Broken Vows: Tony Blair: The Tragedy of Power Hardcover | Pages: 653 pages

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Title	:	Broken Vows: Tony Blair: The Tragedy of Power
Author	:	Tom Bower
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 653 pages
Published	:	March 3rd 2016 by Faber & Faber
Categories	:	Politics. Biography. Nonfiction. History

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This is a 594 page book.

It was, for lack of a better word, a bad book. Thank God I’m done with it.

I’m not sure who the intended audience is. I read the FT every day, thoroughly, and I follow the politics closely and have lived in the UK since 1992. I listen to Radio 4 and used to make an effort to watch the 9 o’clock news (now the 10 o’clock news). I vote in local elections, Tory for mayor and Lib Dem for everything else.

With the best intentions on earth, I completely lost track of what's what. So if the author was making an effort to keep a reasonably well-informed and very interested anti-Labour reader with him, 600 pages did not suffice for him to weave some sort of narrative that would allow me to keep track of some of the main characters, policies, ideas, anything.

Not that Tony Blair, the subject matter of the book, makes this easy. The book is a history of the travails of the 4 ministers in charge of Health, the 5 ministers in charge of Education, the 7 who had a go at Immigration, the 3 who were ignored in the Foreign Office, the sundry permanent secretaries, gurus, press officers, confidantes, generals, admirals, spies and fixers he went through in his ten years in 10 Downing Street, his refusal to protect his closer lieutenants, his special relationship with George Bush, his not-so-special relationship with Gordon Brown and, of course, IRAQ.

Regardless, no narrative emerges, no thread. And the author has barely a good word to say for anyone. Statistically speaking, one or two of the main 50 characters in this tragedy must have been OK guys, but no, not here. Reid comes across as handy; a "safe pair of fists." That gave me a laugh.

If the intention was to prove that it was chaos and the manner to convey the chaos was to plunge the reader in 600 pages of chaos, then mission accomplished.

I totally despise Tony Blair, but at some point I did find myself thinking “well, the guy won the election on the premise that he will meet the Tories halfway, why is the entire Labour party refusing to listen,” or alternatively “he’s spending all this money on schools and hospitals and teachers and doctors and administrators, how awful that the results are not coming,” or “damn that tight-fisted Gordon Brown,” but I did have to do it over the author’s heckling about immigration and a 40% debt/GDP (give us a break, bud, that was the lowest in the G20) and I got the feeling the book’s whole point is to confuse you to the point where you feel you’re surfing along with a God-fearing Chauncey Gardner who talks big enough a game bring his party into power, only for them to make a dog’s dinner of the opportunity and in a bout of frustration starts a war in the Middle East to get away from it all.

So I was starting to think there was method in the madness, and then on page 571 I lost all faith in any detail the author provides when JP Morgan banker Ian Hannam is described as “mining diamonds in Sierra Leone.” Ian Hannam may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but he’s a pretty straight guy, he was one of the SAS who stormed the Iranian Embassy back in the day and he later in life had the guts to take on the might of the FCA and judging from the rest of the book would probably very much be to the author’s liking if Tom Bower had bothered to check.

And all that’s fine. But get the bloody name straight. It’s Ian Hannam, not Hamman.

I did not mind too much that the author is bigoted (we all have our faults) or that he has an axe to grind. I don’t’ mind that Blair’s success in Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement is not covered here. I’m rather prejudiced myself in my feelings against Tony Blair, besides. But I got nothing out of this book, especially now that I know I cannot trust the sundry juicy stories about his post-premiership sell-out. It’s a slapped-together mess with no beginning, no middle and no end. The conclusion to this 594 page tome takes up less than a page!

Bottom line, if I did not like this book, I have no idea who will. Perhaps somebody who knows all the detail and wants to have some fun guessing who served what angle to the author. If that does not describe you, stay away.

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ISBN:	0571314201 (ISBN13: 9780571314201)
Edition Language:	English

Rating Containing Books Broken Vows: Tony Blair: The Tragedy of Power

Ratings: 3.42 From 252 Users | 35 Reviews

Commentary Containing Books Broken Vows: Tony Blair: The Tragedy of Power

An excellent book. Of course, Labour supporters are bound to rubbish it, to try and hide the inadequacy of their leaders, Blair and Brown! Longing to see how much of this is covered in the Chilcott report which is due to be published!Not a comprehensive assessment of the Blair years; for instance, many of the colourful personalities like John Prescott are barely mentioned. Nonetheless v good on education, immigration, military failures etc. Shocking how Blair apparently ignored important issues

The most interesting of political times documented by the most boring of books. I didn't even finish it.

Think what you will of Tony Blair. He had many failings, and the chapters on his post-premiership activities were insightful and damning.But, I can't believe that in 10 years in office, he got absolutely nothing right. The book presents his entire premiership as one disastrous day after another, with no redeeming features. These bits were not history or biography. They were moaning, and tediously repetitive moaning at that.

Suffused by undisguised contempt for his subject - or should that be target - this biography cum hatchet job fails to satisfy on all counts. Bower seems divided as to whether he wants to attack Blair for being an almost unaccountable visionary, imposing his will on a quiescent cabinet, or for being an uninterested bystander, unaware of the details of what is going on in his own government. Infuriated by his continuing success, which he cannot explain away, Bower fulminates but fails to convince,

The book would have been a better read if the author hadn't jumped from one aspect of Blair's failings, of which there were many, to another with every chapter, and then back again.It was difficult to keep track of one thread without going back to remind oneself of which characters were involved in which department, education, immigration, the economy etc.It was also difficult to distinguish which of the supporting characters were civil servants and which were elected ministers.If, like me, you

Heavy going, with the author covering the same topic on numerous occasions throughout the book. Not surprising, as it covers many years. Nonetheless very enlightening and enjoyable. A real eye opener.

This is a 594 page book.It was, for lack of a better word, a bad book. Thank God Im done with it.Im not sure who the intended audience is. I read the FT every day, thoroughly, and I follow the politics closely and have lived in the UK since 1992. I listen to Radio 4 and used to make an effort to watch the 9 oclock news (now the 10 oclock news). I vote in local elections, Tory for mayor and Lib Dem for everything else.With the best intentions on earth, I completely lost track of what's what. So