A Review of "A Journey" by Tony Blair

By Julian Joseph
If you're interested in the premiership of Tony Blair, Amazon is as good a place as any to seek out the recently published, must read book, entitled "A Journey" by Tony Blair. If you've read "The Third Man: Life at the Heart of New Labour" by Peter Mandelson you will have noticed that Blair's account follows a very similar path.

Tony Blair seems to be public enemy number one at the moment, but I find it hard to agree that his ten years in charge of Britain were as bad as is being made out. After all, Labour's historic election victory in 1997, where they defeated the Conservatives by the largest election swing in political history, couldn't have been a fluke could it? I am in no way saying that Blair was blameless in the futile war with Iraq, but don't forget that the vast majority of the House of Commons actually voted to take us into war. Ask yourself why it is that Thatcher was claimed to be a hero for defeating an already demoralised Argentinian army in a pointless conflict, thousands of miles away and completely unrelated to the interest of our country?

There have been a lot of enquiries post Iraq and all of the evidence seems to suggest that his judgement, however deluded, was based on professional evidence. To say that Blair deliberately deceived the house of commons is basically untrue. It was Blair who was deceived, not Parliament. It is also worth pointing out that Blair is actually a lot more like Clinton then he is Bush and his friendship with Clinton was a lot more natural.

I have read this book (unlike, I'm sure most of the authors of the negative reviews which I have read) and can honestly say that it seems to be an honest description of proceedings, written in a fluent and stylish manner. Blair makes the reader seem that you are in a one on one exchange with him, not an easy feat! The entire book is written in such a way so as to be easily understood without losing any of its intellectual "meat".

It is true that Blair's ego sometimes got in his way, but show me a successful leader who didn't have an inflated ego. In my book, it is imperative that a leader should have a big ego, which is simply another way of saying that they should be super-confident.

So Blair was a confident and extraordinary leader and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that Britain misses him. Obama, Cameron and Brown have all had the opportunity to put right the west's activities in the Middle East but none have been brave enough to do anything about it. It seems to me that Blair has been made a scapegoat by many deluded persons who should probably look elsewhere for one. Tony Blair is fundamentally a decent, honest family man, which is plain to see when reading this book.