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“... were elected with more than 50 per cent of the votes cast in their constituencies, 44 (including Tony Blair and John Prescott) were elected with over 70 per cent, and two with over 80 per cent. By contrast, only 14 Conservatives won more than 50 per cent of the votes cast. The most successful Conservative, John Major in Huntingdon, received 55.3 per ...”

“... used to, is that it is, in crucial respects, not the party it used to be. In that sense at least Tony Blair is not just preening himself when he talks about New Labour. The Labour Party of semi-fond memory was a broadish church but it had some consistent currents within it. It was left of centre, socially ...”

“... in a political and intellectual dead-end. But this is to over-individualise what has happened. If Blair went who could succeed him? Not Gordon Brown, a formidable personality, but all too often obstinate in the defence of bad ideas, and as much responsible for Labour’s failure to see just how financially decrepit our public institutions were (and are) as ...”

“... were reported not as potential war crimes, but as obstacles to a speedy ending of the war, or to Tony Blair’s success as its PR officer. We did all we could to be a silent partner in this war. We managed first of all to be among its victims by declaring a state of emergency on day one. Children had to go to school carrying heavy gas masks and ...”

“... compared. The nearest he came was in 2005, in a collaboration with Cat Phillipps: Photo Op shows Tony Blair (shirtsleeves and lunatic grin) taking a selfie against the backdrop of a burning oil field. Banksy approved and included the image in an Oxford Street installation; a poster version is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.Photo ...”

“... system and which is about to be finally laid to rest thanks to the fatal ideological thievery of Tony Blair. Sensing the opportunity presented by their imminent irrelevance, the delegates held real debates on real issues, only then to be derided and ostentatiously ignored by a Parliamentary leadership determined to package itself in preparation for the ...”

“... capacity for relating to people.’ The leader in waiting is a mystery to her. ‘I had never met Tony, and knew next to nothing about him; indeed, it was my perception that he’d popped up from nowhere with little to recommend him other than a pretty face.’ But everything, the devolution and unilateral disarmament debates, the formation of New Labour, the ...”

“... faction and cannot be fired, whatever they do. In other words, the new government, so praised by Tony Blair, is paralysed from the word go. The US and the Iraqi government remain isolated in the Green Zone. Iraq is still breaking up. According to a leaked cable from the American embassy in Baghdad, some of its Iraqi staff are asking what plans have been ...”

“... these days, that’s the norm. British companies are taken over by foreign firms all the time. As Tony Blair once pointed out to the French president, the electricity in 10 Downing Street is supplied by a French company. So why the fuss? Two reasons. First, there’s an election coming up, and the recession has already caused havoc in the Midlands, where ...”

“... of the UK. The headline read: IT’S HERE. DEADLY TERROR POISON FOUND IN BRITAIN. Later that day, Tony Blair said the arrests showed that ‘this danger is present and real, and with us now.’ On 5 February, in his presentation to the UN Security Council, Colin Powell said: ‘Let me remind you how ricin works. Less than a pinch – imagine a pinch of ...”

“... the presidency an even more titular post than it is today. Were this to happen, Galbraith or Tony Blair would be the obvious front-runners. Citizens of the transatlantic world are becoming more and more restless about the no-end-in-sight scenario. In Afghanistan the ranks of the resistance are swelling. The war on the ground is getting nowhere: Nato ...”

“... with their problems . . . Oh, let me evade for a moment more. Campbell’s first book was The Blair Years. That was not a novel, but an account of being spin-doctor supreme in the government of Tony Blair. As Blair’s director of communications and strategy and then ...”

“... have passed since tea and talk in Baghdad; the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein remain unknown, but Tony Benn is alive and well and coming soon to a concert hall near you. Leaving Parliament in 2001 to devote more time to politics, Benn joined the B-list of political celebrities. He has appeared at the Glastonbury Festival and boasts his own website ...”

“... a quarter of a century ago, shortly after Ted Heath’s surprise defeat of the Wilson Government, Tony Benn addressed a Fabian Society meeting in a gloomy Westminster basement. With his usual happy choice of language, he described how fired-up he had been on eventually becoming a minister in Wilson’s Cabinet; he had always wanted to get his hands on the ...”

“... starts in February 2003, with Keira as the once and future whistleblower Katharine Gun, watching Tony Blair explain to David Frost why it was necessary for Britain to go to war. ‘Bloody liar,’ she says. ‘They’re all bloody liars.’ Frost and Bliar don’t react. (I remember this too, the fury and the not-reacting.) ...”