by Blair, Tony
For us to choose peaceful coexistence, certain things need to happen and some of these I work on: peace between Israelis and Palestinians; respect between the four billion people of different faiths; progress in Africa; and protection of our physical environment. A global community requires values to match, values that are shared. Above all, it requires a world in which justice for the many, not the few, is the guiding light of global government.
In each area I am putting into practice something I learned and reflected upon when prime minister, but which only now I have the time to try to implement. In each case I have an unconventional view, based on my experience.
I do not believe we will see a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians based simply on a standard political negotiation. Don’t misunderstand me – such a negotiation is necessary; but the real problem is a ‘reality’ problem, not one resolvable merely by negotiation. The Israeli reality is security. The Palestinian reality is occupation. They are linked. Only when and if the Israelis are sure that a Palestinian state will be securely and properly governed will they agree to it, whatever its borders. Only when the Palestinians are sure that if they take measures to ensure proper governance and security, Israel will leave their territory,
will they believe any assurances of statehood are credible. We need to build a Palestinian state not just through a process of negotiation but through building the institutions, capacity and economy consistent with a state – not one only suitable for an agreement made and then left on the shelf, but one taking shape and root in reality; one achieved bottom up as much as top down.
I have always been more interested in religion than politics, but in the work my Faith Foundation does, the two overlap. To create peaceful coexistence in an era of globalisation, people of different faiths have to learn to understand and respect each other. The Foundation is highly practical. We have a programme that uses new technology to join up schools of different faiths so that from a young age children can learn about each other’s culture and faith based on the truth, not on often deeply misguided perceptions. It operates now in twelve countries, and children of Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh faiths can take part.
We have a university programme, begun at Yale but now in eight other universities, to teach a course on the issues of faith and globalisation.
We have an action programme, which is to encourage those of different faiths to work together to implement the UN Millennium Development goals, and we have begun with the fight against malaria in Africa.
Africa is, naturally, another major area of work. Here the proposition is that, yes, aid is important; but what Africa really needs is help on capacity and governance. The money may be there for health care or agriculture support, but if the government doesn’t have the capacity to deliver, then nothing happens. So we work alongside the presidents – for the moment in three countries, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Liberia – to help them build basic effective levers of delivery. We hire teams of highly qualified young people (aged 25–35) – it may be from governments, the World Bank, McKinsey or private banks – who work on the ground alongside the president’s team and build capacity, so that in time the locals can do it. They also focus on getting in quality private sector investment, which is essential. I work closely with the presidents and political leaders so that what we propose is not only technically sensible but politically doable.
Finally I work on business solutions to climate change, and with the Climate Group have produced reports aimed at practical and business-friendly ways of achieving a low-carbon economy. My idea here is that the only way to achieve political buy-in to reducing emissions is to make business the partner of change, not its victim.
So that’s my new life. What makes me optimistic? People. Since leaving office, I have learned one thing above all: the people are the hope.
It is sometimes said that young people have lost their passion to do good; they’re all just obsessed with getting on and the latest gadget. My experience is the opposite. The young people working for me in Africa are absolutely committed. All could earn better outside. All do it out of a drive to help bring about change. There are hordes of volunteers who work with my Faith Foundation, incredibly well motivated, fantastic, interesting dynamic young people, whose religious commitment is totally without prejudice against those of a different faith.
In Palestine, even when the politics are dark, what lights the situation up is the realisation that young Israelis and Palestinians are not inhabitants of a different world, polarised irredeemably by culture, religion and politics; they are striving for the same fulfilment and chance to do well, and are held back by a situation they would love to change.
In other words, for every bad event, malign conjunction of circumstances or individual act of hate, there are changes for the better, benign possibilities and above all people of good faith, good intentions and worthy actions.
My conclusion, strangely, is not that the power of politics is needed to liberate the people; but that the power of people is needed to liberate the politics. An odd thing for a politician to say; but then, as you will gather from this memoir, it has never been entirely clear whether the journey I have taken is one of triumph of the person over the politics, or of the politics over the person.
