30 Days: A Month at the Heart of Blair’s War
A unique, unprecedented eyewitness account of the thirty most critical days of Tony Blair’s political career as Prime Minister, from 10 March 2003 to the end of the second Gulf War, written by the former editor of The Times.For thirty extraordinary days, in March and April 2003, Tony Blair defied street protests, party revolts, allied anger and government resignations in order to send British troops to Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein.What was it like inside Downing Street during that time? What was it like while the Prime Minister risked his job for such an unpopular cause? Why did he do it? Peter Stothard, who for a month was given unprecedented access to shadow almost every move the Prime Minister made, gives a unique view from the inside.From the 'den' of Ten Downing Street to the back corridors of the House of Commons, through councils of war in the Azores, recriminations in Brussels, personal diplomacy in Belfast and Camp David, this book takes us backstage. 30 Days throws an intimate – and frequently humorous – light on the domestic and political life of Number Ten at a time of crisis; it shows the Prime Minister's relationships not only with the President of the United States but with the writers, strategists, make-up artists and other members of the close-knit Number Ten team. It illuminates his frankest dealings with the world leaders who both backed and opposed him.The result is a groundbreaking record of history in the making, and a gripping day-to-day chronicle of four tense and tempestuous weeks.Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.
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30 DAYS
A Month at the Heart of Blairâs War
PETER STOTHARD
For Sally
Contents
âThis is your fiftieth birthday present, Prime Minister,â â says Strategy Director Alastair Campbell as Tony Blair comes in through the Downing Street front door. âPeter Stothard is going to follow you everywhere you go for fifty days.â
The recipient of this gift looks as though almost anything would be better than having a writer at his side as he enters the most difficult days of his political life.
Campbell concedes with a wolfish grin, âWell, a month then. Thirty days.â
Tony Blair sighs. He had agreed a few weeks ago for a writer from The Times Magazine to be with him on the path to war with Iraq. These were extraordinary days. His fiftieth birthday was coming up soon. It had seemed like a good idea.
Like many good resolutions it does not seem so attractive now that it is time to put it into practice. Little is going right. He does not even know that he has thirty days left behind the black door of Number Ten.
Politicians do sometimes take the risk of inviting a journalist in âto see them as they really areâ. This is only either when they need the publicity or when they have a high degree of control. But no Prime Minister, however confident, has ever before taken that risk.
Tony Blair decides to stick with his decision. He will have a closely observed record of his leadership in the war against Saddam Hussein. He does not know what the record will be. His âfly on the wallâ will be a former editor of The Times who supported his programme to become leader of the Labour Party in 1994 but did not support him in the 1997 election which brought him to power.
To have me with him for thirty days will not be like having a total stranger in the corner of the room. But neither will he have a lifelong political supporter with him, or even one who shares many of his views.
6 March 2003, the day Tony Blair invited his chronicler through the door, was no better than any other day at this time. Britain had become an angry country. Millions of voters, particularly young voters who five years before had hailed his âCool Britanniaâ, were enraged that a Labour Prime Minister, a New Labour Prime Minister, the first Labour Prime Minister since 1979, seemed about to send bombers to the civilians of Baghdad.
Worse even than bombing Iraqis who had ânever done the British any harmâ was bombing them at the behest of a âDaddyâs Boyâ American President. Britain, they shouted, should just let George Bush get on with fighting his fatherâs old enemy, Saddam Hussein.
Those who knew a bit of history recalled that another Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson in the 1960s, kept Britain out of Americaâ s Vietnam nightmare. Why couldnât Tony Blair do the same?
The protesters knew that they had allies at the highest levels of the Labour government. Clare Short was a respected figure of the old Labour left. She had an official position in the Cabinet as International Development Secretary, and an unofficial position as the âconscience of the partyâ. She was said to be enraged at what was about to be done âin her nameâ.
The âNot in my Nameâ slogan was on banners and T-shirts from Bristol to Dundee. A million people had marched in London. The Italians and the Spanish were marching. They too had leaders who backed George Bush when their voters did not.
Tony Blairâs first words in the Number Ten front hall were a complaint about how he could not get his message across. I doubt if I sounded very sympath etic. Politicians forever complain to editors that they are prevented by unseen powers, never themselves, from âgetting their message acrossâ.
Inside the building there was a rush of people on the move. We were about to go to Chile, whose President was suddenly a pivotal player in the attempts to swing the United Nations squarely behind the war.
I went back home for my passport, told the magazine that I would take the âfiftieth birthdayâ assignment, and barely left Tony Blairâs home, office, advisers, officials and political life for the next month. In those thirty days he faced the most hostile attacks from his voters, his supporters and his party. He faced fierce opposition in Europe and he forged a controversial partnership with a President of the United States who seemed at first so unlike him in so many ways. He saw a personal and a political challenge ahead, and seized them both. A man who was once known as consensual, accommodating, even insecure at times, behaved as a man possessed of certainty. He used occasionally to talk about history with journalists. Now he had just given a newspaper interview in which he said that history would be his judge.
