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King of spin's last word on Blair years |
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11:07, July 10, 2007 |
The much-anticipated diaries of Britain's former Downing Street spin chief Alastair Campbell were published yesterday - less than two weeks after Campbell's former boss Tony Blair left Downing Street.
The Blair Years offers an uncompromising inside view of Blair's turbulent premiership, laced with revelations - Blair wanted to quit after two terms and the Prime Minister's closet colleagues had doubts over the invasion of Iraq.
There's also Campbell's faintly embarrassing recollection of how he flirted with the "drop dead gorgeous" Princess Diana while an impatient Blair and his wife, Cherie, stood in the background.
"She's standing there, absolutely, spellbindingly, drop-dead gorgeous in a way that the millions of photos didn't quite get it," he wrote.
But those who hoped the book would prove an explosive expose of life behind the scenes of the UK's government are likely to be disappointed.
Campbell, a man whose name became synonymous with news spun to paint Prime Minister Blair in a favorable light, says he has purposefully edited the diaries to avoid embarrassing new prime minister Gordon Brown.
The former journalist and central figure in the formation of New Labour said over the weekend he didn't want to provide a "gold mine" for Labour's opponents.
The nearly 800-page book contains less than a fifth of the 2 million-plus words Campbell recorded during his time at Blair's side.
Among extracts published over the weekend was the revelation that Blair wanted to quit Downing Street years earlier than he eventually did, in July 2002.
In the event Blair braved out discontent over the Iraq War and only eventually made a statement about his future after Campbell had resigned in 2004 - and by then the prime minister was ruling out a fourth term and months later secured a third election win.
Other passages give a flavor of the tensions within Downing Street as Sein Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness visited for the first time in 1997.
"I found McGuinness more impressive than Adams," recalls Campbell.
Even before the book came out Campbell was forced on to the back foot over his editing.
On Sunday he defended The Blair Years' cuts, saying the book would be "good for politics".
In a BBC interview he said he was bringing the book out "at a time when he (Blair) is still fresh in people's minds, people are making a judgment about him now".
That was being done "in a way that I hope will not just be good for Tony, and I think the book is good for Tony even though it is warts and all, and he knows that. But that actually would be good for Labour and good for politics".
Although Brown has already said he has no plans to read the book - saying he is more interested in the future than the past - Campbell said he chose to edit parts on the new prime minister himself, rather than being asked to.
Source: China Daily/agencies
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