PICTURE INSERTS
i) Me and Mum, with Dad holding my older brother Bill in the mid-1950s
ii) My dad on his way to work. Fostered by a rigger in the Govan shipyards, he went on to become an academic, a barrister and a Conservative
iii) Always happy in the sun. We lived in Australia till I was five
iv) At my school, Fettes, in spring 1971 with friends Amanda Mackenzie Stuart and Chris Catto
v) In 1972, I left the North and came to London for a year. Alan Collenette and I promoted rock bands
vi) Cherie and me on our wedding day, at the Chapel of St John’s College, Oxford, 29 March 1980
vii) The Labour Party candidate in the Beaconsfield by-election, May 1982
viii) Cherie’s father first secured me an invitation to visit Westminster. On the terrace of the Houses of Parliament with Cherie, 1984
ix) Michael Foot, leader of the Labour Party, came to support my campaign in Beaconsfield
x) The people of Trimdon, where we had our constituency home, supported me loyally during my twenty-five years as the Member for Sedgefield. I won the constituency in June 1983
xi) One of many happy moments with Cherie, Euan, Nicky and baby Kathryn at our house in Islington, 1988
xii) With Shadow Cabinet colleagues, a few months before the crushing general election defeat of 1992. From left, Gordon Brown, John Smith, Neil Kinnock, Margaret Beckett and me
xiii) Derry Irvine, my pupil master in chambers, taught me a great deal in the early years. I was later to appoint him Lord Chancellor
xiv) Relaxing with friends Marc Palley and Peter Thomson, whom I met at Oxford. Peter was probably the most influential person in my life
xv) My relationship with my oldest political friend, Geoff Gallop, has been sustained from student days
xvi) The saddest of days. With Gordon at John Smith’s funeral in Edinburgh, 20 May 1994
xvii) We announced that Gordon was not going to stand as Labour leader on 1 June 1994
xviii) Alongside John Prescott and Margaret Beckett, the other two candidates for the Labour leadership, June 1994
xix) That summer we made a holiday detour to recruit Alastair Campbell. From left, Neil Kinnock, me, Alastair, Glenys Kinnock with Kathryn, and Alastair’s children, Calum and Grace, August 1994
xx) Drafting the new wording of Clause IV in March 1995 with John, now deputy Labour leader
xxi) John Prescott, Gordon Brown and I launch the Labour Party manifesto alongside a Shadow Cabinet team that included Jack Straw, far left, and Robin Cook, second row, third right. London, 3 April 1997
xxii) Watching the election night results with John Burton, my constituency agent, Trimdon Labour Cl
ub, Sedgefield, 1 May 1997
xxiii) Reviewing the election coverage with the team, including Alastair Campbell and David Miliband, on the last Sunday before polling day, 27 April 1997
xxiv) Going to vote at Sedgefield, 1 May 1997. Hordes of photographers were in tow
xxv) Expectant family and friends at the Sedgefield count. Kathryn holds my dad’s hand; Cherie’s mum is in the front row, far right, and her dad second row, third right. 1 May 1997
xxvi) Neil Kinnock, John Prescott and Peter Mandelson among colleagues and supporters as the celebrations begin, Royal Festival Hall
xxvii) As dawn broke on 2 May 1997, I made my victory speech on the South Bank. I could see the cheering crowds massed all along the Embankment
xxviii) The new prime minister, celebrating with Cherie, 2 May 1997. This was not just a win, it was a landslide
xxix) The moment our lives changed. Kathryn waves from the window of our old home as Cherie and I head to the Palace
xxx) Walking along Downing Street for the first time, I felt the emotion run like a charge through the crowd
xxxi) After an hour’s sleep, Cherie and I arrived at Buckingham Palace on the morning of 2 May 1997. Supporters lined the streets
xxxii) As prime minister, on the steps of No. 10. We were the youngest family to have lived there since the 1850s
xxxiii) Down to business with, right to left, Gordon Brown, Charlie Whelan, Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell, Downing Street, 10 July 1997
xxxiv) Clockwise from top: some of the inner team. Peter Mandelson could tell you what people would be thinking tomorrow; Anji Hunter, possessed of a naturally intuitive political instinct; Jonathan Powell, a key operative in government; Sally Morgan, superbly attuned to the party; Philip Gould, chief pollster, and central to our strategy
xxxv) In the sunshine of the Downing Street garden, at the end of May 1997 with Bill Clinton
xxxvi) With Bill and Hillary Clinton and Cherie at Tower Bridge the same day
xxxvii) The Clintons meet the family at Downing Street
xxxviii) As fellow third-way progressives, Bill and I had a natural bond
xxxix) On the international stage at the G7 summit in Denver, Colorado, with Bill Clinton and Helmut Kohl, centre
xl) Prince Charles and I flank Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong, at the handover ceremony to China, 1 July 1997
