 2015, it was 7 per cent. www.theiet.org/factfiles/energy/uk-energy-policy-page.cfm, p.22
CHAPTER 46
as part of NATO … House of Commons Defence Committee Report, 8 February 2011
‘I returned to Afghanistan …’ Butler, ‘Setting Ourselves Up for a Fall in Afghanistan’, RUSI Journal, March 2015
Others, including General Peter Wall … House of Commons Defence Committee report, para 48, 8 February 2011
No one asked … House of Commons Defence Committee debate, 29 March 2011; Browne, interview with author
Even Blair would say … House of Commons Defence Committee report, para 55
‘had no grip on Butler’ ibid., paras 49–50
Britain was slipping into … The Times, 1 July 2006
‘We’re going to a baseball match’ Bower, Branson: Behind the Mask, p. 39
‘I managed circumstances …’ House of Commons Defence Committee debate, 29 March 2011; Browne, interview with author
Success would require … www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/47317/lessons-identified-basraprt-06-07.pdf
‘We need to be shedding …’ Dannatt, interview with author; Elliott, interview with author
‘Stirrup’s not prone …’ Elliott, p. 207
He found no mention … Dannatt, p. 291
‘War is not clean’ Flesher, interview with author
‘It was always about Dannatt’ Browne, interview with author; Dannatt, p. 263
‘haemorrhaging’ Powell, p. 301
‘We need to get people …’ Wegg-Prosser, Guardian, 20 September 2013
‘a disgraceful attempt …’ The Times, 7 September 2006
‘Very well done …’ Wegg-Prosser, Guardian, 20 September 2013
‘feeling utterly sick’ McBride, Power Trip, p. 228
/>
Their deaths were blamed … Haddon-Cave inquiry, 2009
‘You sit down …’ Richards, interview with author
‘sometime soon …’ Daily Mail, 12 October 2006
‘I wasn’t best pleased’ Blair, p. 470
Both the chiefs and politicians … Fry, interview with author
That explanation was … The Times, 18 November 2006, citing interview with author on al-Jazeera TV
‘We spent most …’ Powell, pp. 270, 276
‘lost sight of strategy’ Cavanagh, ‘Ministerial Decision-Making …’, pp. 53–4; Elliott, p. 80; see Cavanagh, ‘Inside the Anglo-Saxon War Machine’, Prospect, October 2010
Shirreff duly wrote … Shirreff, interview with author; www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/47317/lessons-identified-basraprt-06-07.pdf
‘I dunno …’ Boulton, p. 112
But Blair was waiting … Chilcot, Fry, pp. 105–8
‘We’re loyal supporters …’ Shaw, interview with author
‘the progress in Iraq is remarkable’ The Times, 22 February 2007
‘You’re not security-cleared …’ Elliott, p. 124
‘was just beginning …’ Blair, p. 652
‘I was left with …’ ibid., p. 571
CHAPTER 47
‘I want to get on …’ BBC News, 29 January 2007
‘on top form …’ Blair, pp. 593, 600
‘to lie for him’ The Times, 13 March 2007
‘I have taken absolutely …’ ibid., 28 February 2007
‘Mr Blair has made …’ ibid., 9 September 2006
David Bell, the permanent secretary … ibid., 15 March 2007
‘In schools, standards up …’ Blair, p. 637. A TIMSS survey in 2011 placed England tenth out of forty-two countries
Alan Smithers reported that … Sutton Trust, February 2013
‘the longest period of …’ Blair, p. 637
‘right decision to make …’ The Times, 2 April 2007
‘mishandling’ of the succession … Rawnsley, End of the Party, p. 442
‘New Labour’, he said … The Times, 2 January 2007
‘a new kind of politics …’ Blair, p. 58
energetically denied that … The Times, 1 June 2007
‘To an extent immigration …’ Blair, p. 630
the retired chiefs turned … House of Lords, 25 November 2007
‘I am right …’ Norton-Taylor, interview with author
‘Mr Blair may be widely …’ The Times, 2 May 2007
‘New Labour rather than the Tories …’ ibid., 26 June 2007
CHAPTER 48
‘wall of noise’ New York Times, 4 December 2014
‘We don’t tell …’ Beckett, Hencke and Kochan, Blair Inc., p. 213
While the former chancellor … Office for National Statistics, 2014
‘When I see what a difference …’ Guardian, 2 July 2015
Blair assured his host … Beckett, Hencke and Kochan, p. 128
‘trying to wear …’ Blair, p. 573
‘July and August …’ Butler report, paras 289, 313
‘You get to a position …’ Sunday Times, 20 November 2009
‘how to belittle …’ ibid.
CHAPTER 49
PetroSaudi being accused … Sunday Times, 9 November 2014
‘If you have a safe place …’ Hillary Clinton emails, US State Department
‘What’s Blair’s value?’ Kalman, Guardian, 18 December 2012
‘I’m basically a …’ Politics Show, BBC TV, 27 June 2011
he denied that he was … Financial Times, 29 June 2012; Guardian, 2 July 2015
Two days earlier, Stephen Wall … Chilcot, Wall, pp. 88–9
he offered his services … Sunday Times, 29 April 2012
he had accepted $500,000 … Beckett, Hencke and Kochan, p. 254
personally ‘makes money’ … The Economist, 20 December 2014
payments of £57 million … Sunday Telegraph, 11 January 2015
‘With Tony Blair and his team …’ ibid., 19 May 2013
Mubadala had reportedly invested … Beckett, Hencke and Kochan, p. 208
‘shoulder-to-shoulder …’ ibid., p. 194
‘The purpose is not to …’ Financial Times, 29 June 2012
the EU Commission withdrew … The EU paid €7.8 million between 2008 and 2012
‘How hard would it be …’ Alex Perry, Newsweek, April 2015
‘we have to understand …’ The Times, 27 August 2013
Some suspected that … Bloomberg speech, London, 23 April 2014
‘all the choices facing …’ The Times, 27 August 2013
condemned Blair’s mission … Kalman, Guardian, 8 September 2008
Blair looked embarrassed … The Times, 26 November 2014
‘whose client needed …’ Hearst, Middle East Eye, 1 September 2015
Index
* * *
Abbas, Mahmoud, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Abizaid, General John, 1
Abu Dhabi, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Abu Ghraib, 1
Addis, Rose, 1
Adonis, Andrew: appointed education adviser, 1; and education policy, 1, 2, 3;
helps with 2001 election, 1;
looks for sponsors for academy schools, 1;
difficulty of working with, 1;
replaced by Mulgan, 1;
appointed junior education minister, 1;
on national tests, 1;
takes advantage of Kelly’s weakness to push through TB’s education policies, 1
adoption, 1
Afghanistan: Clinton’s bombing raids, 1; Afghan asylum-seekers start to arrive in UK, 1;
becomes target in wake of 9/11, 1, 2;
Western attack, 1, 2;
TB’s conviction it can be made democratic, 1;
Boyce warns against invasion, 1;
British troops deploy to, 1;
TB pledges to increase British forces in, 1;
Fry drafts plan, 1, 2;
opium trade, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;
fuzziness of Allied objectives, 1;
British troop deployment goes ahead, 1;
TB again given poor advice, 1, 2;
PRTs and nation-building, 1;
shortfall of UK troop numbers, 1;
UK mission expanded to Sangin, with disastrous results, 1;
confusion over chain of command, 1;
escalation and mission creep, 1, 2, 3;
Nimrod surveillance aircraft crash, 1;
more troops to be sent, 1;
TB defiant to the end, 1;
see also Helmand
Africa Governance Initiative (AGI): and Rwanda, 1, 2, 3; staff, 1;
and Nigeria, 1, 2, 3;
London HQ, 1;
and Sierra Leone, 1, 2;
and Liberia, 1, 2, 3;
and Guinea, 1, 2, 3;
possible conflicts of interest, 1, 2;
and Libya, 1
African debt relief, 1, 2
agriculture and farming: foot-and-mouth epidemic, 1, 2, 3, 4; Ministry of Agriculture merged into Department of Environment, 1;
New Labour policy, 1, 2;
Rural Payments Agency collapse, 1
Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, 1
Ainsworth, Bob, 1
air-traffic control, 1
Aitken, Jonathan, 1, 2
al-Assad, Bashar, 1
al-Janabi, Rafid (Curveball), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
al-Maliki, Nouri, 1, 2
al-Megrahi, Abdelbaset, 1, 2
al-Qaeda: Clinton’s bombing raids, 1; 9/11, 1;
bin Laden’s reaction to attack on Afghanistan, 1;
no link to Saddam, 1, 2, 3;
supports post-Saddam insurrection in Iraq, 1, 2;
and Palestine, 1
al-Sabah, Nasser, 1
al-Sadr, Muqtada, 1
al-Shatti, Ismail Khudr, 1, 2
al-Thani, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber, 1
Albania, 1, 2, 3, 4
Alberti, Geor
ge: background, 1; on A&E departments, 1;
watches Brown announce increased NHS expenditure to Commons, 1;
advises Milburn on choice of NHS chief, 1;
on Crisp, 1;
on BMA, 1;
on Reid, 1;
recommends cost–benefit analysis on NHS expenditure, 1;
on TB’s distraction from health policy, 1;
on consultants’ contracts, 1
Aldred, Margaret, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Aliyev, Ilham, 1
Allan, Alex, 1, 2
Allen, Mark, 1, 2
Allen, Tim, 1
Amos, Baroness Valerie, 1
Anderson, Dr Iain, 1
Anderson, Ken: remit, 1; initial suggestions, 1;
cataract operations plan, 1;
relationship with Reid, 1;
on target system, 1;
relationship with Hewitt, 1;
efforts sabotaged by spin, 1;
helps uncover NHS deficit debacle, 1;
on Bacon, 1;
on lack of success of NHS reforms, 1;
and search for Crisp’s replacement, 1, 2
Andrew, Prince, Duke of York, 1
Angola, 1
Anne, Princess, 1
Arab Spring, 1
Arafat, Yasser, 1
arms sales, 1, 2, 3, 4
Armstrong, Martin, 1, 2
Arnault, Bernard, 1
Ashdown, Paddy, 1
asylum-seekers see immigration
Atkinson, Sir Tony, 1
Attlee, Clement, 1
Azerbaijan, 1
Aziz, Tariq, 1
Bacon, John, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Baghdad, 1, 2
Baker, Norman, 1
balance of payments see trade gap
Baldwin, Tom, 1
Balkans see Bosnia; Kosovo
Balls, Ed: as Brown’s adviser, 1; attends TB’s welfare reform committee, 1;
Brown encourages to disparage TB, 1;
challenges Le Grand’s market ideas for NHS, 1;
and tax credits, 1;
and immigration detention centres, 1;
on foundation hospitals, 1;