xli) Among leaders at the NATO summit, July 1997. Helmut Kohl makes a point to me as, left to right, Jacques Chirac, Jean-Claude Juncker, Walter Neuer and Romano Prodi look on
xlii) Princess Diana chatting to Kathryn during a visit to Chequers, 6 July 1997
xliii) It fell to me to address the nation about Diana’s death, outside Trimdon Church, 31 August 1997
xliv) Face to face with Prince Charles on the airstrip of RAF Northolt in north-west London, as Diana’s body arrived back from France
xlv) Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Earl Spencer, Prince William and Prince Philip follow Diana’s coffin, borne by soldiers of the 1st Battalion, the Welsh Guards, 6 September 1997
xlvi) Prime Minister’s Questions was the most nerve-racking, terror-inspiring and courage-draining experience of my prime ministerial life. Facing the Tory front bench led by John Major during the devolution debate, 6 June 1997
xlvii) Jack Straw looks on from our side during a debate in 1998
xlviii) The four other Tory leaders I faced were, from left, William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Howard and David Cameron
xlix) Top left: At Stormont in Northern Ireland, after days of negotiation, I announced the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998. Mo Mowlam and Paul Murphy look on. Other key figures in the talks included, clockwise from top right, Ian Paisley; Seamus Mallon and John Hume; Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams; Jonathan Powell; and Bertie Ahern
l) Pushing for a yes vote in the peace agreement referendum, with David Trimble and John Hume, County Antrim, 21 May 1998
li) Three months later, bombers struck in Omagh, killing twenty-nine and injuring many more. Bill Clinton was quick to visit the scene at this terrible time, 3 September 1998
lii) With Nelson Mandela at the European Council meeting in Cardiff, June 1998
liii) With Cherie, meeting a family of Kosovan refugees, Macedonia, 3 May 1999
liv) Talking to the press after visiting the border between Yugoslavia and Macedonia, 3 May 1999
lv) With General Sir Charles Guthrie, left, and General Mike Jackson, right, at the British army HQ near Skopje in Macedonia on the same visit
lvi) Millennium night celebrations on the Embankment in London – the fireworks did not go quite to plan, 1 January 2000
lvii) Singing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ with the Queen and Prince Philip at the Dome, 1 January 2000
lviii) Once I was prime minister, the boundaries between work and life became increasingly blurred. On the phone in the middle of the Pyrenees, August 1999
lix) Leo George Blair was the first child born to a serving prime minister in 150 years
lx) Carrying baby Leo as we arrived at Florence airport, August 2000
lxi) Bill Clinton after a swim at Chequers, pushing Leo in his buggy
lxii) Finding time to strum my beloved guitar in Italy
lxiii) The Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Charles Guthrie, arrives in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to assess the situation on the ground, 14 May 2000
lxiv) A British soldier meets a young local boy during a patrol through a western suburb of Freetown, 10 May 2000
lxv) Robin Cook meets Fatoun Korumain, who was injured by the rebel fighters, 8 June 2000
lxvi) Inspecting the troops, Sierra Leone, 9 February 2002. I am immensely proud of what we achieved there
lxvii) The fuel crisis of November 2000 was rapidly followed by the foot-and-mouth outbreak the following February
lxviii) Visiting Scotland with the army during foot-and-mouth, March 2001
lxix) Celebrating Labour’s second election victory with Cherie, 8 June 2001
lxx) My dad was so proud that we had won a second term
lxxi) Leo’s first appearance on the steps of No. 10 with me and Cherie later that day
lxxii) My first meeting with George W. Bush following his election as president, at Camp David, 23 February 2001
lxxiii) George and Laura Bush visited the UK in July 2001. On the terrace at Chequers, 19 July 2001
lxxiv) At Chequers with Cherie, Leo and George W. Bush, 19 July 2001
lxxv) I was about to address the TUC conference in Brighton on 11 September 2001, when the devastating news of the attacks on the Twin Towers, main picture, started to come through. I made a brief statement and returned immediately to Downing Street to convene emergency meetings
lxxvi) In New York with mayor Rudolph Giuliani, left, and governor George Pataki, right, after a memorial service for the British victims of the 9/11 attacks, 20 September 2001
lxxvii) At a press conference with George W. Bush at the White House, before he addressed a joint session of Congress, 20 September 2001
lxxviii) With Hamid Karzai in Kabul, Afghanistan, 2002
lxxix) Months of negotiations on Iraq came to a head during the Azores summit. With, left to right, Spanish prime minister José María Aznar, George W. Bush and Portuguese prime minister José Manuel Barroso, 16 March 2003
